A group of Detroiters continue
a tradition of celebrating their
anniversaries together.

LISA BARSON

Special to the Jewish News

I

n an age when divorce seems as prevalent as
marriage itself, it's special to hear of a couple
celebrating their 60th (diamond wedding)
anniversary.
All the more remarkable is a group of 11 couples
celebrating 60 years of marriage.
This happy group has gotten together each of the
past 10 years to mark their collective anniversaries.
All but one of the couples went to school together
in Detroit; many of them , dated one another, and
they volunteered for Hadassah and other organiza-
tions together.
"We all knew each other by osmosis," explains
Millie Berg, a member of the group. Sylvia Harvith,
another member, says, "It makes it so nice that we
have known each other all our lives." And these
friends all had one more thing in common besides
their 1940 wedding dates — they all spent their
winters in Florida.
During the winter of 1990, Berg was at a party
with some of her friends in Pompano Beach,
where she and her husband Aaron travel each
year. So many of them were celebrating their 50th
wedding anniversaries that year, they decided to

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Nine of the couples,shown at the July 20 party are,
seated from left, Boyd and Ruth Carnick, Abe and
Sylvia Pearlman, and Max and Estelle
Standing from left are Sylvia Harvith, Max and
Sylvia Goldstein, Jack and Miriam Shenkman,
Howard and Faye Rice, Aaron and Millie Berg,
and Margarette and Lester Satovsky.
Behind Miriam Berg is Erwin Harvith.

combine the party into one big event.
Together, upon their return to Detroit, 19 cou-
ples rented a bus and traveled through their old
stomping grounds in Detroit. Afterwards, they
gathered — appropriately enough — at the 1940
Chop House downtown. They have been reunit-
ing every year ever since.
"In the past, we would hire musicians and it would
be very festive," says Berg. Harvith recalls, "For our
56th anniversary, Miriam and Jack Shenkman were late
— and they are never late. Next thing you know, they
walk into the restaurant, Miriam dressed as a bride,
complete with a vegetable bouquet and a lace curtain
veil, and Jack was dressed in a tuxedo!"
Nowadays, notes Berg, "things are a little qui-
eter, but just as enjoyable. I feel like I've known
these people my whole life. And if I didn't know

them, I knew of them through other friends."
It was Berg who spearheaded the joint celebrations
with her friend Harvith, currently of Lansing. The two
have been friends since the ninth grade, and it was
through Harvith that Berg met her husband.
This year, nine of the remaining 11 couples met at
Knollwood Country Club in West Bloomfield on July
20 to commemorate their 60th anniversaries. The
party, postponed once because of illnesses, was not for
family members. Only the happy couples attend the
group event.
"What is so exciting about this celebration is that we
have been friends for so many years," says Harvith.
"Although we've lost some of our group, it's wonderful
for us to get together to celebrate."
The 11 remaining couples are:
Millie and Aaron Berg, Ruth and Boyd Carnick,
Sylvia and Max Goldstein, Sylvia and Erwin Harvith,
Estelle and Max Miller, Sylvia and Abe Pearlman, Faye
and Howard Rice, Margarette and Lester Satovsky,
Miriam and Jack Shenkman, Dorothy and Frank
Tessler, and Melba and Sid Winer.
The original group also included Ruth and Chuck
Dodge, Florence and Boris Gaines, Ruth and Harold
Garber, Sarah and Ben Gurvitz, Marion and Irving
Kramer, Ethel and Jerry Marks, Dorothy and Jack
Milen, and Esther and Judd Morrison. 0

