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.

