OUR COMMUNITY
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28 | JUNE 15 • 2023
never embarrassed, never making
excuses. If he limped, he limped.
If couldn’t run the bases, he stood
still and played catch with us.
When his legs wouldn’t allow him
to carry us as kids, he made games
out of lifting us over his head with
his astonishingly strong arms.
He did everything in his power
to use the strength he had but
was accepting of whatever help it
took for him to live his life to the
fullest, like getting him up Masada
in a cable car when my parents
joined us in Israel for our daugh-
ter’s bat mitzvah and being hoisted
onto a chair during the hora at my
children’s weddings.
He couldn’t physically do it all,
but he did his part. On Jewish hol-
idays — most hosted by my par-
ents with family meals and large
sleepovers — my mom, a supreme
cook, would prepare recipes like
seasoned ground beef that my dad
would roll into literally hundreds
of meatballs.
SO MUCH FUN
A riveting storyteller, he also
invented jingles and narratives,
recreating the ones from our
childhoods for our kids. Birthday
parties were celebrated with his
hand-written clever sentiments
fashioned in rhyme; he was once
offered a job writing card-text for
American Greetings.
Early on in his career, he was
a TV weatherman and appeared
in live TV commercials, includ-
ing one where an appliance door
came off in his hand when he
opened it. He did “record hops,
”
hosting musicians and bands in
roped off areas of suburban streets
and flew over the Detroit area in
a helicopter reporting live on the
1967 riots. When my mom went
into labor with my sister during
the station’s Golden Oldies Week,
he accompanied her to the hos-
pital in head-to-toe, shimmering
gold from his hair to his shoes.
In rock ’n’ roll’s heyday, I joined
him backstage at Dave Clark Five
and Sonny and Cher concerts.
And, then there was the time he
stood next to Harry and explained
to a rowdy group of Beatles fans
that the local sheriff was set to
cancel the show if they didn’t,
as my dad always put it: “Settle
down.
”
A FAITH THAT
SUSTAINED HIM
My dad said daily prayer ser-
vices at home, held holiday
minyans in their family room
and, for decades, was involved at
Congregation Shomrey Emunah
in Southfield, where he was a
founder and president. After
members discovered his profes-
sion, he was regularly enlisted as
the synagogue’s event and pro-
gram emcee.
When a young relative once
asked why it was so important to
him for his family to be Jewish,
he responded simply, “Because of
how happy it makes me. I want
you to have that, too.
”
Shivah for my dad brought
comfort, healing — and Jewish
geography. My brother’s former
Hillel Day School friend turned
out to be my husband’s poker
buddy as well as our grandson’s
baseball coach. A longtime close
friend heard the name of my
dad’s hometown and realized
that my dad’s father’s furniture
store was rival to his own family’s
Pennsylvania-based business. And
after many years of friendship,
we also discovered that this same
man’s wife is, through marriage,
my cousin!
During shivah, one of my oldest
friends told me she became obser-
vant because of Shabbat dinners at
our home headed by my dad.
THE SUMMER OF DAD
Near the end of the COVID years,
the gift of one-to-one visits with
my parents was a treasure when
my dad moved his school-office to
the home where I grew up, where
the basement shelves housed both
vintage record albums and my late
grandfather’s 100-year-old Judaic
books.
A wheeled bookcase in the
kitchen became his new base,
with his siddur and tallit on the
top rung. My dad shared stories,
family history and candy once
stashed in his office drawer. He
always welcomed us when we
dropped by, and the kids could at
any time, no matter who else was
around, take the comb out of his
shirt pocket and flatten his bangs
straight down like Moe.
We talked at the table where we
had thousands of family dinners
together, where he helped me
memorize the Hebrew words of
Rashi and the Gettysburg Address.
We remembered the time the
whole extended family caravanned
to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac
Island to surround my dad as he
received the Michigan Association
of Broadcasters’ Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award. Among his other
honors was being inducted into
both the Michigan and Ohio
Association of Broadcasters’
Halls of Fame and receiving the
“Lifetime Achievement Award”
from the Detroit Producers Assoc-
iation. And then there was “Specs
Howard Day” in Kittanning.
A PEOPLE PERSON
My dad knew all my childhood
friends and later my children’s and
grandchildren’s friends. He had
a special relationship with each
family member — including 13
grandchildren and 14 great-grand-
children — and loved and wel-
comed new ones.
He called his current friends,
old classmates and family on a
regular basis. He loved company,
his weekly poker game, a big cele-
bration, a small group of visitors.
He had much to say and teach,
but also was eager to hear and
learn from everyone else. He was
a mentor who others came to for
advice.
He taught by example and
through demonstration. In hyster-
ics, I watched my left-handed dad
teach my then pre-bar mitzvah
age right-handed son how to wrap
tefillin on his arm — somehow
thinking it would make sense to
do it in the mirror. My dad’s own
tefillin was later gifted to my son
and is now in Israel being refur-
bished for use by his son, a lefty
who will become a bar mitzvah
almost exactly to the day, 85 years
after my dad.
I think of him when I look at
my children and grandchildren
and know the immense pride he
had for them and the unending
impact he made on their lives and
who they are.
And I think of him when I
bring in the mail.
His lessons are within me. By
example, his genuine smile and
upbeat mood taught the value of
staying positive and truly enjoying
life. I learned the importance of
structure. My dad was dressed and
downstairs every day of his life. I
see how never being too busy for
family was not a choice; for him, it
was a natural.
I learned from him that life is
better with a partner who looks
at you the way my dad looked at
my mom, with a sincere twinkle,
proud but hardly surprised at her
strength and capabilities.
Others referred to my dad in
terms like “broadcast industry leg-
end” or the “Kosher DJ.
”
To me, he was protective, com-
mitted, quietly generous, with
conviction, selfless, welcoming
and with an indomitable spirit and
incredible determination. And I
am forever grateful to have been
able to tell him.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad, to
you and to all the other dads
who will be celebrated this week,
both in person and in inspira-
tional memory.