JANUARY 4 • 2024 | 21

Further enhancing the 
Friday night service was 
the TKA band, choir and 
junior choir. 
“The sanctuary was so 
full — as full as it was 
for the High Holidays,” 
Shribman said. “This 
was very gratifying. This 
made me feel that I had 
already had an impact on 
the community in just six 
months. But the crowd 
wasn’t only for me; the 
crowd also came out to 
show how invested they 
are in our congregation 
growing.”
A special Saturday 
night program featured 
Havdalah, followed by 
a social action project 
where over 250 soup kits 
were assembled to be 
distributed at TKA’s weekly 
food pantry. It was an 
especially meaningful way 
for Shribman to wrap up 
her installation weekend, 
as social action is very 
important to her.
Shribman has already 
embraced living in Detroit’s 
amazing Jewish community 
and working at the warm, 
intimate TKA. 
“Coming from an area 
with around 100 Jews in 
five counties, I often felt 
isolated. But at TKA and 
in West Bloomfield, I have 
regained what I was lacking 
in Wausau, Wisconsin: a 
sense of community and 
support. 
“The opportunities that 
are open to me within the 
congregation and in the 
surrounding community 
are inspiring. I love that 
there are many ways to be 
invested in community in 
this area.” 

T

he University of 
Michigan announced 
the creation of a new 
Raoul Wallenberg Institute 
to “leverage U-M research 
and scholarship around 
global antisemitism and 
divisiveness.” 
 Wallenberg, a 1935 
graduate of U-M, was a 
Swedish diplomat, business-
man and architect who 
served as Sweden’s special 
envoy in German-occupied 
Budapest in 1944. During 
Wallenberg’s six months in 
that role, he saved thousands 
of Jewish individuals by 
issuing protective passports 
and sheltering Jews in 
buildings that he designated 
as Swedish territory. 
The university’s 
announcement said that 
the institute will be part of 
the College of Literature, 
Science and Arts with 
collaborations throughout 
the university, including 
complementary efforts to 
“enhance religious inclusion 
and interfaith engagement” 
by the university’s Office 
of Diversity, Equity and 
Inclusion.
The University of 
Michigan has 6,500 Jewish 
students, as well as many 
Jewish faculty members 
and donors. Some Jewish 

students turned to U-M for 
college during a period in 
the 1900s when Ivy League 
schools had quotas for 
Jewish students. The Jean 
and Samuel Frankel Institute 
of Judaic Studies, which 
offers interdisciplinary 
minors and majors in Judaic 
Studies, was established at 
U-M in 1988. 
The announcement of 
the Raoul Wallenberg 
Institute came after several 
months of campus marches, 
protests and confrontations 
following the Oct. 7 Hamas 
attack on Israel. U-M 
President Santa Ono issued 
a statement on Oct. 10 that 
began “Violence is never the 
answer. Yet today 
our campus 
communities 
are reeling in 
the wake of the 
horrific attack by 
Hamas terrorists 
on Israeli citizens and the 
immense loss of civilian 
lives.” 
He mentioned that he had 
reached out to several Israeli 
universities that U-M has 
had research partnerships 
for many years to express 
concern for their faculty and 
students. 
According to Rabbi 
Davey Rosen, interim CEO 

at U-M Hillel, 
antisemitic 
incidents have 
increased on 
campus since 
Oct. 7, including 
harassment 
for wearing 
a kippah or 
otherwise seeming to be 
Jewish. He said that many 
Jewish students want to 
find common ground with 
others but are unable to do 
so when no distinction is 
made between Hamas as a 
terrorist organization and 
the Palestinian people. 
 He said there have been 
many “anti-Israel and hurtful 
messages” in the student 
newspaper, including some 
describing the Oct. 7 attack 
as “justified resistance.” 
Rabbi Rosen described the 
Raoul Wallenberg Institute 
as a “positive step. This will 
take time. We hope to be a 
partner in exploring content 
and implementation.” He 
added that “it’s wonderful 
that Ono is taking seriously 
all students’ concerns. The 
university needs to respond 
to Islamophobia, too.”
Ono has called for 
intimidation and threats to 
stop and has pledged to meet 
with students on all sides of 
the Israel-Palestine issue. 

The university announces new 
antisemitism initiatives.

U-M’s New Raoul 
Wallenberg 
Institute Will Tackle 
Antisemitism

Santa Ono

Rabbi 
Davey 
Rosen

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Raoul Wallenberg’s passport 
photo from June 1944