TINA KAHN

GRAVESIDE SERVICE: 11:00 AM SUNDAY 12/4/2022 at HEBREW MEMORIAL GARDENS inside Beth Moses Cemetery 20711 Masonic Blvd. Roseville, MI Tina was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother was Beatrice Jonas Katz, her father was Albert Katz. She was raised by her mother and her Aunt Sophia Jonas. Tina’s life was a reflection of her passionate commitment to service to her fellow humans and to the earth. Immediately after graduating cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1964, she signed up for the Peace Corps with the open-ended assignment of “community development” in a tiny village in Chile. Due to some personnel mix-ups, she ended up in a lonely and somewhat dangerous situation as a young woman alone in that isolated village. She came out of those two years with a commendation, plus fluency in the Spanish language. There must also have been a deepened commitment to healing the world, because her next move was to the University of Michigan, where she earned her Master’s in Social Work in 1968. Her first professional job seemed made for her - staffing a statewide commission in Lansing addressing concerns of the Hispanic community. After two years there, she moved on to academia. A friend recommended her for a new position at Lansing Community College, which also seemed made for her. The assignment there was to design a two-year social work training program. Having learned curriculum development in her MSW program, she was well-able to do that job. She developed the curriculum and, initially, taught all the classes. At some point after that success, Tina took a massage class at LCC. She became passionate about the therapeutic power of massage. Back then, massage was not widely appreciated as a healing art. She became determined to change that perception so that more healers would be motivated to take it up as a profession and more people could benefit. She used her curriculum development skills to singlehandedly design a formal massage therapy credentialing program for LCC. A graduate of the LCC program could claim a title and show a certificate. That was many years before the State of Michigan recognized massage therapy as a licensed occupation. When that program was well-established, she made a career change. She stepped away from social work and from academia to launch her 30-year career as a massage therapist. But healing people through physical touch was not enough for Tina. She found another modality – yoga. Through her involvement in the Buddhist community, she trained with a teacher from Australia named Vivekananda, and launched her secondary healing career as a yoga teacher. She taught yoga for 30 years, mostly through Community Education – in East Lansing, Haslets, Williamston. One benefit to Tina of her career path was that it did not tie her down. Becoming a massage therapist allowed her to be a force for healing while also maximizing her flexibility. She thought of herself as a free spirit and loved to travel. Being self-employed, she could earn enough money to provide food and shelter for herself for part of a year, then take off on adventures the rest of the year. Typical destinations were California (friend Patsy), New York (mother and aunt), New Jersey (cousins Tina and Ira), Florida (friend Sylvia). After her mother and aunt died, she took a year-long trip, staying with friends she had met at Rainbow Gatherings. She traveled several times to Garden Island, Michigan, to participate in Native American healing rituals. Her last big trip was to Central America with a friend. Tina walked along several convergent paths in her spiritual life. Her religious heritage, from both parents, was Russian-Jewish. She grew up in a close Jewish community in the Flatbush neighborhood. She was not brought up observing Jewish religious traditions in her home but did receive her bat mitzvah. She certainly absorbed community values for social justice and respect for education. Throughout her life she was drawn to the values and rituals of Buddhism and Native American spirituality. She also held a profound reverence for “Mother Earth” and all living creatures. This led her to environmental activism and involvement in a food co-op to support organic farmers. After her stroke in 2016, Tina embraced her Jewish heritage more than ever before. Rabbi Weingarten welcomed her to the Chabad House community in East Lansing. He and his family and others from the community visited her in her assisted living facility, bringing small gifts at holidays. The rabbi personally arranged for her Jewish green burial. The stroke she experienced six years before her death was serious, making her final years quite difficult, especially for the independent soul that Tina had been her whole life. As she had no family in Michigan, an amazing array of friends stepped up to help her in those difficult years. Tina was pre-deceased by her mother, her aunt, her father, and the man she was briefly married to, Joel Kahn. She is survived by her cousins Tina Rosen and Ira Jonas. She is also survived by the dozens of loyal friends who became like family to her - from the healing communities, the native American drumming community, the dance community, the folk music community, the environmental defense community, and various other groups in which she participated. Advice Tina Offered to Everyone and Really, Really Tried to Follow Herself: “Accept, then Act: Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. …This will miraculously transform your life.” – Eckhardt Tolle OFFICIATING: Rabbi Hendel Weingarten SHIVA; No formal shiva will be observed. CONTRIBUTIONS: If you would like to further honor the memory of TINA KAHN you may do so by making a contribution to: HEBREW BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 26640 Greenfield Road Oak Park, MI 48237 (248) 543-1622 www.hebrewmemorial.org

TINA KAHN

August 31, 1942 - December 2, 2022

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TINA KAHN

August 31, 1942 - December 2, 2022

Obituary Notification

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Grief & Healing

About Us

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