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December 29 • 2016 33 continued on page 34 On June 19, the Clara and Irvin Charach Tamarack Museum opened at Tamarack Camps. On June 30, a changing of the guard took place at Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy. Arnold Sleutelberg — "Rabbi Arnie" to the congregation — retired after 28 years. His successor, Rabbi Aura Ahuvia, took over July 1. In honor of its 25th anniversary, the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives created the exhibit "25 Years, 25 Treasures," showcasing some of its most significant and rarely seen objects, documents and photographs. Rabbi Daniel Syme, the third longest-tenured rabbi in Temple Beth El's 156-year history, was honored June 24 as he became only its third rabbi emeritus. JULY Hebrew Free Loan established the Pitt Fund for Special Needs, which offers interest- free loans up to $10,000 to qualifying Jewish families in Michigan. Two local girls, Kaylie Eisenberg and Dresden Cogan, both 15, were severely injured when crushed by a tree during a trip to Isle Royale as part of an annual 11-day CIT trip with Camp Tanuga on July 9. They both made full recoveries. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law House Bill 4493, which requires Michigan school districts and public school academies to provide genocide education, including lessons about the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. On July 22, Temple Israel celebrated Cantor Neil Michaels, who received his cantorial certification following a four-year course of part-time study. Rachel Kalmowitz of Temple Beth El also earned her cantorial certification in the same class. A diverse set of couples traveled through Israel as part of the community's first interfaith couples mission to Israel, which was sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Nora & Guy Barron Mission Lab. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit and American Jewish Committee-Detroit combined as JCRC|AJC: A Partnership for Community Relations and Jewish Advocacy. AUGUST Temple B'nai Israel, Kalamazoo's Reform congregation, celebrated the 150th anni- versary of its founding by 20 Jewish pioneer families in 1866. The inaugural Michigan Jewish Food Festival debuted Aug. 28 in Detroit's Eastern Market. Matthew Kuppe, the former Jewish Community Center Day Camp counselor arrest- ed last year for taking nude photos of young campers and posting them on a web- site for pedophiles, pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography on Aug. 4. Tamarack Camps opened the Teva Complex, where campers will learn about nature, the environment and sustainability. While the newly named Farber Hebrew Day School-Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield welcomed students for the school year, a 31 percent shortfall in tuition assistance left some families scrambling for last-minute loans or making alternate arrange- ments for their children's education. SEPTEMBER Hillel Day School completed a multi-year, multi-million-dollar update of its facili- ties and dedicated its new learning communities at a ceremony Sept. 1. The JN profiled six new congregational rabbis in the community: Rabbi Yonatan JULY: Kaylie and Dresden hold hands in the hospital. JULY: State officials at the Holocaust education bill's signing ceremony. JUNE: Rabbi Daniel Syme has been a rabbi for 44 years — 20 of them at Temple Beth El. Brett Mountain Brett Mountain JULY: Interfaith Mission participants.