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YEARBOOK Gown & Cap 2016 All cap and gown submission MUST go through the website. If you have any questions, call Jackie Headapohl, Editor, at (248) 351-5110. The Jewish News will honor all Jewish students who are graduating this spring from Michigan high schools in our Cap & Gown Yearbook 2016. The Yearbook will be published in our May 26 issue. Go online to submit your free listings to: www.thejewishnews.com/contact/cap-and- gown/free-listing/ Free Listing Submission Deadline: May 9, 2016 continued on page 32 April 21 • 2016 23 S haken baby syndrome," a concept that has been used to prosecute thousands of innocent people, is a myth based on faulty science, accord- ing to filmmakers Meryl and Susan Goldsmith, cousins and native Detroiters whose new documentary sets out to dis- pel the falsehoods about this dangerous theory. The Syndrome by Los Angeles pro- ducer Meryl Goldsmith, 33, and award- winning investigative reporter Susan Goldsmith, 55, documents the crusade of a group of de dicated physicians, scien- tists and legal scholars who have discov- ered evidence that the child abuse theory cited in hundreds of criminal prosecu- tions every year does not exist. The film will be shown here April 30 and May 1. "We wanted to become the storytell- ers for the people who were courageous enough to take this on," said Susan, who began researching the issue in 2008 after a court case was dismissed on the grounds that the "shaken baby" concept was faulty. "I realized they were saying that many different things could cause those symptoms in a baby," said Susan, who lives in Portland, Ore. "There was no diagnostic gold standard. I began to put it all together and it seemed really prob- lematic." Susan researched and developed the story and pitched it to the newspaper where she worked at the time, The Oregonian, but it was de emed too con- troversial to publish. "I was very much attached to the story and wanted to stick with it," Susan said. After she was laid off from her news- paper job, Susan approached her cousin Meryl, who was living in Los Angeles, about the possibility of a documentary. Meryl was immediately receptive to the idea. "It had all the elements to make a story that could be told in a 90-minute documentary format," Meryl said. "The story became louder and louder to us, and we thought this really needs to be told." Meryl, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills and attended Andover High School, and Susan, who attended West Bloomfield High School, are first cous- ins and thir d-generation Wolverines. Meryl's father, Stanley Goldsmith, and Susan's father, Walter Goldsmith, are brothers who live across the street from one another in Bloomfield Hills. Stanley served as the film's executive producer, while Walter lent his services as an attor- ney. "I had produced documentaries on electronic music, and I wanted to do something to help people, to try to change the world," Meryl said. "My cousin was already doing that." While the two had never worked with Meryl Goldsmith teamed with her cousin Susan Goldsmith to make The Syndrome, a documentary about the falsehoods surrounding "shaken baby syndrome." Ronelle Grier | Contributing Writer Dispelling Falsehoods Native Detroit cousins team on documentary about shaken baby syndrome. metro »