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 

