rad of Oak Park
makes celebratin their new
Tirah a community event,

Donor Morris Ratt carries the completed Torah toward its new home.

SHELLI DORFMAN Editorial Assistant

BILL HANSEN Photographer

he scribe took the quill from
Morris Flatt. He then accept-
ed Flatt's request to write the
Hebrew letter lamed on his
behalf And a Torah that had traveled
from Israel to New York and then to
the Anna. and Meyer Prentis Jewish
Apartments in Oak Park was complete.
Those who came to witness the event
broke into boisterous song and exuber-
ant dancing as they carried the Torah on
one more trip, to its new home in the -
ark at the Young Israel of Oak Park.
Survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-
Belson, Flatt and his wife Frances,
members of the synagogue for more
than 40 years, dedicated the Torah in
memory of family members who per-
ished in the Holocaust.
The Flatts' son Sam explained that
although his mother has been in ill
health and was unable to attend, "All
the good deeds" that his father does

2/19
1999

14 Detroit Jewish News

"are on her behalf, too, in her kind-
ness, and in her spirit."
Young Israel celebrated a quieter
donation of another Torah by the
Flatts three years ago, "This time the
.program was given a different focus
and made into a community event,"
Rabbi : Steven Weil said.
In attendance Sunday were senior
residentsfrom Prentis as well as the
Hairiett andilBen Teitel Jewish
Apartments,.jehnifer Epstein . aube,
Young Israel meniber_and a.sdcial
worker at Teitel Apartments, said most
of them were "Holocaust survivors or
people who lost someone." She called
this "a way for them to memorialize
by remembering and celebrating."
Some of the Prentis Apartments
residents brought with them a piece of
their pasts. Shulamith Filler carried a
small megillah, purchased by her father
more than 50 years ago, and hoped
the scribe could help repair it.

Sitting at an out-of-the-way table,
Sybil Pauline Bodzin shared pictures
with Bertha Billet:Her album showed
photos from 1976, when her family
donated a Torah in Israel. Billet spoke
of how both women "lived through
pogroms" and reflected-on the day's
events by adding,'I than :k God I lived
to see this." -
Present also was a small group of
New Americans from the former
Soviet Union. Although unable to
understand much of verbal language of
the program, they clearly understood -
its significance. Many of them, ''noted
Nachmon Bennish, nephew; of the
Flatts, had "never seen a Torah before."
In the midst of the dancing were
students from Yeshivat Akiva; . :Yeshiva
Beth- Yehudah and Yeshiva Dar .
'•
Torah. Many men in the crowd of
close to 400 wore black hats and most
of the rest wore kippot.
Morris Flatt, however, wore a

white, mink-fur cap, while his son
Sam had a baseball-style trucking hat
— not unusual, said Weil, "for these
down-to-earth guys." Flatt owns a
kosher slaughter house, Cornbelt Beef
Corp, and often wears cowboy boots
and a cattleman's hat. Weil called him
"a Chasid who dresses like a cowboy.
The rabbi said the Flatts "embody the
values of the very Torah they dedicated,"
deserving the respect of being called "a
living Sefer Torah," referring to the
Torah scroll. Flatt announced that he is
"not done dedicating Sefrai Torah," and
is making plans "for the next one."
Holocaust survivor and Young
Israel member Cantor Emmanuel
(Manny)
Mittleman noted that the
,
Flatts three children and 10 grand-
children are actively involved in Jewish
learning and a Jewish lifestyle. Flatt,
the cantor boomed, "is not a victim of
the Holocaust. He is a victor of the
Holocaust.

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