Mourning

Left to right, Sheila Goldberg,
May Heiman and Marcia Kahn
view the grave of Helmans son, Leroy.

Temple Israel, the Kaufman Chapel and volunteers
take seniors to visit the graves of their loved ones.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

us captain Herschel Levine
passed out small packages
of tissues to the seniors
traveling to their loved
ones' grave sites. He figured they
would need it.
Afterwards, the volunteers who
assisted the seniors needed to use the
tissues, too.
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield,
following the lead of a groin in New
York City, offered its first Kever
Avot, ("Graves of our Ancestors"),
on Sunday, Sept. 27, thanks to the
co-sponsorship of Ira Kaufman
Chapel, which furnished the large
tour buses and grave-side prayer
s heets.
The idea was to give seniors who

B
.

Volunteer Sharon Shapiro helps Alma Hochman of the bus as bus captain Herschel
Levine watches.

10/2
1998

20 Detroit Jewish News

have no other means of transporta-
tion the chance to visit the graves of
their loved ones on the Sunday
between Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur.
On an unusually hot and humid
day, three buses pulled away from
the temple's doors at 9 a.m. to pick
up more than 25 seniors — all
women — who live alone in the
Fleischman Residence in West
Bloomfield and Jewish Apartments
and Services, which has campuses in
West Bloomfield (Hechtman) . and
Oak Park (Teitel and Prentis). The
buses would be traveling to a dozen
cemeteries in the , metro Detroit area.
On board were volunteers, each
assigned to a senior, waiting to help
in any way they could.
As the second bus — destined for
Machpeleh, Beth Abraham and Beth

