Jules Doneson
Nobody forced Jules Doneson to join
the Hagana, the main Jewish resistance
group during the British mandate of
Palestine, or to remain in Israel to fight
in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.
Yet Doneson's love
of his people was so
great that he voluntari-
ly put his life in danger
more than once to help
assure the founding of
the Jewish state.
In nominating him
Jules Doneson to the Senior Adult
Jewish Hall of Fame,
his five grandchildren called Doneson "a
very dedicated man who sets his mind
on something and does not stop until he
achieves that goal."
The 81-year-old Farmington Hills
resident, who served in the United
States Army during World War II, spent
his childhood in the Jewish Foster
Home and Orphanage Asylum in
Philadelphia. In 1996, he published a
book, Deeds of Love, describing the his-
tory of the orphanage and the people
who worked there.
He remembers being brought up
with a sense of teamwork, along with a
deep belief that people need to rely on
one another. That belief has motivated
him all his life.
Upon returning to the U.S.,
Doneson became head of Detroit's
branch of the Zionist Organization of
America. Always committed to the
Israeli cause, his first business was
importing goods from Israel. The busi-
ness evolved into Israeli promotion and
tourism.
Eventually, Doneson's travel business
expanded to include many countries,
although his heart remained in those
trips he planned to Israel.
Since selling the travel agency 15
years ago, Doneson's already busy sched-
ule of volunteering has increased. He
spent years as a volunteer in the emer-
gency rooms at Henry Ford Medical
Center and Desert Hospital in Palm
Springs, Calif, and has been active in
many projects of Congregation Sha2rey
Zedek and the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
"I can only feel a part of something if
I volunteer and not get paid," he says.
"Work has to be done and you cannot
rely on paid workers to do it all.
Volunteers are needed."
Morris Flatt
Hungry and sick from exhaustion,
Morris Flatt lay on a cold bunk. A pris-
oner in the Auschwitz German killing
center in Poland, Flatt was too weak
that day to get his daily ration. A fellow
prisoner kindly shared his ration with
Flart, and the next morning both man-
aged to stumble to their work detail.
"I would not be here today without
the help of that man who fed me," says
Flatt of Oak Park. "From that day for-
ward, I never pass up a chance to help
someone. I don't let go of an opportuni-
ty because later may be too late."
Today, Flatt owns and operates a
kosher slaughterhouse, the business he
started years ago. The firm provides
kosher meats to 14
cities across the
United States, South
Africa and Japan.
He is best known
for the food packages
he puts together and
delivers to needy
Morris Flatt
members of the com-
munity These include
cheesecakes for Shavuot and kosher
turkeys for Thanksgiving. Each year, he
buys a prize steer at the Michigan State
Fair, cuts it up and gives the meat to Yad
Ezra, the Detroit area's kosher food
bank.
Flat, who estimates his age at 86 or
87, has worked with teens at Young
Israel of Oak Park and Yeshivat Akiva,
and has contributed three Torah scrolls
in memory of his relatives who perished
in the Holocaust.
"Morris has the wisdom of a scholar,
the vigor of an adolescent and the heart
of a lion," says Young Israel Rabbi
Steven Weil, who nominated Flatt to the
Senior Adult Jewish Hall of Fame. "He
has inspired three generations of Detroit
Jewry to take Jewish youth and the
plight of new immigrants with the same
sincerity they would treat their own
family."
"Very often, people feel the job is too
difficult and that there are insufficient
funds. Morris Flatt never takes his eyes
off the goal," Rabbi Weil says.
Flatt says he is just proud to be able
to afford to give. "We're here not just to
be here, but to help each other, our
community. The more I give, the more I
get," he explains.
Shalom Ralph
"I collect mitzvahs," is the way Shalom
Ralph describes his more than 50 years'
involvement with Congregation B'nai
Moshe.
Since 1948, his has been the smiling
face every morning at the synagogue
door. Ralph of West Bloomfield is leg-
endary as the patient bar/bat mitzvah
coach and gentle guide for families say-
ing the Kaddish prayer.
"Thousands of people — minyan
attenders, grieving fam-
ilies, hospitalized
patients, bar/bat mitz-
vah students — have
been touched and
strengthened by his
presence for 50 years,"
Shalom Ralph says B'nai Moshe
Rabbi Elliot Pachter.
Born in Poland and raised in that
country and in Russia, Ralph left
Europe after World War I. First he went
to Palestine, then to Philadelphia and
finally to Detroit. Although he won't
reveal his age, he is old enough to have
won a gymnastics award in Palestine in
1924.
When he first came to Detroit, Ralph
owned and operated his own confec-
tionery store. But some say his real voca-
tion began when he became sexton at
B'nai Moshe, a paying job he describes
as being a "jack of all trades."
Ralph has served at each of the syna-
gogue's three locations, working with
four rabbis and countless others. He
retired in 1994, but now as an unpaid
volunteer, he continues in many of the
tasks he has taken on for much of his
life.
In addition to his devotion to B'nai
Moshe, Ralph has been involved with
B'nai B'rith, Mizrachi, Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah and the Lubavitch organiza-
tion, to name just a few= He contributes
to yeshivas, hospitals, charities and other
worthwhile organizations. He also sends
money to Israel for dowries.
"I grew up hearing and seeing mitz-
vahs," he explains. "Now I practice
mitzvahs."
In the words of Rabbi Avie Shapiro at
Jewish Home and Aging Services'
Fleischman Residence, Ralph has
"devoted his life to Jewish education and
Jewish life."
"There are no challenges or difficul-
ties when you believe in your cause and
focus on your goal," Ralph says. "If you
do nothing, you fade away. I don't want
to fade away"
Irene Rodman
It's hard to catch up with Irene
Rodman.
At 92 years of age, the Southfield res-
ident has scaled back somewhat on her
65-plus years of volunteer efforts. But
she still keeps to a regular schedule of
meetings, community and religious
events, getting there in a new car she
drives herself
"Anything to help humanity, I was
there," she says in describing her life so
far.
Her friends in the Cooperative
Council of Jewish Women's
Organizations (CCJWO) of
Metropolitan Detroit call Rodman an
extraordinary woman."
"When others noted that a
woman of her age and stamina was
dedicated to serving the community,
they were encouraged by her to help
and participate as well," they wrote
in nominating Rodman for "Eight
Over Eighty" honors.
"Few of us have
seen a woman of 92
years of age so vibrant
and energetic and
whom we would all
like to emulate."
Rodman was born
in Ukraine and arrived
Irene Rodman
in Detroit in the early
1920s. She remembers
her parents as very generous in giving
donations, but volunteering time was "a
personal initiative of my own."
"I have a compassion for humanity
and a compassion for alleviating the
needs of people," she says.
Among those who began the
Primrose Benevolent Club in 1931,
Rodman almost single-handedly led the
group's fund-raising efforts to help those
in need and served several times as presi-
dent. She has also headed the CCJWO,
and continues to work with the women's
annual Passover and Chanuka lun-
cheons.
Rodman's countless other affiliations
include B'nai B'rith Women, Hadassah,
Adat Shalom Synagogue Sisterhood,
Jewish Women International and the
Anti-Defamation League. One of the
first groups of volunteers at Head Start
and Penrickton School for the Blind, she
currently serves as program chairperson
for Chazakah, the senior group at Adat
Shalom.
Her many friends say Rodman is a
woman of "gentle demeanor, who greets
everyone with a smile and a cheerful
countenance."
Rodman feels strongly that volunteer-
ing makes for a fuller life.
"I do not think I would be the per-
son I am now if I was not involved with
people and volunteering," she says.
Betty Silv arb
Betty Silverfarb's generosity is made up
of equal parts of com-
passion and commit-
ment. And it applies to
generosity of spirit, as
well as pocketbook
"So long as I'm here
and able, I'm going to
give to others. I'm
happy helping others," Betty Silverfarb
she says.
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