S
ometimes the place
where a couple first
met holds extra spe-
cial significance … Such as in
the case of Larry and Carole
Miller of Farmington Hills,
who met in the Holy Land.
It was July 1970. Larry
Miller of Oak Park had just
graduated from Wayne State.
To celebrate, he went back-
packing throughout Europe
together with some of his
Sammies (Jewish fraternity
brothers.)
“
And there I was, close to
Israel, so I decided I just had to
go,
” Larry explained. His friends
didn’t want to, so he flew to
Israel alone and quickly con-
nected with two guys around
his age from New Jersey and
toured around with them.
At one point, those two New
Jersey guys met up with some
of their old school friends on
Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv
and Larry tagged along.
Boy, was he glad he had!
“One of the girls was an
adorable brunette … I was
immediately taken with her
beauty,” Larry remembered. “It
was instant for me; I’m not sure
it was instant for her, though!”
They spent a couple of days
getting to know each other,
but then Carole Forgang flew
back to New Jersey to teach.
Soon after that, Larry returned
to Michigan to study dentistry
at the University of Michigan.
Larry couldn’t get Carole out
of his head. He tracked down
her address and wrote her a
letter, inviting himself to visit
her. His mother, Peggy Miller,
wasn’t so thrilled at first — “You
couldn’t find a girl in Detroit?!”
— but things moved quickly,
and she soon came around.
“I proposed on New Year’s
Eve … We’
d been together less
than 14 days!” Larry said.
“He swept me off my feet,
”
added Carole, who’s the quieter
of the two.
By contrast, Larry doesn’t
have a shy bone in his body —
in fact, he’s a self-proclaimed
“song and dance man,
” heavily
involved in community theater.
He’s played in Fiddler on the
Roof twice.
In August 1971, Larry and
Carole married in New Jersey,
officiated by Rabbi M. Robert
Syme. They belong to Temple
Israel.
“I’m the oldest person
on the board of directors!”
bragged Larry.
At one point, Rabbi Syme
realized the congregation
had grown so big that it was
impossible for him to be at
‘You Couldn’t
Find a Girl in
Detroit?!’
ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
30 | FEBRUARY 29 • 2024
J
N
OUR COMMUNITY
HOW WE MET
The Miller family: Larry and Carole, their three children and spouses,
and their eight grandchildren.
Larry and Carole Miller
Carole and Larry on their
wedding day.