The Last Synagogue Standing

Jewish life in Detroit isn’t dead. In fact, it’s having a hipster rebirth // We’re across the street from a strip club called Cobras advertising something called “The Grind Downtown,” and we’re dancing with the Torah. Through downtown Detroit, a group of 100 or so is parading down the sidewalks of Griswold Street and Grand River Avenue, hoisting the scrolls and chanting Hebrew songs in honor of Simchat Torah.

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The Catholic Conversion in Teaching on Jews

Sometime in my mid-teens, I asked to join the CYO basketball team at the parish church in my New Jersey hometown. For the uninitiated, CYO stands for Catholic Youth Organization, and it was the group to which my two best friends belonged. Jimmy Lyons lived across the street from me, and Tim Mulligan was his buddy from parochial school. Needless to say, I was Jewish.

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