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The

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Chuck Pearlstein i8 the kind of
person we have been told to emulate.
lie does good deeds in a quiet way
and can't understand all the fu&s.

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

Chuck Pearlstein

ome people use their religion
as a crutch. Some use it as
a foil. Chuck Pearlstein does
not use his Judaism; he tries
to live it by helping others.
His efforts make his friends and ac-
quaintances shake their heads in
wonder.
Pearlstein, 24, is a social worker
in both professional and non-
professional terms. He earned his
BSW from Wayne State University
last May and plans to enter its MSW
program this year.He has had tern-
porary assignments with the Wayne
County community mental health
division, and he studies Torah five
nights each week with several friends
and rabbis.
All this should be enough to keep
any young bachelor very busy, but
Pearlstein has an added agenda that
runs the gamut from Jewish youth,
the Jewish poor, Jewish convicts and
the elderly.
"When you're talking about ches-

68

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1989

1984. Since then, Pearlstein has been
a one-man aid society.
"There is a young man in our con-
gregation with special needs," said
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg of Young
Israel of Southfield. "Chuck walks to
his group home every Shabbat and
walks with him to shul and back. It's
about a mile each way." On occasion,
the man has forgotten to wear his coat
to services and Pearlstin has loaned
him his own so that his friend would
Sam Pearlstein, a pharmacist, not feel uncomfortable during
"was a Zionist long before it was prayers.
fashionable," said. Selesny, and raised
YI-Southfield boasts "the longest
funds for Israel during the War of In- misheberach list of any congregation
dependence. Chuck also credits his in Detroit" because of Pearlstein's ef-
mother for his concern about others forts, congregation president Selesny
. . . and Torah.
said. "Chuck each week updates the
As a teenager, Chuck Pearlstein list of names" of those for whom the
helped re-establish a dormant tallit congregation says the prayer for the
and tefilin club . at Beth Shalom, ill. "We have two pages of blessings
scheduling speakers and programs for each week," said Selesny. "And Chuck
teenage boys. He then spent 9 1/2 assists all of these people."
Pearlstein collects leftover food
months at the Ohr Sameach yeshivah
from
his congregation's seudah
in Jerusalem, returning to Detroit in

ed (righteousness), you're talking
about Chuck," said Abe Selesny, presi-
dent of Young Israel of Southfield.
"He does everything in such an
unassuming way."
According to Selesny, Pearlstein's
work in the Jewish community began
at Congregation Beth Shalom, and
much of it was influenced by his
parents, Sophie and the late Sam
Pearlstein.