sweaters, met every Friday night. Most
of us are still very close friends."
Sta Writer
Although her home was rich in
Jewish
tradition, her parents were not
n 38 years of teaching religious
involved in a synagogue. Rather, as
school at Temple Israel, you
kind of expect to see children of immigrants, they were active in the
Mezeritcher and Bialia Societies,
former students in your class-
groups of Jews who had just come
room. And for Ida Nathan, 73, that
over from Europe.
has been true.
Nathan met her husband, Alan,
Once, a 7-year-old little boy walked
when
she was about 15; he was dating
into Nathan's classroom and pointed a
her
cousin.
"One night, my cousin
finger at her. "Mrs. Nathan — my
said, 'I have a place where you can get
daddy says he was in your class. And
the best chicken dinner in the world
he said you were- mean!"
— my aunt's.'" The pair came over
"Well," she retorted. "You go back
and they met.
and tell your dad that I'm still mean."
"He went to the army, we corre-
Of course, she recounts the story with
sponded.
When he came home, I was
a smile.
at Wayne. He came to see a bunch of
"I always send home notes, tell the
students. I was walking in a big rac-
parents to sit with the child and dis-
coon coat, and I heard someone calling
cuss what they're learning," she says.
my name. From then on we dated."
"I try to tell the parents that unless
But Nathan's parents forbade her
you learn with them, you're going to
to get married until after she
be left by the wayside."
finished her college degree.
Nathan is a teacher by trade
Ida Na than:
They
tied the knot Dec. 22,
Still lea rning,
— second-graders at Temple
1945.
after
3
8
years.
Israel and, until she retired four
The Nathans have two
years ago, a teacher of speech
daughters — Debbie, a writer of film
and language-impaired students in the
in Toronto, and Muriel, an endocri-
Detroit public school system. "I first
nologist at the University of Vermont
came into the system in 1945 — the
Health Center.
classrooms were quiet, and there was no
Three years ago, Nathan became a
back-talk from students," she says.
bat mitzvah, and her family surprised
Nathan credits a teacher at Central
her with a party; friends came in from
High School, Manny Simons, and a
across the country to celebrate.
blind law student at Wayne with
She has little spare time, with vol-
inspiring her to teach. "[Simons]
unteering at the Jewish Community
impressed us that teaching was the
Council office one day a week and
most wonderful profession because
serving
on various committees in the
you not only teach, you learn. He said
community,
but when she does,
you never stop learning."
Nathan likes to do needlework or
At Wayne, Nathan tutored a blind
read. Or hang around Temple Israel.
man who was enrolled in the law
"I serve on a lot of committees at
school. "I thought, wow! If he's going
Temple Israel — the ritual committee,
into law and giving it his all, why not
school board, I attend the rabbi's tisch
give teaching a try?"
every Saturday before services, and we
"Little 7-year-olds can teach you
go to services most Fridays. I just like
every day. A 7-year-old has learned to
being around Temple — it's like a sec-
read, started cursive writing, is learn-
ond home."
ing to take care of him/herself in the
Although the Nathans have
classroom. You see this little baby in
belonged to Temple Israel for half a
September, and in the spring, [he/she]
century, Alan Nathan grew up at
is no longer a baby. They're still
Temple
Beth El, "really classic
young, but sure of themselves and
Reform,"
his wife says.
what they have learned, and I like
Over
the
years, they have seen
being a part of that."
Temple Israel change, grow more tra-
Ida Nathan was born in Highland
ditional ritualistically. "I think it's
Park, Mich., in a largely non-Jewish
because the younger people joining
neighborhood, but moved to Detroit
today want to see a more traditional
when she was 12. From then on, it
service
than Reform did before,"
was a life saturated with Jews and
Nathan
says.
community.
Do
they
mind? "We say the young
"I remember a very cohesive
people
are
the
ones who will keep it
group," she says. "We had a girls club,
going, so we have to have what they
seven of us; we called ourselves The
want." El
Revlons. We had beige and purple

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

Cr

After nearly four decades of teaching
religious school, Ida Nathan
still is learning from her tiny pupils.

11/28
1997

23