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Legacy In Black And White

Jewish Home for Aged salvages artifacts dating back to 1907.

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1994 CITY TAXES
ALL 1994 CITY OF DETROIT FIRST-HALF
TAX BILLS HAVE BEEN MAILED

ALL REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX BILLS FOR THE
CITY OF DETROIT have been mailed. If you have failed to
receive a tax statement, you must come in or write to the Trea-
surer's Office, Detroit Tax Department, Room 136, City-County
Building, Detroit, MI 48226. Office hours are Monday thru
Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Interest and Penalty
charges must be added if first-half tax is not paid by August
15, 1994 or the full tax is not paid by August 31, 1994. Failure
to receive a bill will not defer accrual of Interest and Penalty.

Kindly include Ward and Item Number or assessed address
when requesting bills by mail.

FIRST HALF DUE
August 15, 1994

Virginia Sikora

Treasurer

CITY OF DETROIT

editions in Yiddish. Margo Parr,
here must have been a sodium bicarbonate.
Almost a century later, the executive director of Prentis and
click of the shutter, then a
Jewish community's system of Borman, was particularly
flash.
In a split second, Pauline geriatric care has come a long amused by descriptions of disci-
Hoffman entered the annals of way. The "Old Folk's Home" has plinary action at the Home.
"If inmates were a little un-
Jewish history, her frail image changed names to the more po-
litically correct "Jewish Home for ruly, they and their families were
recorded in black and white.
Perhaps the cameraman that Aged." Matrons, of course, are actually brought before the
day had a quest, for he posed better known as nurses and nurs- board," she said. "... It was very
different from what we have
Mrs. Hoffman with an eye for es aides.
Today, the JHA encompass- now."
continuity. In the picture, she sits
on an armchair, her silver
hair tilted downward. Wist-
fully, she smiles at faces in I
the 19th-century photo al- ,
ting on her lap.
bum resting
Today, the memory of [1
Mrs. Hoffinan, herself, is con-
tained on the brittle pages of
a photo album discovered re-
cently among forgotten
archives at Borman Hall
nursing home. Beneath her
face a handwritten inscrip-
tion reads:
Mrs. Pauline Hoffman
Age 76, Admitted Jan. 3,
1927 -
Deceased, May 20, 1929.
Borman's forgotten
archives, found in the base-
ment of the Seven Mile Road Margot Parr, Sandra Boykansky and Michael Daitch attend a meeting of the Archives
facility, provide yet another Transition Committee.
chapter in the story of Jew-
Many JHA artifacts will be
ish eldercare in Detroit. It was a es not one facility, but three:
system that began nearly 90 Fleischman Residence, Prentis kept with the Jewish Communi-
ty Archives, located in the Wal-
years ago at the "Old Folk's Manor, and Borman Hall.
ter Reuther Library of Labor and
But this, too, will change.
Home" on Brush Street and Ed-
In March 1994, the Jewish Urban Affairs at Wayne State
mund Place downtown.
Residents like Mrs. Hoffman Federation announced that Bor- University. However, some fa-
were called "inmates." Men wore man Hall — the last Jewish miliar objects will accompany
hats and grew beards. Women nursing home in the city of De- Borman residents to their next
wore long dresses. A little blue troit — will shut down by this home at the current Mount Ver-
medicine book offered "matrons" winter. Before doors close, how- non Nursing Center in South-
the era's remedy for gastro-in- ever, community members are field.
testinal problems: 10 grams sip- seeking to catalog and preserve
py powder, magnesium oxide and artifacts describing JHA's evo-
Residents were
lution.
"I don't think you can really
called "inmates."
know where you are going in
life unless you know where
you've been," said Hannah
"The items will give a level of
Moss, president of the JHA
comfort to the residents who will
Auxiliary.
Earlier this year, the JHA be transferred," said Pearlena
board appointed Ms. Moss and Bodzin, a committee member.
No dollar value has been as-
a handful of others to the
Archives Transition Commit- signed to the artifacts, and com-
tee. Charged with establishing mittee members say that's not
a memorabilia bank for the the point.
"The amount is unimportant,
Home, the committee has sort-
ed through and salvaged old but the sentimental significance
JHA board minutes, silver Kid- is invaluable," said Committee
dish cups, bronze spice boxes, Chair Jack Schon, a former pres-
paintings, scrapbooks and pho- ident of JHA. "We're talking
about history. We're talking
tographs.
Committee members have about roots. We're talking about
dug up vintage movies of resi- religion, and that's what we're
dents. They have found old gro- here to preserve." ❑
cery lists and food budgets
Sharon Alterman, director of the Jewish
totaling pennies.
Community Archives, examinbes an old
e
fis
There also are clips from the
painting with Mihael Daitch, JHA executiv e
assistant.
old Jewish Chronicle, many

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