6 | DECEMBER 12 • 2024 J N 1942 - 2024 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.thejewishnews.com The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel. VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater Detroit Jewish community, refl ecting 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: Mark Davidoff, Michael J. Eizelman, Larry Jackier, Jeffrey Schlussel, Mark Zausmer Executive Director: Marni Raitt Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: Mike Smith Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: Arthur Horwitz Founding Publisher Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory The Detroit Jewish News Foundation Giving Society The Rebecca and Andrew Hayman Giving Fund Nancy and James Grosfeld The Honorable Bernard Friedman Editorial Director of Editorial: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com Contributing Editors: David Sachs, Keri Guten Cohen Senior Staff Reporter: Danny Schwartz dschwartz@thejewishnews.com Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@thejewishnews.com 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, Gary Graff, 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 Advertising Sales Director of Advertising: Keith Farber kfarber@thejewishnews.com Senior Account Executive: Kathy Harvey-Mitton kmitton@thejewishnews.com | Business Office Director of Operations: Amy Gill agill@thejewishnews.com Operations Manager: Ashlee Watkins Circulation: Danielle Smith Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Production By Farago & Associates Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kaitlyn Iezzi, Kelly Kosek, Michelle Sheridan essay You Are a Jew: Chabad and the Antisemites E veryone has their favorite Chabad story. Here is mine. A friend once approached a Chabad shaliach (emissary) who would stand at the entrance to the subway station every Friday morning, asking people if they were Jewish and offering to help them lay tefillin. It was exceptionally rare for anyone to stop and accept his offer, and my friend wanted to understand how the shaliach kept at it week after week, despite his repeated failure. The shaliach’s response was quintessentially Chabad: “My success rate is 100%. Every Jew that walks by me is reminded that he or she is a Jew.” Chabad’s dedicated emissaries can be found in every corner of the globe, creating Jewish presence and outposts of Jewish life and caring, reminding Jews of who they are. According to Pew, an astounding 37% of American Jews engage with Chabad from rarely to often. Two years ago, a group of us from the Orthodox Union (OU) had the privilege of attending the dinner event at Chabad’s annual conference of shluchim (emissaries). We went to demonstrate appreciation for their lifesaving work delivering aid and support under fire to the Jews in Russia and Ukraine. As they went through the jaw-dropping roll call of their emissaries throughout the globe, the big screen showed Russia — 222. I leaned over and whispered to a colleague. “Do you see that? We struggle to find a few people to spend a couple of years of their lives teaching Torah in communities without a kosher pizza store, while Chabad has 222 people who, at around the age of 22, decided to go alone to remote corners of Russia where they will care materially and spiritually for Jews, raise their own families, and remain until they die or the Messiah arrives.” That is what the angels of Chabad do everywhere in the world and that was the mission of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE. No movement or group even remotely approaches Chabad’s relentless dedication to mission and its reach and success in reminding Jews — wherever they may be — of who they are. No one, that is, other than the antisemites. The vicious murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan (at the end of November) painfully reminded every Jew everywhere that he or she is a Jew. It was not an isolated reminder. The tidal wave of antisemitism that has engulfed the world since Oct. 7 has reminded countless Jews of who they are and moved them to try to find their way home to Jewish tradition and community. Much as the Talmud notes how the empowerment of Haman stimulated more of a resurgence of Jewishness than the positive guidance of generations of prophets, we can observe how hateful antisemitism has outdone the ahavat Yisrael of Chabad in bringing Jews home. Our hearts are broken for Rabbi Kogan’s family and for the entire Chabad community as they grieve over this devastating blow. We in the Rabbi Moshe Hauer PURELY COMMENTARY Rabbi Zvi Kogan