Honoring Lives Lost

West Bloomfield is a hub for Michigan's largest Jewish community, with thriving synagogues, a large JCC, and a highly active community. It is also the site of the March 2026 attack on Temple Israel, one of the country’s largest synagogues. The impact of that tragedy was very much on our minds when, on June 20th, we drove a half-mile past the site of the March attack to Temple Kol Ami. Temple Kol Ami Sisterhood invited us to present a book talk following attendance at their Shabbat service and closing luncheon.
Authors Joy Wolfe Ensor, Rita Benn and Eszter Gombosi, who each descended from different homelands and were raised in different countries, focused the presentation on three questions: How do we draw on the lessons from our parents to face the challenges of the present moment? How have time and maturity shifted our perspective on the struggles we experienced growing up in the shadow of our parents’ trauma? And how do we situate our sense of religion and peoplehood in our current community, far from where we were planted and where our families lived for so many centuries? 
We were delighted to see that the audience was highly attentive and engaged, sharing their own stories and commitments to educating the generations after in our shared project of remembrance. We feel gratitude to have been so warmly welcomed into their community.