Lifelines

Classes bring knowledge and socialization to Fleischman and Hechtman residents.

E

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Copy Editor

very Friday night, Eddie Schwartz's
mother would save the gribinez (crispy
rendered fat) from the chicken.
"There were four of us children,"
Schwartz says, "and how much gribinez do you get
from one chicken? What fights we had!"
Eddie, nearly 84, and his wife, Betty, 81, join
about a dozen senior citizens every Sunday after-
noon for a six-week class, "Telling Your Story." The
class is held in the multipurpose room of the
Fleischman Residence-Blumberg Plaza in West
Bloomfield.
It's one of three offered by the Jewish Home and
Aging Services and the Agency for Jewish
Education in a locally based program called
"Jacob's Ladder." The program's funding comes
from an anonymous donor.
In "Telling Your Story," facilitators Lisa Soble
Siegmann and Gail Greenberg of the AJE's Jewish
Experiences For Families use different cues each
v,reek to help participants remember and articulate
their experiences. On Nov. 11, the fourth class ses-
sion, they discussed recipes, favorite foods, who
they were named after and, a perennial favorite for
all ages, "How I Met My Spouse."
"I passed her every day as she was going to the
grocery store," says Joe Goren, 90. "Finally, I
talked to her."
Goren and his late wife, Henrietta — "the love
of my life" — almost broke up for good after he
asked her on a "straw ride" and she failed to show
up.
"I called her when we got back — no answer," he
remembers. "For two weeks, I called her. Finally, I
reached her. She told me her people had arranged
to go on vacation, and they couldn't leave her
home alone.
"I was mad — no one does that to Joe Goren. I
didn't see or talk to her for a year," he says.
Harry Keller, 88, married a woman he wasn't
even supposed to date. An enlisted man during the
Second World War, he learned from a buddy about
a pretty Jewish nurse. Although nurses could only
fraternize with officers, Keller persuaded the Jewish
chaplain to introduce the two.
"My mother was from Ohio and my father was
from New York," says the couple's daughter, Joyce
Keller, who attends each session as her father's
learning partner.
Joyce Keller, executive director of the Jewish
Agency for Residential Care (JARC), says her
mother's family was suspicious of the tall, hand-
some Easterner. "New Yorkers had a reputation
for marrying innocent girls from the Midwest
when they already had wives and families at
home," she says.

Above: Joe Goren, 90, tells
the class how he met his late
wife, Henrietta, as learning
partner David Zhuo of
West Bloomfield and classmate
Gertrude Weintraub, 91,
listen.

Left: Harry Keller, 88, with
daughter Joyce Keller, his
learning partner in the
course "Telling Your Story"

And Eddie Schwartz still gloats about the way he
stole Betty out from under the nose of her
boyfriend, a musician, who had to work Saturday -
nights.
The "Jacob's Ladder" program was developed by
Carol Rosenberg, associate director of the
Fleischman Residence. Rosenberg, a winner of the
Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Award in
1992 for outstanding Jewish communal service,
feels a cumulative curriculum, running through
several weeks, has many benefits.
"In addition to learning a subject or a skill, it
builds self-esteem and stimulates socialization," she
says.
Although the Jewish community offers classes
open to seniors at other sites, residents at

Fleischman and Hechtman frequently have no way
of getting to these sites, Rosenberg points out. And
the fact that participants come to the classes of
their own accord attests to their popularity.
In addition to "Telling Your Story," this fall's
courses have been "Armchair Travelogue," with
instructor Rabbi David Nelson of Congregation
Beth Shalom and 'A Sample of Jewish Arts, Music
and Culture." taught by Sherri Roberts, artist and
proprietor of Galil Threadworks in Toledo.
Although the fall semester ends Dec. 2, another
set of courses is planned for early next year, with a
graduation slated for April 7.
"Using your brain adds to the quality of life,"
says teacher Gail Greenberg. "You can sit — or you
can have all these things going on."

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11/30

2001

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