Over fifty fathers and sons spent the weekend at the Metropolitan Hotel near the Detroit airport, on one of our best trips ever. A much nicer venue than last years’ Motel 6! Those who came early were able to either visit the Jewish part of Suburban Detroit and eat delicious treats from the kosher bakery or the Kosher Dunkin Donuts. Others went shopping and got some great buys. All our activities were in a spacious meeting room, and the huge hallways gave ample room for the younger boys to run around and play over the Shabbos. All the Shabbos activities were in the hotel, so no one had to brave the elements walking from your hotel room to the meeting rooms.
Thanks to Earl Nussbaum for schlepping and lending out his family’s Sefer Torah for us to use for the Torah reading. Aside from the davening, there were two sessions of father and son learning. We had a humorous group game of determining what mysterious disease we were all infected with. Stick ball was definitely the boys’ favorite activity! Rabbi Selevan gave two fascinating classes to the fathers on the topics of “Lechaim” and “Miracles.” It was most inspiring to see many of the men reviewing their Beginners’ Talmud , studying the laws of returning lost objects , over the Shabbos.
Thanks to David Tobis, Kobi Moll, Aaron Mann, David Teller, and Rabbi Michalowicz for sharing in the Torah reading; to Dani Serman, Allan Moll, Reeve Serman, Martin Levin, and Larry Tobis for leading the davening; to Allan Moll, Rick Naor, Stanley Mann, Michael Korolnek, Russel Orelowitz, Yishai Caro, Larry Tobis, Earl Nuss-baum and many more who either volunteered a Dvar Torah, inspiring story, or a Lechaim with the group, and to Mayer Michalowicz and Louis Pillemer who managed the logistics in the Kitchen. Special Thanks to Oren Dishy for helping in the planning and organizing of the entire trip.
There was definitely no shortage of food, as Jewels catering provided more than enough yummy food starting with Friday night chicken soup with matzo balls right on through to the boxed lunch for the way home. Thanks to Lynn Pillemer for supplying all kinds of goodies for the mid morning Kiddush.
After Havdalah, we all drove down to the Joe Louis Arena and watched the home team Redwings pound the vis-iting Jets 7-1. We all enjoyed a sumptuous Melava Malka delivered by the local Jerusalem Pizza. The fathers en-joyed specialty flavored pizzas such as BBQ chicken , Kishke, and pineapple flavored pizza. The night was capped off with a midnight swim in the hotel’s heated pool.
Mercifully, Sunday davening was at 9:30 AM. After a quick breakfast, we all drove to the Ford Field to watch a football game in the domed stadium. Such a pleasure to watch a game in a climate controlled environment! We had great seats, and only had to walk two minutes to get food from the kosher hot dog stand! The game was a classic down to the last play thriller, with the Lions winning 34-28. After the game, we all found a corner spot in the Stadium to daven Mincha. What a Kiddush Hashem! We were joined by other Jews in the stadium who needed a minyan in order to say Kaddish! Everyone went home tired, but very happy. It was a memorable and uplifting weekend both physically and spiritually, with lots of male bonding time.
