OUR COMMUNITY continued from page 27 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.