Spirituality
Remembering
Sukkot Past
I. Rabbi Dovid Potter explains the
rituals- of Sukkot at the Fleischman
sukkah party
2. Norman Goldin hands lulav and
etrog to Lucille Ittigson in the
Fleischman sukkah. Both are resi-
dents of the Fountains at Franklin.
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer
s
eniors from seven area facilities
celebrated the holiday of
Sukkot with friends, neighbors
and family.
3. Ted and Laura Revelle Schwartz
of Farmington Hills provide the
musical background at the Menorah
House barbecue.
Memories
At the Fleischman Residence/Blumberg
Plaza in West Bloomfield, old and new
friends met at a program described by
Sheyna Wexelberg-Clouser, director of
outreach for Jewish Home and Aging
Services' Jewish Community
Chaplaincy Program, as "a time to
reminisce, enjoy and share memories of
the sukkah (booth)."
The afternoon of Oct. 18 at the
Fleischman sukkah brought together
seniors' groups from the Fountains at
Franklin, the Trowbridge, the
Heatherwood and the Heritage, all of
Southfield, and the Regency Street of
West Bloomfield. "This is the beauty
of what the chaplaincy program is
about," Wexelberg-Clouser says.
The program was overseen by Rabbi
Dovid Polter, who with fellow JHAS
chaplain Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper
make 75 visits to Jewish seniors in area
nursing facilities and assisted-living
centers each month.
"Working with the chaplaincy, - we
like to work with the senses,"
Wexelberg-Clouser says, referring to
the scents and sights of the sukkah.
"What better place is there to sit and
talk about memories of when they
were young.
"
Telling A Story
Sukkot Cookout
At the fifth annual Sukkot barbecue at
the Menorah House in Southfield, 75
residents and their families celebrated
at a party in the nursing-care facility's
sukkah.
The group enjoyed the music of vio-
linist Ted Schwartz and his pianist-wife
Laura Revelle Schwartz, who is a music
teacher and nursing-home music thera-
pist.
"They played nice, quiet, classical-
type music," says Dennis Hayes,
Menorah House administrator. "They
played Yiddish songs — dinner
music."
Sharing chicken, salmon, salad and
peach cobbler, Hayes says the Oct. 17
event received rave reviews from resi-
dents.
"It's nice to see them enjoy them-
selves and have a party with their fami-
lies," Hayes says. "Most of them can't
get out much. This was a chance for
them to entertain in their own home."
A pilot program took off with speed as
seventh-graders from Congregation
Beth Shalom's religious school met
with residents of the Coville
Apartments in Southfield.
The Oct. 18 program in the syna-
gogue's sukkah was the second of 10
visits between the two groups in the
intergenerational program.
Overseen by Shirley Jarcaig, pro-
gram coordinator the Jewish Home
and Aging Services' Jewish Community
Chaplaincy Program, and Shoshana
Ben Ozer, Beth Shalom's religious
school director, the curriculum is dif-
ferent at each visit. This Sukkot-
themed afternoon revolved around stu-
dents interviewing the residents of the
Southfield apartment complex about
their holiday memories, highlighted by
the blowing of the shofar.
The project was a combined effort
of Beth Shalom, Coville Apartments
and the JHAS Chaplaincy program.
"The hope is for this program to be
used as a model for other afternoon
schools," says Shevna Wexelberg-
Clouser, director of outreach for the
JHAS Chaplaincy Program. 'Jr was
very successful." 7_
4. Lana Sherman of Oak Park helps
her son, Aaron, 3, sing the alphabet
to his great-grandmother Ethyl
Glickstein of Menorah House.
5. Sidney Riskin, Menorah House
resident and council president, is vis-
ited by his daughters Marleen
He fan of Oak Park and Elayne
Urnovitz of Huntington Woods.
With them, at back, is Monorah
House Rabbi Herschel Klainberg.
6 In the Fleischman sukkah, Sylvia
Weinstock of Hechtman I Apartments
in West Bloomfield, center, holds the
lulav and etrog.
7. At Menorah House, Rebecca Kass,
center, shares a meal with her chil-
dren Steve Kass of Huntington Woods
and Charna Yellen of Southfield.