THE JEWI S H NEWS
113 FRONT
This Week's Top Stories
Living Poor,
Giving More
A "pauper" leaves millions to
Jewish charities.
DAVID ZEMAN STAFF WRITER
I
U In Smoke
Fire destroys a JARC home in Franklin.
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
hen an early morning fire
Sunday damaged the Jewish
Association for Residential
Care home of six develop-
mentally disabled men, the residents
safely escaped, but only with the cloth-
ing on their backs.
Franklin fire fighters were called to
the JARC home on Telegraph Road to
extinguish a blaze that apparently be-
gan in the engine compartment of a
late-model Ford Escort parked in the
driveway. The fire spread quickly to
the garage and a staffmember's apart-
ment attached to the home.
While the apartment and garage
were destroyed by flames, the rest of the
home suffered extensive smoke and wa-
ter damage.
The six residents of the Green-
berg/Shiffinan/Stein home were relo-
cated to an unused JARC home in Oak
Park. JARC provides homes and ser-
vices for adults with developmental dis-
abilities.
"By a series of coincidences we had
a vacant home we were going to begin
using in June," said JARC Executive
Director Joyce Keller.
The home, while still fully licensed,
has been vacant for a few months. Ms.
Keller said the displaced residents will
remain in the home until their
Franklin residence is repaired.
JARC is waiting to learn the extent
of the damage, and the agency's in-
surance adjuster expects repairs to take
between four and six months.
"The residents seem to be doing fine,"
Ms. Keller said. "I'm not
sure we're going to know
the full effect on them for
a little while longer. At
the moment they seem to
be doing OK All their be-
longings were destroyed.
"Everyone was pretty
cooperative, which doesn't
always happen during a
fire drill."
JARC residents partic-
ipate in drills once a
Above: A Franklin fire fighter
hoses down the JARC home.
Right: Resident Larry Duben at
the home before the fire.
month.
Although the fire is still under in-
vestigation, fire fighters are certain it
began in the car, which belonged to one
of the JARC staff members. The staff
person arrived at the home around 7
a.m., shortly before the fire was de-
tected.
Richard Thomas, an area supervisor
FIRE page 16
rvin Abramson, who lived like a pauper
but clung tenaciously to a multimillion-
dollar stock portfolio, has left at least
$500,000 to $700,000 to Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah, a cash-strapped Orthodox day
school in Southfield.
"Mr. Abramson was a regular contribu-
tor to our yeshiva over many years, and we
are extremely grateful for whatever was pro-
vided for us in his will," said Rabbi Eli
Mayerfeld, executive director of Beth Yehu-
dah. If upheld, the gift will "be used to re-
duce the ongoing deficit of our yeshiva," he
said.
Mr. Abramson had been a frequent visi-
tor to the Yeshiva in recent years, and had
memorialized his deceased siblings through
Kaddish prayers and by donating money to
the school.
The Yeshiva, which received 10 percent
of Mr. Abramson's estate, was one of three
Orthodox Jewish beneficiaries named in the
will.
The remainder of the estate — early es-
timates range from $7 million tr more than
$10 million— is to be split between two New
York-based organizations: the Rabbinical
Seminary of America in Queens and the
Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, located in
Brooklyn. If the $7-million figure is correct,
the New York groups will each receive $3.15
million.
A seminary spokesperson said he had
never heard of the elderly recluse, and was
stunned by his generosity.
"Gee whiz," gasped Rabbi Abraham
Ginzberg when told of the gift Monday.
He said a colleague had passed on a ru-
mor that morning that some stranger had
donated a great deal of money to the semi-
nary.
"I laughed at him," Rabbi Ginzberg said.
"I told him, `Tell me something new."
The Rabbinical Seminary, founded in
1933, has affiliates in several states and
in Israel, and provides a Jewish education
for students from grade school through post-
graduate study, Rabbi Ginzberg said.
The gift "couldn't come at a better time."
He said the donation will go toward con-
struction of a $7-million headquarters and
seminary, which was to have its ground-
breaking as soon as a fund-raising campaign
reached its goal. It was a goal that sudden-
ly looked much closer Monday.
Mr. Abramson was no stranger to the
Diskin Orphan Home. Rabbi Mumish Wein-
traub, executive secretary of the home, said
his group had received donations and let-
ters from Mr. Abramson for years.
The organization raises funds for its or-
phanage in Jerusalem, which supports chil-
dren from Iran, Yemen, Russia and from
PAUPER page 16