Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/772020
Health. A fresh start. A good education. The next great business idea. Hebrew Free Loan gives interest- free loans to members of our community for a variety of personal and small business needs. HFL loans are funded entirely through community donations which continually recycle to others, generating many times the original value to help maintain the lives of local Jews. Become an HFL Donor. Click. Call. Give Now. www.hfldetroit.org 248.723.8184 Hebrew Free Loan Detroit 6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 @HFLDetroit Michael Graub is a longtime Hebrew Free Loan Board member who believes his experience with the agency improved his life focus. "This agency is driven by a good, diverse team of Board and staff who check their egos at the door and do what's best for the Jewish community," Michael said. "This peer-to-peer model connects with people, it is the beating heart of HFL. When I'm on the way home from meeting borrowe rs, the type of energy I have is indescribable. I know then, that I have helped a client improve their life." Michael feels that energy translated into positives at work as well. As a business owner in financial services, Michael observed human interactions at work and incorporated the grounding principle of HFL in a couple of areas where it was needed. Dignity and respect, he said, are universal needs, and being more conscious of them helped his business. Michael's experience as a small business owner drove him to be part of the team that created the nucleus of the Marvin I. Danto Small Business Loan Program. "The Danto program is close to my heart," Michael said. "I fell in love with the idea of how Hebrew Free Loan helps individuals and families, and I was one of several who asked how we could move that mode l into other areas. Launching and keeping small businesses here is one of the ways we improve the quality of life for everyone, and make Michigan more attractive for new generations. The legacy we leave behind should be a strong, rich and vibrant community." My Story My Story 2139970 January 12 • 2017 5 jn for openers e Gift Of Receiving S ometimes the most memorable gifts are not particularly expen- sive nor even useful. For example, once, many years ago, on a trip to my hometown, I purchased a small bouquet of flowers for my bubbie before Shabbat. My kids, very young at the time, instantly began arguing about who should have the honor of actually giving it to her, which I easily settled by opening the bouquet and handing each of them a single flower to hold. Well! The kids were thrilled with this arrangement and took off, running as fast as their little feet would carry them, racing up the red brick path to her house, breathless and pink-faced, and ringing the doorbell. When my grandmother opened the door, the kids excitedly thrust their offerings toward her, which I was dismayed to see had lost most of their petals and were all bent over, due to all that exuberant run- ning. My grandmother, however, was delighted and clasped those broken stems with love and gratitude. Similarly, when my son Yoni was 4, I explained to him that it was my mother-in-law's birthday. "Bubbie's birthday?!" he said, and you could just see those wheels turning in his head. "Then she gets a present!" He immediately began sifting through the constant supply of treasures in his pockets (back in those days, laundry was always an adventure!) until he found the perfect thing and turned to her, hand outstretched with his precious offering, his voice reverent and loving: "For you, Bubbie. A rusty nail." Ever gallant and gracious, my mother-in-law accepted the offering with solemn thanks, look- ing, like my grandmother had, beyond the physical item and rather at the sweet child and his heartfelt sentiment of love and giving. I wish all my stories about gift-giving were as warm and fuzzy. My mother visited for a few weeks last year and before she left, I found a piece of jewelry on my living room bookshelf. I studied it; I didn't remem- ber ever seeing it before, and it some- how made me think of my mother. Feeling generous, I turned to her, saying, "I don't know why, but this reminds me of you. Here, you have it." She waited a moment, sure I was jok- ing, before saying, "It reminds you of me because I gave it to you when I arrived." Then came the awkward assurances about how much I really liked it … as well as mutually expressed concerns about my short-term memory. It's much more fun to be on the other side of those awkward moments … like the time I stepped into a host's kitchen and saw a fellow guest scraping some food off her plate and into the garbage. "Don't try the rice," she advised me and made a face. "It's awful." At my slightly horrified but amused expression, the realization slowly dawned. "Oh, no. Don't tell me, you made the rice." I nodded and suddenly the lady was blushing and stammering and cramming rice into her mouth, while I doubled over in laughter, thor- oughly grateful to discover I'm not the only one who sticks her entire foot, warts and all, into her mouth! OK, I got a bit sidetracked there, but my point was that we need to keep in mind the person behind the giving and the fact they're usually offering us so much more than just a random object. Also, I'm still looking for a really good rice recipe. • views Rochel Burstyn W e're getting excited about the approaching 75th anniversa- ry of the Jewish News, starting this March and celebrated with special features in the paper for a full year. Some things haven't changed much over those 75 years — we are still a Zionist newspaper; we still bring you news — favorable and unfavorable — of Detroit's Jewish community you won't find anywhere else; and we still cel- ebrate life's milestones with you. But we thought it was time for a change as we head into our 75th year, so we've modernized the look of your paper with an eye to readability and to design that gives nearly equal weight to the visual look of our pages. Stories may be a bit shorter and more conversation- al, and photographs may be a bit larger and more compelling. We've also changed the flow of the Jewish News, bringing more features you depend on closer to the front — like our metro section (now called "jews in the d"), our life-cycle events (now dubbed "moments") and sports (still called "sports"). We're also adding periodic features about young Detroiters connected to the city but living elsewhere called "detroiters in exile;" this will comple- ment our regular coverage of young Jewish Detroiters living and working in the city. But, don't worry, the obituaries (now named "soul") are still at the end of the paper, where we know you start reading first. Other minor changes include moving the Shabbat lighting times to the "spirit" section to run with the Torah portion, the addition of a section called "eretz" devoted to news of Israel and "look- ing back," the last page of the paper featuring a historic photo curated each week by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan. You'll find "Quick Click," full of history from the Davidson Archive there as well. We hope you'll enjoy the changes. Please let us know. We value your feed- back! The redesign is just one of several upcoming initiatives — including a mega-expansion of the JN's digital plat- form — that will be coming your way in the months ahead. All with the intent of giving you unique, useful and unsub- stitutable information in the manner in which you choose to receive it. • editor's letter +BOVBSZt1 jn Inspiration for creating other-worldly sanctuaries for kids. LYNNE KONSTANTIN ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Let's Get Lost a t h o m e arts&life In the sisters' room — two of a set of triplets — of Lori Goldman's Bloomfield Township home, designer Jennifer Asmar went for fresh, fun and sophisticated. "When I presented the project to the triplets, all three of them looked at me and, at the same time, gave me the thumbs up," says Asmar, owner of Asmar Interiors in Troy. "It was the cutest meeting I've had in my life." PHOTO BY BETH SINGER DEAR READERS,