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.

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

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