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Young Ideas Help to Build Detroit's Home for Aged

Using a newspaperman's pie-
mise that a picture is worth
10,000 words, here is a pictorial
story of some of the activities at
the Jewish Home for Aged. la
the picture at the left, a nurse,
one of a large full time staff,
tests tlie eyesight of a resident,
Notice the unusual chart in He-
brew from which he reads. At
the upper right, a group of wo-
men residents show that they
haven't lost their enthusiasm for
a good, old-fashioned sherele.
They are joined by a worker at
the Home at one of many
planned social gatherings. At
the bottom right is Max Glazer,
one of the Home's most skilled
craftsmen, shown working in-
tently on a lamp shade in the
Home's hobby shop. Each year
hundreds of items, which are on
sale to the public at nominal
costs, are produced by residents
who thereby gain a little "pin"
money. The darlings of the
Home are Mr. and Mrs. Isaac
Nagel (bottom left), who are its
oldest residents.

...

By FRANK SIMONS

The Jewish Home ;.for Aged
will celebrate two anniversaries
in the remaining months of this
year.
The first, to be observed this
week, is that of Mary and Isaac
Nagel, probably the two most
known personalities at the
Home, 'who will be celebrating
their 81st year of wedded bliss.
And according to officials at the
Home, the Nagels are still as at-
tentive to one another as newly
weds. Mr, Nagel is 105, his wife
a mere 103. Almost without need
we add they are the Home's
oldest residents.
The second celebration will be
that of the Home itself, which
now is approaching middle age.
In October the institution will
be 45 years old. The story of its
growth could fill pages. The
fact that it continues to grow,
under the leadership of Ira Son-
nenblick, its executive director,
and Herman Margulies, his as-
sistant, is the important part of
our story.

Originally the Home was a
Chevrah Kadisha, a free bur-
ial society, in the old Hastings
Street Synagogue. When a
man was found sleeping in the
synagogue basement one
night, the society decided
death was not the solution to
the old age problem. In 1907
the first home was purchased
—a building on Brush and Ed-
mund Place.

The changing point in its con-
stant battle for survival was in
1931 when the Jewish Welfare
Federation entered the picture.
A corporation called the Jewisn
Old Folks Home was formed.
Gradually the name became un-
popular because of its reference
to old folks. When in 1937 the
present building at 11501 Petos-
key was constructed, the name
became the Jewish Home f-dr
Aged.
In the new home was the
David W. Simons Hospital Wing
to care for the sick. As the resi-
dents grew older, many. became
feeble, and the original facilities
were taxed to the utmost. The
Children's Home was taken over
in 1946 and remodeled for an in-
firmary. In 1948 when it was
opened there was a corridor con-
necting the two buildings as one
unit.
Today, the home operates at
full capacity with 190 residents,
65 of whom are in the infirmary,
the remainder in the main
building.

To care for the ailing there
are two doctors who make
daily calls and who are on
call. A large nursing staff
works on shifts to offer emer-
gency aid at any hour. Various
tors and a chiropodist also
specialists, dentists, eye doe-
treat the residents,
sa—THE JEW,;1/4 aessi

Friday, September.' '0, 1952.

Residents who are well, and "t.>
they by far comprise the ma-
jority, take part in the various
programs of the Home. Naming
just a few, there are record
concerts, film showings, bingo,
music appreciation hours and
a monthly birthday party - hon-
oring residents, which is given
by the Women's Auxiliary, with,
Mrs. Daniel Marcus, president.
The two biggest projects are
the hobby shop, supervised by
trained occupational therapists,
tsnpn
and a sheltered workshop, at
which residents work on con-
"Proclaim liberty throughout
tracts given the Home by firms
the land into all the inhabi-
who have simple jobs to have
tants thereof."—Lev, XXV. 10.
done.
When this reporter was visit-
ing the Home the two workshop
projects - were the assembly of
washers on screws and putting
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
various tags together. Both were
An American Jewish Press Feature
compa.ratively easy jobs, but it
It is not generally known ; but the Liberty Bell, the symbol
gives the _folks something to do .
with their leisure time. At the of American freedom, the inspiring instrument which bears the
same instance it gives them a Biblical inscription "Proclaim liberty . . .", is older than our in-
chance to make some money. A dependence. In fact, it has just celebrated its 200th birthday.
In August of 1752, dockmen in Philadelphia unloaded a crate
medical examination is a neces-
sity before a resident can qual- that arrived from England. In it was a bell, cast by the Londoner
ify for work. There is a • weekly Thomas Lister, 12 feet in circumference at the widest point, and
maximum of 16 hours, and a on it was the inscription:
financial limitation of $12 a
"By order of the- Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania,
month.
for the State House in the City of Philadelphia, 1752."
In the hobby shop, where
Tie colony for whom this bell was cast still was under the
residents can make most any- English rule, but the bell itself was to become known as the
thing they want, was Henry Liberty Bell, and was to serve as a challenge to oppressors, for,
Sheplbw, described as the best under the above explanation appeared this quotation:
,craftsman at the Home. He .
"Proclaim Liberty through all the land to all the inhabi-
is a ceramic expert, but be-
tants thereof.—Lev. XXV 10."
came that after he entered the
Isaac Norris, a Quaker, was the man chosen to select the
Home. Outside, his life's work
was tinning and roofing. Wo- quotation for the inscription on the Bell. He picked the twenty-
men were weaving rugs, mak- fifth chapter of 'Leviticus which contains the famous Jubilee
ing drape s, sewing baby proclamation: "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and pro-
clothes, all of which when claim liberty throughout the land . . ."
The Bell was not hung in the Pennsylvania State House be-
completed are put on sale for
cause, upon unpacking, it cracked after a single stroke of the
the public.
Still another phase of Life at clapper due to the brittleness of the metal. A little copper
the Home is the outdoor garden. was added to the metal in recasting by Pass and Stow, the two
Its most ardent devotee is Max workingmen to whom was assigned the task of placing the Bell
Buch, 87, formerly a meshgiach. in order. The two craftsmen reversed the two original lines and
Besides an interest in gardening the inscription on the Bell that was hung in 1853 read:
that is most serious, he is a "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the In-
Talmudic scholar, avid baseball habitants thereof. Lev. XXV 10.
fan, chess player and expert at "By order of the ASSEMBLY of the Province of PEENSYLVANIA,
jig saw puzzles. Until a year for the State House in Philada.
"Pass and Stow, Philada MDCCLIII"
ago, he even drove his own car.
The triumphant announcement of the Declaration of Inde-
With such a variety of pro-
grams and with such an atmos- pendence was accompanied by sounds that were pealed from the
phere of happiness, it is no won- Liberty Bell in the Pennsylvania State House,. on July 8, 1776.
But with the threats of war, it became necessary to protect
der there is always a list of
people waiting to enter the the Bell, and it was taken for safekeeping, in 1777, to Allentown,
Pa., and was returned to Philadelphia after the ousting of the
Home.
A large program of expansion British from the newly proclaimed American republic.
After Pass and Stow had recast the original Bell, a second
is now in the preparatory stages,
with Federation already approv- one was sent to Philadelphia from London by Thomas Lister.
ing plans for increasing its two That copy was given to St. Augustine's Church, which was burned
kosher kitchens, its dining room in 1844 during rioting by a mob which was incited to violence
and infirmary facilities and a by bigotry and anti-Catholicism by the hate group of that day—
larger physio - therapy depart- the "Native Americans." The Bell was crashed, but its remains
were recast into a symbolic relic to be seen today at Villanova
ment.
Under the leadership of M . . ..- (Pa.) College.
The original Liberty Belt cracked on July 8, 1835, exactly 59
ron A. Keys, who has been presi-
dent of the Home since 1944, years after it had pealed the triumphant announcement of the
plans also are 'being made 'to Declaration of Independence, when it was rung for the funeral
provide 100 new beds far the of Chief Justice John Marshall. But the Bell retains its power as
Home. Sidney J. Allen, first vice a symbol of Liberty under the banner that carries the translation
president and chaife.a.n. of the of the five Hebrew Biblical words:
"Ukrosem dror ba-aretz lekhol yoshveho".—"Proclaim Liberty
building committee, is currently
throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
working on this project..

nrImpti
T /ot:im,n, t=n11

Liberty Bell: 200 Years Old

Friday, September 19, 1952
88—THE JEWISH NEWS

The Jewish Calendar

An - American Jewish Press Feature

Why is it that Rosh Hashanah
occurred on Oct. 1 last year and
will fall this year on Sept. 20;
in 1953 on Sept. 10, in 1954, on
Sept. 28 and in 1955 on Sept. 16_
The varying dates are ac-
counted for by the fact that
ours is the lunar calendar. Un-
like the calendar used in every
day life, which follows the posi-
tion of the sun, the Jewish cal-
endar follows the moon.
In early Talmudic days, the
commencement of a new month
used to be announced from
Jerusalem to t h e surrounding
districts by beacons or messen-
gers, the rise of the moon
having been seen by witnesses
and duly checked by the author-
ities. Our calendar is based
upon calculation and can prob-
ably be traced back as far as the
early Greek astronomers who
were known to the Rabbis of
Talmudic times. One of these
astronomers discovered that a
month is almost exactly 29
days, 12 hours and 44 minutes.
Another Greek who lived even
earlier found that the moon or
lunar years are grouped in sets
...of 19 which form a unit. The
Jewish Patriarch Hillel II, who
lived in the 4th century C.E.,
used these findings of the
Greek astronomers and accord-
ingly fixed the Jewish calendar.
Here is the way to calculate
the Jewish calendar: If the time
between one new moon and the
next were exactly 29V2 days,
then the problem would be
solved by fixing six months at
29 days and six months at 36

days. But there are three rea-
sons why our mathematical op-
eration would not be true. One
is that we have forgotten the
extra 44 minutes; the second is
that Yom Kippur must never
fall on the day before or the
day after Shabbat, and Hoshana
Raba must never be on Shab-
bat; and the third„ that we
must never forget that the

Jewish day commences six hours
before midnight. To overcome
these difficulties the Jewish cal-
endar contains a number of
leap years every 19 years:
The leap years are • the 3rd,
6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and
the 19th. 5714 (1954) will be a
leap year.
Consequently, we a d d an-
other month — Adar II; and
Adar I gets 30 days instead of
29. To prevent the difficulties
with Yom Kippur and Ho-
shana. Raba mentioned above,
the festival of Rosh Hashanah
must never fail on a Sunday,
Wednesday or Friday.

