Community

Spirituality

Sonia Glaser leads the Hechtman
Apartments' oneg Shabbat committee.

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SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
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he abundance of wooden
benches and flowering trees
outside the Hechtman
Jewish Apartments in West
Bloomfield might give the appearance
that only leisure activities go on within
its walls.
But Sonia Glaser describes another
scenario. "In spite of the problems most
of the residents have, they are intelligent
and are looking to learn new things,
and they are doers," says this resident of
the Jewish Apartments and Services
facility. While many programs are
offered to the residents, she says they
always seek additional opportunities to
learn and exercise their minds.
"Even though we have all these
weekly activities, when I came here
eight years ago, there was no oneg
Shabbat program," Glaser explains.
"The first Friday night I was here I
came downstairs, we lit the candles and
had Shabbat dinner. A group of people
were talking about their aches and
pains."

She remembers Friday night as the
highlight of the week when she was
growing up. "We would debate and
talk. It was lively and informative," she
says.
Glaser was determined to bring some
of that feeling to her present life.
"The next Friday night, I came
down with some music — Itzhak
Perlman playing klezmer music.
Everyone lit up and wanted me to con-
tinue the next week" -
Shabbat has stayed livelier, thanks to
the Hechtman Apartments-JAS
Cultural Committee, a group of 11 resi-
dents directed by Glaser. The program
is open to the 200 residents of the
Hechtman I and Hechtman II apart-
ments on Friday evenings. In addition
to Glaser, the committee includes
Roselyn Bassin, Helen Besdin, Elsie
Bogorad, Naomi Floch, Edith
Goodman, Ruth Kovan, Evelyn
Landau, Esther Pessin, Sonia Saslove,
Eileen Silverman, Bertha Sonshine and
Mildred Weiss.
"Everyone on the committee is very
creative and intelligent," says Glaser.
"We have a lot of retired professionals,

teachers and musicians, inc u• ing
Evelyn Landau, a former speech teacher,
and Eileen. Silverman, who makes up
rhyming songs." Each oneg starts with
Shabbat music pre-taped by retired
piano teacher Bassin and Bogorad.

Posting It

The weekly program is advertised to
residents with poster-like colored flyers
drawn by Besdin, a retired art teacher.
At committee meetings, held every
two or three weeks, the women brain-
storm and check the papers for current
cultural and social issues. If they discov-
er a good speaker in town, such as
when retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Shlomo
Gazit was here last March, they recruit
him.
With a holiday coming up, the
theme of the week is easy. Naomi Floch
often does the holiday planning. She is
the one the women refer to as their
"scholar in residence."
"She is our teacher and she was the
first principal of Hillel Day School (of
Metropolitan Detroit)," says Glaser
with pride. "She makes all the plans for
the Jewish holidays, celebrating them to

the fullest, with their history and their
meaning. If there is a holiday, whether
religious or national — we celebrate it."
On Yom HaShoah, a Holocaust sur-
vivor spoke. For Purim, Floch recruited
other residents to parade in homemade
holiday costumes, some of the women
in mustaches and beards. The commit-
tee members agree that Goodman made
a beautiful Queen Esther.
Speakers have run the gamut, from
various politicians to psychologist Jackie
Regan to regular guest Cantor Samuel
Greenbaum of Congregation Beth
Shalom.
The May 26 speaker was Don
Cohen, Michigan regional director of
the Anti-Defamation League. He and
his family first joined the group for
Shabbat dinner. His young daughters
helped lead the Shabbat singing before
their father spoke.
A recent talk about the Internet ran
overtime with questions by the group.
"We're interested in everything," Glaser
says. "We even had a speaker from the
teachers' union talk about school
vouchers.
"If we have no guest speaker, we pre-
sent on our own," she says. "Helen
[Besdin] and Ruth [Kovan] are very
funny and present on Jewish humor
and do book reviews." Besdin also has
spoken to the group on Jewish ceremo-
nial art.

A Real Need

With many of the residents unable to
get out on a regular basis, Glaser
explains that it is vital to bring learning
and stimulating discussions to them:
"They need this and they want it."
Penny Feldman, administrator of
Hechtman, agrees. "This is one of our
weekly programs that really guarantees a(1
full house of 50 or 60," she says.
The program that started out with
the basics has branched into what
Glaser calls "a seminar of learning."
Adds Bertha Sonshine, president of
Hechtman's resident council, "When we
started out, this was a religious pro-
gram; now it's cultural."
Although the program brings fun
to the residents, Floch says, "If they
don't go away from the oneg
Shabbat having gained something, a
large part of the purpose is lost."
Glaser adds, "We want to leave them
stimulated and inspired. We want to
make this the highlight of their
week."

