ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
S
ophie Tribuck Sulkes has
lived in Detroit most of her
life, been heavily involved in
Jewish causes and is a Shah-
bat prayer leader at her home, Hecht-
man Jewish Apartments.
, But one of the great regrets in her
life of 88 years was that she never had
a bat mitzvah.
That changed recently when Mrs.
Sulkes joined a reunion °filer son's
adult bar and bat mitzvah classes in
Florida, and recited the Torah bless-
ings, the Torah portion and the Sh'ma
— without rehearsal.
Her son Al, a Detroit Central High
School and University of Michigan
graduate, has lived in Florida 29 years.
He and his wife Loyce have been
involved with Temple Israel in Tallahas-
see since 1990, and he has taught adult
education classes and helped 18 men
and women become b'nai mitzvah.
"Every time I taught one of these
classes, mother always said to me that
she wished she could become bat
mitzvah," Sulkes said.
Mrs. Sulkes and her husband
Joseph retired to Florida in 1972. Mr.
Sulkes had been an active Mason and
Shriner in Detroit and a president of
Beth Aaron Synagogue. Mrs. Sulkes
was a lifelong member of Na'amat,
B'nai B'rith and Hadassah, and in
Florida was sisterhood president at
Clearwater's Beth Shalom Synagogue.
Mr. Sulkes died in 1978 and Mrs.
Sulkes remained in Florida until
1992, when she returned to Detroit
and moved into Hechtman in West
Bloomfield.
But each year, she visits her family in
Tallahassee for the High Holidays. In
October, just after Yom Kippur, Mrs.
Sulkes joined the 18 alumni of her son's
bar and bat mitzvah classes at a reunion
at the Sulkes' home. During the
reunion, Sophie Sulkes was called up to
the Torah. She used the Torah pointer
that had been a gift from her son's first
adult b'nai mitzvah class in 1992.
"There wasn't a dry eye in the
place," Al Sulkes said. "It was a mov-
ing event and mother was surrounded
with love and affection from everyone
who was present."
Al Sulkes, who manages the Vac-
cines for Children program for the
Florida Department of Health, said
his mother was born in Russia in
1910 and came to Detroit in 1920.
She worked as a saleslady in down-
town Detroit and taught Hebrew
Sophie Sulkes' long-awaited bat mitzvah.
school in Flint.
One of her favorite recollections is
her involvement in bringing future
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to
Detroit for a speaking engagement in
the 1920s.
Mrs. Sulkes, who says she went to
the old United Hebrew Schools
"way back," was delighted about her
bat mitzvah. "There are so many
older women in my son's congrega-
tion who are becoming bat mitzvah,
and I wanted to do it, too."
Now that she's back home at
Hechtman, she has taken up where
she left off every Friday night, lead-
ing her fellow residents in lighting
the Shabbat candles, making Kid-
dush over the wine and Hamotzi
over the bread.
❑
12/11
1998
Detroit Jewish News
55