IN personal ad leads
to a honeymoon in Israel.

DAVID SACHS
Editorial Assistant

J

oe Samet, divorced 11 years and
lonely, went on a search for his
,,
"soul mate.
Joe, 51, also wanted to renew
his involvement with the Jewish com-
munity that had lapsed over the years.
He knew that his new bride would be
Jewish.
"But I just wasn't meeting Jewish
women," said Joe, the father of two
sons. He had attended singles parties
and dances and asked friends if they
knew of anyone, to no avail.
Elsewhere in town: Helane Feldheim,
46, and the mother of three. "When I
got divorced four years ago, I told my
parents I might have to venture out of
the Jewish community to find some-
body," Helane said. Her parents,
Leonard and Renee Kramer, former
Detroiters of Sunrise, Fla., assured her
they would stand by her.
Meanwhile, Joe was seeking a "soul
mate who was not only Jewish, but also
a go-getter like himself. He eventually
placed a personal ad in The Jewish News
People-Voice Connector section:
Handsome divorced Jewish male, 50,
6-feet tall, looking for fi-iencZ love; life-
mate. Enjoy walking, cuddling, holding
hands, movies, traveling, dining in and
out, anything for fitn. Seek Jewish female,
40-50; no couch potatoes.
Joe had run the ad two weeks at a
time, off and on, for almost a year. He
had received about 100 responses and
had met 60 or 70 of the women who
answered.
"All of the women were quality peo-
ple," said Joe. He went out with a few,
but did not find the "soul mate" he was
looking for.
When Helane answered his ad, he
said, "Something clicked. She knew it
right away, too."
While Joe had sifted through dozens
of responses, Helane found love on only
her second try at answering a Jewish

3/5
1999

48 Detroit Jewish News

Helane and Joe Sanzet
on their wedding day.

News People-Voice Connector ad.
"I liked the way it was worded," she
said. "It just called out to me. Many ads
physically described the type of woman
desired. But Joe's ad sought a 'friend,
lover and lifemate' and listed the things
he enjoys doing."
A couch potato? "No, I'm always on
the go," she said.

Helane was born in Brooklyn, grew
up and married in Cleveland and moved
to Detroit 20 years ago.
She is an interior decorator with
Dailey Carpets in Livonia and runs her
own window treatment, bedspread and
table pad business, Aristocratic
Accessories.
Joe and his parents, Benjamin and

Frida Samet, left post-war Germany for
Israel in 1948 and moved to Detroit in
1957. He owns Central Collectible
Corner on Michigan Avenue in Detroit.
"We came to the same conclusion,"
said Helane, that our hearts and souls
belong with each other and with the
Jewish community."
Joe and Helane, who now reside in
West Bloomfield, had an aufruf at
Temple Beth El and were married Dec.
27 in Hollywood, Fla. They spent the
next week there with their combined
family of five children: Geoffrey Samet,
18, Danny Samet, 16, Shannon
Feldheim, 22, Adam Feldheim, 20, and
Danny Feldheim, 14.
Both Joe and Helane wanted to go
on the third Michigan Miracle Mission
to Israel this April, even before they met
each other. But neither would have gone
if they were still single. "We decided to
put off our honeymoon and go on the
Miracle Mission as a couple," she said.
Notwithstanding all of Joe and
Helane's efforts, this beshert match-up
did get a nudge from fate. The People-
Voice Connector ad to which Helane
responded expired the week before she
saw it and wasn't supposed to appear in
the edition she read it in.
"I'm glad it happened," said Jewish
News Editor Robert A. Sklar, whose son,
Josh, is a friend of Geoff Samet and
attended the wedding. "It helped
accomplish what the People-Voice
Connector sets out to do — make a
Jewish connection."
"The People-Voice Connector is a
very viable way for mature adult
divorced people to Meet," said Joe.
"There are a lot of people who are lone-
ly and would not think of answering a
personal ad, but who should do so."
"God did a good job matching us up, r
and The Jewish News helped out," he
added.
"The Jewish News enabled us to
enrich our lives," Helane said. "We're
both very spiritual. We each wanted to
go to Israel, but not alone." fl