1942 - 2024

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
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people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

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Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

 
 
Publisher
The Detroit Jewish 
News Foundation

| Board of Directors:
 Chair: Gary Torgow
 Vice President: David Kramer 
 Secretary: Robin Axelrod
 Treasurer: Max Berlin
 Board members: Michael J. Eizelman 
 Larry Jackier, Jeffrey Schlussel, 
 Mark Zausmer
 
 
 Executive Director:
 Marni Raitt 
 Senior Advisor to the Board: 
 Mark Davidoff
 Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: 
 Mike Smith
 Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: 
 Arthur Horwitz
 Founding Publisher 
 Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory

 

 Editorial 
 Director of Editorial: 
 Jackie Headapohl
jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com
Contributing Editors: 
David Sachs, Keri Guten Cohen
Senior Staff Reporter: 
Danny Schwartz 
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Editorial Assistant: 
Sy Manello
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Digital Manager:
Elizabeth King 
eking@thejewishnews.com 

Contributing Writers:
Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, 
Suzanne Chessler, Shari S. Cohen, 
Louis Finkelman, Samantha Foon, 
Yevgeniya Gazman, Stacy Gittleman, 
Esther Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, 
Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, 
Alan Muskovitz, Karen Schwartz, 
Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, 
Nathaniel Warshay, Julie Smith Yolles, 
Ashley Zlatopolsky 

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6 | MAY 9 • 2024 
J
N

T

he text messages were 
short, but clear. “How r 
u?,
” I asked. “Processing,
” 
came the response. “How r u?” 
she asked back; “same,
” I said.
“It’s a lot.
” That was both of us, 
to each other. 
I stood on the 
Tel Aviv board-
walk, overlooking 
the Mediterranean, 
with Bring Them 
Home Now! ban-
ners and placards 
flapping in the 
breeze behind me. 
My 22-year-old daughter Noa 
stood in Krakow, having spent 
the week traveling to some of the 
darkest parts of our collective 
Jewish history. Majdanak. The 
Warsaw Ghetto. Auschwitz-
Birkenau. Both of us preparing 
for Shabbat, she at the end of her 

weeklong journey, and me, at the 
beginning. 
My late father, Emery 
Grosinger, was a Holocaust survi-
vor, having been imprisoned as a 
12-year-old in Auschwitz, and lib-
erated from Mauthausen miracu-
lously on his 13th birthday, May 
8, 1945. I am blessed to speak a 
handful of times each month at 
the Zekelman Holocaust Center, 
telling my dad’s story to visitors 
of all ages and backgrounds. 
My daughters and my brother’s 
children are all well-versed in his 
story, having traveled with him 
to his hometown in Hungary as 
well as to Mauthausen to partic-
ipate in WWII commemoration 
ceremonies twice over the past 
decade plus. 
I love telling his story. I get 
to keep his memory alive, even 
playing a short video of him 

retelling his memories of first 
arriving at Auschwitz. It is diffi-
cult to hear, but I love his voice. 
I look forward to the Q&A with 
my audience, a given once I finish 
the narrative arc that ends with a 
few slides and a one-minute talk 
about his amazing life from 1948 
until his death in 2022. 
I have the privilege of time, 
knowing how he courageously 
came to America as a 15-year-old 
orphan and built a life with hard 
work, a family. How each spring, 
he would grow quiet and reflec-
tive, remembering dates, people 
and experiences that seemed to 
crowd the calendar, especially 
over his younger years. About 
friendship, and a thirst for knowl-
edge and much more. I get to 
share his philosophies, painting a 
picture long beyond the horrors 
of the Holocaust.

MODERN-DAY HORRORS 
But here I was in Israel, to attend 
a conference — and to see with 
my own eyes what happened on 
Oct. 7, 2023, and every day since. 
To witness the horrors, the pain, 
to share in the grief of Israelis, to 
reiterate the anguish and despair 
held by us in the diaspora, to cry 
out for the death and destruction, 
and to pray for the swift and safe 
return of those held deep under 
Gaza, in unknown conditions, 
prisoners once again for the sim-
ple “crime” of being Jewish.
I was hesitant to travel to the 
sites of the atrocities in Southern 
Israel. Not out of fear for my safe-
ty, but out of respect. Listening to 
survivors of the horrors of Oct. 7, 
seeing the destruction, all of it felt 
like I would be a disaster tourist, 
taking advantage of people as 
they continue to live in a night-
mare of recall and not knowing 
when the nightmare ends. I 
imagined it akin to talking to a 
Warsaw Ghetto survivor while 
the war continued to rage.
I was wrong. As Rafaela, a 
23-year-old Brazilian Israeli and a 

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column

Bearing Witness, 
Across Time and Space

Kari 
Alterman

