PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIP PITT
Dor L'Dor
E
lliot Darvick hasn't been able to spend
much time with his grandparents. When
he was young, he said, he just wanted to
'be outside playing, not sitting on their laps
when they'd visit from out of town.
Elliot is 11 now and part of Dor L'Dor, a 10-year-
old National Council of Jewish Women program that
matches sixth-grade Hillel Day School students with
senior-citizen residents of the Fleischman, Hechtman,
Prentis and Teitel buildings.
Each year, students and seniors meet four times for
various programs, including "Share A Memory Day."
At the third event, "A Pesach Parcel," students will each
bring a kosher food item. Finally, in mid-May, they and
the seniors will gather at the Butzel Center in Ortonville
for a day's worth of eating, dancing, singing, crafts and
theater.
"This year, at the first program, they just met these
people. They matched randomly, and one girl went
up and said, 'I love my match. I love her already,' " said
Rosie Schlussel, NCJW chairperson of Dor L'Dor. "It's
important for the students to learn sensitivity in a re-
lationship with a senior, and the seniors come to life
with these youngsters."
Susie Zaks, upper-school coordinator for Hillel, said
Ethel Lasky remembers her girlhood at the prompting of Hillel
Day School sixth-grader Leah Newman.
she's gotten "terrific feedback" from the students about
the program.
A few weeks ago, the students converged on Fleis-
chman Residence at the Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Campus for the "Share A Memory Day," in
which they interviewed the senior with whom they are
matched. It was their second meeting with their older
friends.
Jean Stalsy answered Elliot's and Ben Michalson's
questions patiently, telling them she belonged to the
"nicest synagogue" in the area, Shaarey Zedek, as a
child. Her father, she told them, owned a shoe store,
and her favorite treat as a girl was a hot fudge sun-
dae from Sander's.
Elliot called the Dor L'Dor project "a nice social event,"
but he believes it's much more than that.
"They're sort of second grandparents to me. We can
be their grandchildren, and they can be our grandpar-
ents," he said.
In another part of the dining hall at Fleischman,
which was filled with the exclamations and laughter of
67 students and 35 seniors, Leah Newman and Lind-
sey Schostak took turns interviewing Ethel Lasky about
her younger days, handing the tape recorder back and
forth. "What did you look like as a child?" Leah asked.
"When I was anywhere from 5 to 8, I had long curls
and a full face. I was a pretty child. I'm not now," Mrs.
Lasky laughed.
"You are pretty," Lindsey offered.
"When did you get married?" Leah asked.
"I married in my early 30s. It didn't appeal to me un-
til I was older," she replied.
The two girls, both 12, giggled as they asked Mrs.
Lasky, 83, questions about her first boyfriend and her
favorite movies. Then they got to the more serious por-
tion of the interview, asking questions about Jewish
celebrations in her childhood home.
She replied that her father wasn't at all religious,
and though her mother tried to instill some religious
feeling in her children, none became observant, Mrs.
Lasky explained.
In fact, her mother spoke only "Jewish" and her fa-
ther barely learned English in all his years in Ameri-
ca, she remembered.
"Can you say something in Jewish?" Lindsey and
Leah asked excitedly.
Mrs. Lasky obliged them, and then translated:
"You're good kids, you're pretty kids, and I like you
a lot," she said. 0
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