28 | OCTOBER 19 • 2023 J
N

OUR COMMUNITY

W

hat was supposed to be a
joyful trip with loved ones
quickly turned into a tense
and stressful situation for Jill and Joseph
Greenbaum of Southfield. They arrived
in Israel for a 60th birthday celebration
and cruise with family members that
was scheduled to leave Oct. 9. Instead
of marking a happy milestone, they
were hunkered down in Netanya closely
monitoring news reports of the surprise
attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 that
left hundreds of Israelis dead, hundreds
more injured and prompted a formal
declaration of war.
Jill’s brother-in-law, Joel Kahn, M.D.,
of West Bloomfield, said thankfully his
family members are safe, but they are
“hearing alarms going off all around
them.
” He was unsure when they’
d be
able to return home to Michigan.
“The world seems uglier and uglier,
”
he said. “I’m feeling profound sadness,
profound grief. For those of us who
didn’t grow up during the Holocaust, this
is the closest thing to the brutality and
slaying of innocent people. When you see
the ugliest side of humanity, one can only
imagine what people are feeling in Israel.
”
Kahn’s two nephews, Avi Greenbaum
and Evan Gewirtz, both grew up in

Southfield, attended Akiva Hebrew Day
School (now Farber) and made aliyah
after graduating from high school. Both
served three years in the Israel Defense
Forces and were married in 2019. In the
last few days, they were called up from
the reserves for duty.
“They’re both stationed at the
Lebanese border,
” Kahn says. “It is dark
and there are no easy solutions as more
dark days are ahead.
”
Like so many Metro Detroiters, Kahn,
a practicing cardiologist and clinical
professor of medicine at Wayne State
University School of Medicine, has a

deep personal connection to Israel.
He has visited 25 times, including
his honeymoon with wife, Karen,
his brother’s bar mitzvah and his
own and two family weddings in
2019. He recently joined the board of
United Hatzalah, a community-based
volunteer emergency medical services
organization which, according to its
website, has 6,500 volunteers.
“One of our volunteers (Shalom
Avitan) in the field near the Gaza
border was handed a baby whose
parents are missing,
” reads a recent
tweet on the organization’s social
media feed. “Shalom’s task now is to
take care of this baby until the parents
or family members can be found. Just
one of the many heartbreaking stories.
#IsraelUnderAttack”
“My mother made a donation of an
emergency motorcycle equipped for
medical issues a few years back in my
father’s memory,
” Kahn said. “I have
done the same this year (an E-bike) in
memory of my in-laws. Today, I made
another donation so medical care
can continue for all during this crisis.
Prayers.
”

Learn more at israelrescue.org.

Dr. Joel Kahn and family wait and worry for the safety
of loved ones in Israel.
‘We’re All Feeling It’

ROBIN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Joel and
Karen Kahn

Jill and
Joseph
Greenbaum