Door To Door

Li, TEO E B t:W

SCHO OL

A new service takes
isolated seniors to the
"Center" of things

Driver Joe Lotridge escorts Eva Sheldon to the bus where, above, she joins Rhoda
Shanes, Selma Houseman and Edith Silverston.

LINDA ROMAN

Special to The Jewish News

E

va Sheldon's home on Pic-
adilly in northwest De-
troit was broken into, and
she often turns down soci-
al invitations because
people are afraid to drive into her
neighborhood to pick her up. She says
that once people find out she lives in
Detroit, it's like having leprosy — no
one wants to go near her.
So she — like many other senior
citiens in the Detroit area who are
unable to drive themselves or secure
a reliable means of transportation —
was often cut off from activities and
friends in the nearby Jewish com-
munity. That is, until just two months
ago when the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion set into motion an extension of
its senior citizen pick-up program,
which had formerly included only

people within a one-mile radius of the
Jewish Community Center's Jimmy
Prentis Morris building in Oak Park.
"It's miraculous;' I had a great
need to be with people from the same
cultural background;' says Sheldon,
whose family escaped from Germany
in 1938. "There's another woman who
gets picked up now who brings me the
German newspaper, and I open it up
and see an ad from an old classmate
of mine who lives in. New York now.
Here, it's like all of a sudden you're
put back in touch with everyone, and
that's what I missed most. It was a
type of alienation?'
At the center, Sheldon can be
found taking an acylic painting class
or attending any of a number of
biblical study classes or lectures.
Among those who speak at the center
are Rabbi Benjamin Gorrelick, retired
leader of Cong. Beth Achim; Cantor
Max Shimansky, also from Beth

Achim; Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg of
the Bais Chabad Torah Study Center
in West Bloomfield; and Rabbi Joseph
Guttman, a Reform rabbi and pro-
fessor of history at Wayne State
University. "We discuss history or
current events, like whats happening
with Israel," Sheldon explains.
When not in class, she chats with
friends or spends an afternoon social,
with live music and singing, which
Sheldon says "everyone likes!' On
Fridays, Cantor Shimansky leads a
Shabbat service. -
Fannie Hyman, one of the few
Jewish residents of the Oxford towers
senior citizen's residence in Berkley,
said the transport program is "like a
light at the end of the tunnel" for her.
Hyman is widowed and has no
children or other relatives in the
Detroit Area.
"When I heard they were going to
come and pick me up and take me to

the JCC, it was wonderful, because
we're isolated there," she said.
There are approximately 15
Jewish residents out of a total of 240
dwellers at Oxford Towers.
"Sometimes I want to go and sit in
their church just to hear somebody
say something. Now I come here and
bathe myself in Jewishness and I take
it back and keep it for a whole week
until I can come again?'
As of now, there is only enough
funding for once-a-week bus service to
individuals in northwest Detroit. Ac-
cording to Barabara Lefton, assistant
to the director of the Jewish Informa-
tion Service, many of the 40 seniors
who have been helped through the
transport program would like to
spend more of their days at the center.
And, she says, there are still more
people who don't yet know about the
program who would be eligible and
who are in need of assistance.

TI4 PDORCIELJ E1NJ SRA RA