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

