For Openers

Queenie: A Love Story

ost mornings when Esther Winer leaves for work, she takes her
files, her purse, her keys — and her dog.
Winer, community outreach coordinator for Jewish
Apartments and Services in West Bloomfield, shares her after-
office hours with a 7-year-old female mixed breed who lives, by day, in a recep-
tion office at the Lillian and Samuel Hechtman Jewish Apartments.
Queenie, named by Hechtman II resident Ella Baker, came to the apartments
after Winer discovered her abandoned on a Madison Heights road in June
2000. The local animal shelter would care for the malnourished, sickly dog for
only three days. Then they would put her to sleep.
That knowledge set Winer on a mission.
"The next morning, Esther came to work and started trying to convince us to
let the dog live at Hechtman," says Penny Feldman, Hechtman administrator.
"I called Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, our executive director, and asked her if
she'd be interested in Hechtman getting a mascot," Feldman says.
Goldsmith Kamin agreed, but only under the condition that an alternate
home was secured in case Winer's plan didn't work out. "So Esther and I offered
to take joint custody," Feldman says.
As it happened, Queenie fit right in with the Hechtman residents and staff.
She stays at the residence every weekday, going home with Winer on weeknights
and with Feldman on weekends.
Not only is Queenie's life enriched by her new surroundings, but her 220
owners also have benefited greatly from her presence.
"When I moved here almost three years ago, it was the first time in my life I
didn't have a dog," says Baker. "And, here comes Queenie. At first, she wouldn't

Hechtman
Administrator Penny
Feldman, JAS
Community Outreach
Coordinator Esther
Winer and Geriatric
Social Worker Sandy
Smith in the reception
area of Hechtman
Apartments.

have anything to do with me. She didn't want anyone
but Penny or Esther to touch her."
But, with time, Baker won the affection of the dog.
"Ella walks Queenie winter, spring, summer and fall," Winer says.
The friendly, sweet-faced dog, whose food and veterinary care are provided by
Hechtman, accompanies Winer to administration meetings and to other Jewish
Apartment events.
"We're lucky to have her," Feldman says. "Wheelchairs and walkers don't
bother her. We take her in the lobby and she walks around or sits and lets resi-
dents pet her. She's so even-tempered, she keeps our blood pressure down."
Baker says, "She came to us as an atrocity of the animal world. She was
thrown out of a car. The administration made a very compassionate effort to
bring the dog back to life. This is a love story. We love Queenie. And the
`whipped cream on the cake' is that Queenie loves it here, too. I think she's
happy to be a Jewish dog." ❑

— Shelli Liebman Dorfman, staff writer

Yiddish Limericks

By aeldfein

W

hich U.S. president has a descendant
who is studying for the rabbinate?

A shadchen* once told a girl, "Leah,
Your nadan's** not some panacea.
He may be a yold,***
But at forty years old.
You're aichet**** no grayceh metziah."*****

Selected nc
DetroitJe+sh News.::
vvvvw.detroitjevvishnew s.co

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

•-ed 'al op trich&
ur a2aHoD feDrurcicreN isruoraorwsuopaN
a y lE 2urApnas sr ‘Ja2riaaog Engsof ‘uospriu.r2
-Tear2 Sc lpAS0011 01.1Epa arm-aid :Jarnstry

matchmaker
** dowry
*** dope; hick
**** also
***** big bargain

The Walk: Stro
downtown
Birmingham reinforces " e ' differences
between the sexes.

GRAM:JEN .moildel

12A[27', WHO WERE

THE SEASONS
CREATE- 127

1

Wat- HONE, TOPA I5M OFTEN
REFERS To THE PASSING OF THE
SEASONS A5 A METAPHOR FOR
MANS TRIA)65 5UCi4
AS THE LIFE C8CCE,
CHAMGE, AtUD THE
MAGNI FICENCE
OF
NATURE
2

vvww.detroitjevvishnews.com/opinion

iNrERESTW 6 „. 80U MG 80u12
/AND WIAT
/OA OUT,
,NAPPENS
METAPHOZICAUU cv;.,

&HEN -OU SPEAKING
GET WA
Or COME
MORE PIETA-
\\ PNOR 17-IAtO
.80t) COOL-17
/KZ,
ASK FoR

01(

7.111111 1

10.

ail MO

v

Quotables

"You only have to listen to what Mr. Kraft said
when he accepted the Super Bowl trophy to
understand what matters to him — faith, family
and country."
-- Richardjoel, president and international director of

Hillek The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life,' about
Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England
Patriots, as quoted by the Jewish Advocate Boston. wvo
0 A

2/8
2002

