OUR COMMUNITY ON THE COVER
One could say that 2024 was a typical year for the JN. We reported the many upsand-downs that occur every year.
We published plenty of positive stories. The University of Michigan’s football team winning the College National Championship was a good story for Wolverine alumni, and we noted that Lone Soldiers from Detroit, Yaffa Magier and Jonah Peterson, were engaged while serving in the IDF.
Many Jewish Detroiters won prestigious awards, such as Beverly Liss receiving the Butzel Award, and important communal organizations held anniversaries. Our children had their bar/ bat mitzvahs, graduated from high school and college, and married. We also published many stories of volunteers and acts of kindness from Detroit Jewish community members.
Unfortunately, we also published necessary stories about sad affairs. In particular, 2024 was about Israel’s ongoing wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and regional conflicts with Iran and its proxies such as the Houthis. As this was written, an estimated 100 hostages are still being held in captivity by Hamas, more than 800 IDF soldiers have died, and a fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah is holding. Anti-Israel protests also continue in America, especially on campus. Globally, antisemitic incidents rose in 2024.
Nevertheless, the local and national Jewish community is resilient, and it moved forward as always. Jewish Detroiters and Michiganders continued to volunteer in Israel, send funds and supplies, and demonstrate their support for Israel in many ways. As this Year-in-Review will show, the JN reported that Jewish Detroit accomplished much in 2024. continued on page 10
JANUARY
A University of Michigan student is assaulted after he tells attackers that he is Jewish. The attackers are still at-large amid ongoing investigations.
Rabbi Ron Symons blessed Rabbi Natalie Shribman and handed her the Torah.
Rabbi Natalie Shribman is installed at Temple Koi Ami. She is only the fourth senior rabbi in Koi Ami’s history.
The University of Michigan announced the creation of a new Raul Wallenberg Institute. One of its missions is to develop programs to fight antisemitism.
University of Michigan football fans rejoice when their Wolverines win the college football national championship.
JANUARY
A Friends of the IDF (FIDF) event quietly moved from Knollwood because of security concerns.
18 FEBRUARY
15 FEBRUARY
Knollwood Country Club is vandalized just before it hosts a Friends of the IDF event.
Pro-Palestinian/ anti-Zionist posters are displayed at Metro Detroit’s Upper School of Roeper.
13 FEBRUARY
BBYO Michigan Region volunteer adviser Alec Cohen received the prestigious David Bittker Award at BBYO’s International Convention in Orlando, Florida. Guests participate in sand art led by Gail Kaplan at the event celebrating the life of Sam Woll.
20 FEBRUARY
Over 250 people gather at Cadieux Stage in Detroit to celebrate the life of Samantha Woll.
More than 900 people came to hear Debra Messing speak.
FEBRUARY
12
More than 900 women attend the Jewish Federation of Detroit’s annual Women’s Philanthropy “Signature” event featuring Debra Messing.
08
Locally famous Maple Theater closes its doors forever.
24 FEBRUARY
This day marks the two-year anniversary of the UkrainianRussian War. The war is still ongoing.
MARCH
FEBRUARY
08
FEBRUARY
Wayne County Prosecutors hold hearings regarding the suspected murderer of Samantha Woll. After a six-hour preliminary examination, Judge Kenneth King decided there is sufficient evidence to bring suspect Michael JacksonBolanos to trial.
JANUARY
17&23
JANUARY
28
After a contentious fivehour meeting, the Ann Arbor School Board endorses a milder version of a call for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.
JANUARY
17
In a main hall, information about Jewish life is showcased in a way that emphasizes the dramatic nature of the building’s design.
Jonah Peterson got down on one knee to pop the question to Yaffa Magier.
Two Lone Soldiers from Southfield announced their engagement while serving in the IDF. Yaffa Magier returned to her base. When she stepped off the bus, her boyfriend, Jonah Peterson, greeted her with a ring and flowers.
Detroit Lions tight end Anthony Firkser (86) during a NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 24, 2023 in Minneapolis.
After decades of disappointment, the Detroit Lions make it to the NFL’s National Conference Championship game. Unfortunately, the Lions lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 31-24. The Lions also had a Jewish player on the roster, Anthony Firsker.
MARCH
06
Guests from across the state enjoyed a delicious luncheon prepared by the Yeshiva’s kitchen staff.
Over 250 school leaders attend Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s statewide Special Education Symposium.
MARCH
09
“I won’t be silenced. We will play shows, we will have our fans out there and keep spreading our message of hope.” – Matisyahu
Legendary Jewish singer Matisyahu performs in Detroit.
The Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills held a grand opening for its newly renovated permanent, core exhibit.
JANUARY
28
MI House Bills 4476 and 4477 are introduced by Jewish State Rep. Noah Arbit (West Bloomfield) and State Rep. Ranjeev Puri (Canton). Collectively known as the Institutional Desecration Act, they were signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Dec. 31. 2023, and go into effect.
The JN announces the return of its online video series Bubbie’s Kitchen. Like the first, the second season is hosted by Joshua Greenberg.
MARCH
21
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Audience members were warned not to disrupt the Honors Convocation ceremony, yet they did anyway without consequence.
University of Michigan’s 101st Honors Convocation is interrupted by Pro-Palestinian/ Anti-Israel protesters.
MARCH
24
APRIL
Bookstock volunteer leaders Judy Robinson, Beverly Phillips, Carol Dmitruk, Susi Schoenberger, Bobbi Gutman, Jane Steinger, Janet Berman and Natalie Newman.
APRIL
07-14
Bookstock celebrates its 20th year at Laurel Park, Livonia.
APRIL
14
Jewish Senior Life’s honors “Eight over Eighty” at a ceremony held at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. The 2024 honorees are Sharon Alterman, Edith Broida, Gerald S. Cook, Paul Goldsmith, Nancy Kalef, Barry Kaufman, Alan S. Schwartz and Suzanne Simon.
22 MAY
The Frankel Jewish Academy baseball team wins its third straight Catholic League Division 2 championship.
19 MAY
Judges Lorie Savin and Mark Goldsmith are honored by the Jewish Bar Association of Michigan at the JBAM’s annual dinner at the Somerset Inn in Troy.
23 MAY
Iran attacks Israel with more than 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Israeli Air Defenses, supported by France, Jordan, the U.K and the U.S., shoot down almost all of them. Iran’s attack on Israel is a failure.
MAY
12-22
Mission participants at Caesarea
Wayne State University Public Safety officers remove an illegal pro-Palestinian encampment after repeated warnings from university administrators. About half or fewer of the protesters were students.
The WSU anti-Israel encampment on campus May 23-30
Forty-one women from Detroit travel to Israel as part of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s Partners Detroit Dembs Mission. JN Executive Director Marni Raitt is one of them.
More than 2,300 people came to show their support for Israel.
Visitors
Jewish Historical Society of Michigan’s exhibit, In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street, opens at the Detroit Historical Museum. It was displayed until July 14.
APRIL
ZOA-Michigan launches “America Stands with Israel” campaign and places billboards along I-275.
MAY
03
A protester carries a Palestinian flag at U-M Commencement.
Pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to disrupt the University of Michigan commencement ceremony. Some Jewish students carried Israeli flags, and a plane flew overhead with a banner: “We Stand With Israel. Jewish Lives Matter.”
MAY
Jewish Federation of Detroit sponsors “Walk the Zoo in White & Blue” in honor of Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s 76th Independence Day. An estimated 2,500 community members attend the event.
JUNE
Michigan Region BBYO celebrates its 100th birthday at Congregation Beth Ahm.
MAY
02
NCJW/Michigan and JFS celebrate 50-year partnership delivering Kosher “Meals on Wheels.”
MAY
The Goodman Acker Law Firm building in Southfield was defaced by antisemitic graffiti on June 3.
JUNE
After a long time as an independent organization, the Jewish Community Relations Council becomes a unit of the Jewish Federation of Detroit. 03
The Goodman Acker Law Firm in Southfield is defaced with vulgar anti-Israel graffiti. Goodman Acker partner, Jordan Acker, is a University of Michigan Regent.
tour the exhibit “In the Neighborhood: Everyday Life on Hastings Street” at the Detroit Historical Museum.
JOHN HARDWICK
continued from page 13
The X/Twitter photo that went viral of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with U-M student Nathan Rosenberg.
A delegation of U.S. Jewish college students visit Israel’s Knesset to urge it to support the fight against antisemitism on campus. Michigan students are among them.
JUNE
Much of Hezbollah’s leadership is killed by explosives planted in electronic pagers and walkie-talkies.
A University of Michigan student is assaulted after he tells attackers that he is Jewish. The attackers are still at-large amid ongoing investigations.
SEPTEMBER
17-18
SEPTEMBER
23
The IAF begins air assaults upon Hezbollah weapons and military installations after warning Lebanese citizens of pending attacks.
JUNE
Nathan Weeden is convicted five years after he vandalized Temple Jacob in Hancock, Mich., with swastikas and other antisemitic hate symbols. 09
04 JUNE
SEPTEMBER
15
Michigan’s first Klezmer Festival, “Klezmitten,” is held at the International Institute in Downtown Detroit.
SEPTEMBER
27
People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on November 3, 2023, in Tehran, Iran.
Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah is killed in a IAF air strike on a Hezbollah facility in Beirut, Lebanon.
Famous local Jewish boxing promoter, Jackie Kallen, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY.
SEPTEMBER
The Klezmephonics
A crazed gunman opened fire on a splash pad in Rochester Hills. A Jewish family from Shir Tikvah are among those shot and injured.
JUNE
15
The Jewish Federation of Detroit announced that its 2024 annual campaign, which ended on May 31, raised a record $36.7 million.
JUNE
20
B’nai Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield celebrates its 90th birthday.
JUNE
28-30
The Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue building now named ‘Samantha Woll Center for Jewish Detroit.’
At the annual Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue Block Party, the building was named in honor of Samantha Woll.
More than 400 supporters, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, attend the ceremony.
25 AUGUST
JULY
The William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History at the Jewish News Foundation completes a 1.5 year project with the National Library of Israel. Every page of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle and Detroit Jewish News is now also preserved by the NLI’s JPress project.
About 900 people attended the Together We Rise rally.
University of Michigan students hold a large solidarity for Israel rally on the U-M Campus.
OCTOBER 01 OCTOBER
Israel launched a ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah has fired an estimated 8,000+ rockets into Israel, displacing 60,000 Israelis from northern Israel.
Nine Israeli Shlichim, instead of the usual small groups of two or four, make the JCC their summer home to help with camps and seniors.
The 2024 JCC Maccabi Games for young athletes are held in Detroit.
JULY - AUGUST
28-02
Felony murder charges against Michael Jackson-Bolanos, suspect in the murder of Samantha Woll, are dropped.
AUGUST
09
AUGUST
A general view of Tehran after several explosions were heard in Tehran, Oct. 26, 2024, when Israel retaliated for the attack.
Iran launches 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. As they did during the April 13 attack, Israeli Air Defenses, with the help of the U.S. military, destroyed most of the missiles. Two Israeli civilians, one Jewish and one Arab, died during the attack.
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Tomer Shalom El, Tal Raviv, Eden Nahmias, Bar Cohen, Maayan Cohen, Achinoam Man, Eden Yehezkel, Bar Ashkenazi and Maor Levy.
continued from page 15
Beverly Liss
OCTOBER
Beverly Liss receives the Fred Butzel Award for Outstanding Community Service, the Jewish Federation of Detroit’s highest honor.
01 OCTOBER
05 OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
11
More than 2,500 guests joined Yeshiva Beth Yehudah on Nov. 3 for an inspiring Evening of Unity, celebrating education, community and shared values.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah holds its annual dinner, an “Evening of Unity.” People from Detroit and around the nation attend and watch Matt Lester receive the Yeshiva’s “Outstanding Leadership Award.”
17 NOVEMBER
Hundreds of antisemitic flyers are left on homes and properties in Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield and other Metro Detroit communities.
Michigan’s Jewish communities mark the one-year anniversary of the heinous attack on Israel. The JN commemorates the anniversary with stories of Israeli resilience and Detroit support for Israel, along with a timeline of the war and the names of all hostages.
07 OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
10
The Zekelman Holocaust Center celebrates its 40th anniversary. Community leaders Marcie and Rob Orley are honored at the Center’s annual dinner.
Art Fishman shakes hands with Detroit
Campbell.
97-year-old Jewish War Veteran
Art Fishman is one of four veterans honored at the “Salute to Service” during the Detroit Lions game. He and all the vets were greeted by Lions Head coach Dan Campbell.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer poses with the Jewish Detroit delegation at the Stand Together event.
Thousands attend the “Stand Together” event in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North American and the Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. A Detroit contingent traveled to the event and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was a keynote speaker.
SHAWN SCOTT
Lions coach Dan
Members of the Michigan Board of Cantors prepare to sing “Acheinu,” a prayer calling for the release of Jewish and other captives taken on Oct. 7.
The Michigan Board of Rabbis hold “An Evening of Unity” at Shaarey Zedek on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. More than 4,000 people attend the event.
Tel Aviv fans arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport after an El Al emergency flight from Amsterdam on Nov. 8, 2024.
Israeli soccer fans are attacked in Amsterdam, Netherlands, after a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax, a Dutch team.
NOVEMBER
17-24
U-M students tour the Nova exhibit at The J.
The exhibit “The Moment Music Stood Still: The Nova Music Festival Exhibition” is displayed at The J in West Bloomfield. University of Michigan President Santa Ono and top U-M administrators view the exhibit.
The headquarters of the Jewish Federation of Detroit on Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, is vandalized with anti-Israel, proPalestinian graffiti and slogans.
Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees censures fellow trustee Stephanie Fakih after her rant labeling Israeli and American Zionists “Scum of the Earth.” 200 citizens attended the Board meeting. Fakih did not run for reelection.
OCTOBER
14
Donald Trump is elected president. He is the first POTUS to have non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the 19th century.
NOVEMBER
NOVEMBER
07
06
Jewish candidates do well in local elections. Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown and Oakland County Treasurer Robert Wittenberg were reelected; Samantha Steckloff and Noah Arbit were reelected to the Michigan House; and Elissa Slotkin was elected to the U.S. Senate.
21 NOVEMBER
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister.
NOVEMBER
Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas, is killed by IDF forces.
OCTOBER
16
The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame celebrates its 40th anniversary at its annual induction ceremony.
OCTOBER
29
NOVEMBER
26
Israel and Hezbollah reach a ceasefire agreement. Although fragile, at the time this was written, it was still holding.
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20 24 Year in Review
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DECEMBER
An estimated 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas and other Islamic terrorists in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and other Israeli officials at the Syrian border on Dec. 8, 2024.
DECEMBER
08
Bashar al-Assad flees Damascus and goes to Moscow, ending 50 years of al-Assad family dictatorship in Syria. Israeli military successes against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are cited as contributing factors toward the rebel’s 10-day campaign that resulted in the ouster of al-Assad.
The Acker’s car was painted with the words: “Divest” and “Free Palestine” with an upsidedown red triangle that symbolizes support for Hamas, according to the ADL.
DECEMBER
08
Jordan Acker, member of the Board of Regents at the University of Michigan, had his home vandalized. Mason jars filled with urine were thrown through house windows and anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian slogans were painted on his wife’s car.
