FAX (734) 677-0109
Email: jcc@jccfed.org

B'nai B'rith Youth Organization

Jewish Community Center
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 788-0700
FAX (248) 788-0704
Email: mibbyo@juno.com
Website: www.metroguide.com/bbyo
Contact Person: Arnie Weiner, executive
regional director

World's largest youth-led organization.
Teen Connection for grades 7 & 8 and
AZA/BBG for grades 9 - 12. AZA/BBG
chapters are democratically run with
adult advisor to oversee, guide, support.

Central Region USY

3645 Warrensville Center Road, Suite 214
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
(216) 751-0606

Habonim Dror

25900 Greenfield Road, Suite 205A
Oak Park, MI 48237
(248) 353-5552
FAX: (248) 545-7707
Website: www.habonimdror.org
Contact Person: Jeremy Salinger

A Labor Zionist youth movement.

National Conference
of Synagogue Youth/NCSY

15919 W Ten Mile Road, Suite 100
Southfield, MI 48075

(248) 557-6279
FAX (248) 557-3952
Email: centraleastncsyfluno.corn
Website: wvvvv.ou.org/NCSY
Contact Person: Rabbi Tzali Freedman,
Rabbi Steven Burg

Provides teens informal, social and
educational programs, increasing
awareness and interest in Jewish life.
Provides opportunities to develop
leadership abilities. NCSY is suitable for
young adults from a variety of
backgrounds.

JNSourceBook

I

lene and her
"I'm there to do
telephone have
become nearly
what needs to
inseparable. She's
be done."
got an 800 num-
ber to her house as
well as a cell phone
- both are kept very busy. But all that phone
time isn't a burden to Ilene; it's a mitzvah - a
valuable support link to those who've lost
loved ones and need assistance. *************14
AfterCare Services evolved about 10 years ago
at Ira Kaufman Chapel. "Families were calling
with questions and concerns afterward," Ilene
Honorable Menschen
says. "I got the idea that others must have
questions, too. It helps to bring things together
for people."
Ilene's program has grown to provide all facets
Birmingham
of support, from giving information on
bereavement counseling to arranging for uneaten
shiva food to be taken to homeless shelters to
teaching elderly widows how to balance checkbooks. She also spends
time talking to those who are lonely or missing a loved one.
She works mostly from home, extending her services to anyone
free of charge, regardless of whether they've used Kaufman or not. It's
a part-time job, but Ilene goes far beyond any prescribed hours.
"I do feel like I'm doing mitzvah; it's wonderful to be able to offer
this help to all at no charge," says Ilene, who happens to be Ira
Kaufman's granddaughter, Herb Kaufman's daughter and Kaufman's
funeral director David Techner's wife.
Ilene has become an expert at digging for information. "If I don't
know the answers," she says, "the challenge is to find out and make
calls the bereaved don't have the energy to make.
For example, one elderly woman called Ilene about her husband's
Jim Beam whisky bottle collection. She hated dusting them over
the years and was ready to pitch them. Ilene got her to wait one week.
She located an association in Iowa that sent a collector's catalog.
The woman sold the collection for more than $10,000.
Another older woman was sure her husband had a $25,000 life
insurance policy but she couldn't find it. Ilene ferreted out an
organization in Washington that has a registry of all insurance policies
and secured the money for the widow.
Ilene's other passion is horses. She's managed to find the mitzvah
there, too. With her three children, she participates every Monday at
the Bloomfield Open Hunt Club in a Variety Club-sponsored 4-H
program that allows disabled people to ride and experience a greater
sense of mobility. Volunteers lead horses and walk along on each side.
Though modest about her good deeds, Ilene says she "tries to be
a good person and help out in many ways. I hope my children do the
same kind of thing and give back to the community."

"

Keri Guten Cohen

105