MAY 9 • 2024 | 21

motivated to do what’s best 
for families, especially when 
children are involved,
” she said.
Judge Savin and Adam Larky 
live in West Bloomfield and 
are members of Temple Israel. 
They have two daughters in 
college. Elizabeth is a graduate 
student at George Washington 
University and Abigail attends 
the University of Michigan.
Savin will be introduced at 
the JBAM event by her father-
in-law, family law attorney 
Sheldon Larky. 
“I call Lorie my ‘daughter-
in-love,
’” he said. “She’s a 
remarkable woman. How could 
we not be proud of her?”
Savin was sworn in as 
judge during the height of the 
COVID crisis, so she never had 
a public investiture ceremony, 
said her father-in-law. The 
JBAM event will provide an 
opportunity to honor her 
accomplishments before a large 
crowd.
“Deuteronomy says ‘Justice, 
justice shall you pursue,
’ and 
that’s been Lorie’s mantra,
” he 
said. “She’s been a dedicated 
jurist, one that listens carefully 
to every case and never pre-
judges.
”
Judge Savin added, “It’s 
overwhelmingly wonderful 
to be recognized for doing 
my job by such an excellent 
organization as JBAM.
“I am so honored. I respect 
and appreciate all of JBAM’s 
efforts in the legal community.
”

PEACEMAKER AND 
PROBLEM-SOLVER
U.S. District Court Judge Mark 
Goldsmith works hard, but 
not on Saturday. The Shomer 
Shabbos judge is a member of 
the Woodward Avenue Shul in 
Royal Oak where he has been 
known to serve as cantor. 
JBAM’s Avern Cohn Lifetime 
Achievement Award has been 
well earned. Goldsmith has 
been a judge for two decades 
— beginning in 2004 on the 

Oakland County Circuit Court 
bench, and since 2010 as an 
active status judge in Federal 
court, an appointee of President 
Barack Obama. 
JN Editor Jackie Headapohl 
interviewed Judge Goldsmith 
for a cover story in 2018.
“I liked the idea of trying to 
solve problems,
” he told the JN. 
“I’ve always thought of lawyers 
as peacemakers. Even though 
it may not appear that way to 
everyone, lawyers are ultimately 
engaged in a peacemaking 
activity.
”
Like Judge Savin, Judge 
Goldsmith traces his 
fascination with the law to 
an early age. Growing up 
in Detroit, he dreamed of 
becoming a judge. As a young 
teen, he would take the bus 
Downtown to sit in the local 
and Federal courthouses. He 
marveled at the ornate Federal 
court building. “It was like a 
cathedral,
” he said.
Goldsmith’s love of Judaism 
is no surprise. His father was 
a founder of Adat Shalom 
Synagogue and Hillel Day 

School. Young Mark was a 
student in the inaugural class 
of Hillel. In 1967, right after the 
Six-Day War, as a sophomore 
at Cass Tech High School, he 
spent a year in Israel. 
“The experience really 
deepened my attachment to 
Israel,
” he said. 
At the University of 
Michigan, he was an Angell 
Scholar with a perfect 4.0 GPA 
and went on to Harvard Law 
School. After that, he spent 
over 16 years as an associate 
and partner at the prestigious 
law firm of Honigman Miller 
Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit.
Goldsmith, 71, the father of 
two and grandfather of two, 
lives in Oakland County with 
his wife, Judy, whom he met 
in 1986 at a Jewish Federation 
“break-the-fast” dance. 
He has been actively 
involved in the Detroit Jewish 
community. At one time, 
he served on the executive 
committee of Federation’s 
Young Adult Division (now 
called NEXTGen Detroit) as 
well as on the board of the 

Anti-Defamation League. He’s 
been involved in leadership 
positions at previous shuls, 
including Congregation Beth 
Shalom where he served as 
president.
A longtime friend, attorney 
Jeffrey Appel of Huntington 
Woods, said, “If you could 
build a Federal judge in a 
laboratory, it would look 
exactly like Mark Goldsmith.
“Mark’s colleagues on the 
Federal bench respect his 
intellect, his judicial demeanor 
and his objectivity. As a judge, 
his decisions are always clear, 
well-reasoned and written or 
stated in an elegant manner. 
“Every litigant and attorney 
that appears before Mark 
knows, whether they won or 
lost, they had a full, fair and 
impartial hearing,
” Appel said. 
Goldsmith’s Jewish values 
help shape the kind of judge 
he is. “In my case, my Judaism 
has imparted to me certain 
basic values that in many 
ways are consistent with the 
fundamental values of our 
Constitution,
” he said. 
“For example, Judaism 
focuses very much on 
individualism — the dignity of 
each human being important.
“From Ethics of Our Fathers, 
we are taught that he who saves 
one person has saved an entire 
world. That is a magnificent 
statement about individual 
human dignity. 
“
American law has that same 
focus on the importance of 
every individual’s dignity. That 
really is what our Constitution 
is all about.
” 
Other awardees at the JBAM 
dinner will include scholarship 
winners Amanda Igra of 
Michigan State University Law 
School and Hannah Passer of 
University of Detroit Mercy 
School of Law. JBAM’s vice 
president, attorney Jordan 
Zuppke of Royal Oak, will 
receive the Volunteer of the 
Year Award. 

Judge Lorie Savin
Judge Mark Goldsmith

JBAM AWARDS
DINNER DETAILS

To attend the JBAM dinner, 6 p.m. Thursday, May 
23, at the Somerset Inn in Troy, go to jlive.app/
events/6150. The cost is $60 for JBAM members and 
$75 for others. For more information, visit jewishbar.
org/events or email JBAM President Nargiz Nesimova 
at Nargiz.nesimova@gmail.com.