12 | FEBRUARY 22 • 2024

coordinator, and events and rentals
coordinator at Shaarey Zedek.
She relayed a portion of Eli’s speech,
sharing that he said, “The Innocence
Project helps to free innocent people
from prison who were wrongly
convicted. I chose to raise funds through
a Rubik’s cubing competition because
cubing is one of my biggest passions. I
practice all of the time and, unlike the
Israelites under Pharoah, I’m very lucky
to have the freedom to do what I enjoy.”

COMPETITIVE CUBING
“Eli is a very involved, competitive
cuber,” Leslie Katz said. “He started
cubing in August 2021. During the
pandemic, Eli’s uncle, Steven Katz [of
West Bloomfield], came over with
a cube to show Eli and he loved it
immediately.
From that moment, Eli was hooked.
He taught himself algorithms on
YouTube and practiced daily, often for
hours,” she said of the step-by-step
strategy-based instructions followed
for twists and turns to solve the cube as
quickly as possible. The puzzle, featuring
six sides, each with an equal number of
multi-colored squares, is solved when
each side has only squares of the same
color.
Eli continues to practice daily. “At
least an hour on school days and
much more on weekends and days off
school,” Leslie said. “He plans out which
algorithms he’s going to learn. He also
chooses a different cube off his desk

every night at bedtime to practice.”
Some of Eli’s friends cube, although
not competitively, but through
competitions he has made new friends.
“The family is all very supportive and I
go to every comp, but we don’t solve the
cubes,” his mom said.
Eli has been competing for the past
year and a half against participants of
varying ages, with most between the
ages of 10 and 25. Having participated in
20 competitions throughout Michigan,
Indiana, Ohio and Canada, Eli won
his first gold medal at a competition in
Plymouth this past December.
He currently has a gold, silver and
bronze from recent competitions. “His
goal is to get a world record,” Leslie

said. At his fundraiser, he won third
place in the 2 x 2 event, his favorite,
which was the main event of the day,
with participants competing with cubic
puzzles with four colored squares on
each of the six sides. “Each competitor
solves the cube five times. Their higher
and lowest scores are removed and
the other three are averaged,” Leslie
explained. “Whoever has the lower
average of three will win.”

INNOCENCE PROJECT
“There are Innocence Projects all
around the country,” said Eli’s grandpa,
attorney Lawrence Katz. “In Michigan,
the Cooley Law School Innocence
Project, which Eli has chosen, has one

Ariella Katz displays packages of baked goods sold for her
bat mitzvah project donation.

continued from page 11

Eli and Ariella Katz with their parents, Leslie and Mitch, surrounding grandparents, all of West
Bloomfield: Robert and Lorraine Zack, Norman Rubin, Barbara Zack and Karen and Lawrence Katz.

ASK PHOTOGRAPHY

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

continued on page 14

Leslie, Ariella, Eli and Mitch Katz in the sanctuary at Congregation Shaarey Zedek

ASK PHOTOGRAPHY