Ninety Years Young

Celebration pays tribute to a community matriarch.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

W

hen the guests at a May
23 celebration in honor of
Sarah Laker sang, "Happy
Birthday" to her, the voic-
es were 500 strong, but the wishes were
infinite.
"Family life and community were
always a staple with my parents," Dr.
Gerald Laker said of his mother and late
father, Harry Laker. It is not surprising
that, in turn, the community rallied to
pay tribute to Mrs. Laker of Beverly
Hills on her 90th birthday.
Mrs. Laker's birthday party on May
23 became a community event when
the 53rd annual Cantors Assembly con-
vention, meeting here, decided to col-
laborate with her family and shower her
with music, music, music.
Cantor Chaim Najman, president of
the New York-based Cantors Assembly
and clergy member of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, where the Lakers have
been longtime members, describes Mrs.
Laker and her late husband "as role
models for Jewish parenting and philan-
thropy for [their] children, grandchil-
dren, great-grandchildren and the entire
community."
To Dr. Laker, his mother's greatest
gift was instilling in her children the
importance of family. "Family was
always first," said Dr. Laker's wife,
Elaine.
Dr. Laker marveled that all his
friends referred to his parents as Bubbie
and Zayde.
Capable and determined — even
before there was a big, extended family
— Sarah Laker shared every aspect of
life with Harry. They began their mar-
riage with her pushing a stalled, rented
Model A Ford to her wedding-night
honeymoon at the Book-Cadillac Hotel
in Detroit.
"They always did things together,
said Dr. Laker. "Dad was a super sales-
man, and when he went to dinner on
business, Mother went with him. She
was quite supportive in all his endeavors.
She encouraged him."
Dr. Laker remembers one Passover,
the entire family joined his father at his
place of business, "bringing dinner to
him" so he could eat a [Passover] meal,
and then we stayed with him until it
was time to come home," he said.

Sarah Laker, seated, with her granddaughters Jolie Kaufman, Bonnie Winkler and
Andrea Laker Goodman.

Tzedaka was always a part of the
Laker household. Dr. Laker remembers a
time when "the only charity they could
afford to give was placing coins in the lit-
tle blue box on the Friday night table."
Throughout the years the Lakers have
had much community involvement.
They were instrumental in founding the
tree program at the Jewish National
Fund and the Wall of Faith at the
Holocaust Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield. There is a Jewish
Association for Residential Care group
home named for the Laker family, as
well as scholarship funds at both Shaarey
Zedek and Temple Israel. They were
invovIed with the Pinsker Progressive
Aid Society and the Zionist
Organization of America. Mrs. Laker's
membership includes Women's Division
of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit.
Dr. Laker said, even now, "The
mothering never stops." He tells of a
recent visit to Sarah Laker's apartment.
She was resting, but quietly said some-
thing he did not hear. So we moved
closer to ask what was wrong, and in her
typical, never-ending, motherly manner,
she whispered to her grown son, "Get a
haircut!"
The closeness, the involvement of the
family, is a legacy passed down to the
next generations of Lakers as well.
Granddaughter Bonnie Winkler said,
"What she instilled in my father has
been instilled in me." Winkler says the
most important thing she received from

.

her grandmother was "the good, solid
foundation of what it means to be a
Jewish family and to give-to and enjoy
your family"
Winkler said watching her grand-
mother has influenced her relationship
with her own children. "My father and
uncles are so devoted to their mother.
She is the other woman in their lives."
Winkler called Mrs. Laker's birthday
party, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
in Dearborn, a very lively, very loving
musical evening and "the perfect tribute
to my grandmother."
She recalled, "One of my fondest
memories is my grandfather singing. He
loved Jewish music. It was something
my grandparents had together." The
evening included local youth musicians
and a presentation titled, "Hazzanim in
Love," featuring husband-and-wife
members of the Cantors Assembly per-
forming music that included Broadway
show tunes, operettas and songs in
Yiddish, a favorite of Mrs. Laker.
Sarah Laker is also mother to Irving
and Beverly Laker, Martin and Renee
Laker, and has eight grandchildren and
nine great-grandchildren.
"She has something magic going on,"
said Elaine Laker of her mother-in-law.
"Even though she had no formal educa-
tion, she has a great deal of wisdom.
People seek out her advice. As I get
older, I appreciate and respect her more.
She is really awesome.
"She is 90 years young, and she is
gorgeous."

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