Insight

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When •

Healing Dolls

From the Jewish News pages this week
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago.

1992
The Michigan Miracle Mission, to
date the largest group tour to Israel
in the state, is now sponsored by the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit.

Federation Women's Department mitzvah project
sends volunteers for Hadassah's Doll Project.

SHARON LUCKERMAN

StaffWriter

ommy's sick. How do you help her 5-year-
old express his fears?
A 4-year-old is having chemotherapy
treatments. How does she tell her doctor or
her social worker what she experiences when words don't
come?
For more than five years, the Doll Project sponsored by
Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah, has assembled and
distributed more than 23,000 dolls to children in Detroit-
area and Israeli hospitals.
The fabric dolls dressed in colorful hospital gowns help
to comfort children. They also are used by
young patients to-show doctors where they hurt
or by doctors to explain treatment procedures to
children.
"I get thankful calls and letters all the time
from parents of children who received a doll,"
says Eleanor Smith of West Bloomfield, founder
of the Doll Project and co-director with Barbara
Charlip of Southfield.
Assisting with the Hadassah Doll Project on
May 9 were helpers from TOV (Tikkun Olam
Volunteers), a program of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's Women's Campaign
and Education Department. Together, the S5
volunteers made more than 140 dolls.
"The patients can draw faces, incisions — or
whatever helps them to communicate how
they're feeling," said Barbara Horowitz of West
Bloomfield, who helped make the dolls. "It's
very important for kids to express their feelings
non-verbally, especially those who have been in
shock or in trauma."
"We never know how this project is going to
affect people," adds Smith.
She told of a moving experience she had while
getting a mortgage. When the mortgage coun-
selor asked what she did, Smith mentioned the
Doll Project. The woman froze, then said that
her son had received one of the dolls before he
died at age 18 months. The mother's two older
sons still keep the doll on their dresser to remind
them of their sibling, she told Smith.
The Doll Project was started with $2,500 in
seed money from Blue Cross-Blue Shield, but is
now totally run with donations from the com-
munity — which includes money and such
items as sewing machines and labels. Smith esti-
mates that each doll costs about $2.50 to make.
People of all ages and abilities participate in

Iff

this project, Smith says. Jobs include stuffing, dressing or
sewing the dollars together. Young people preparing fora
bat or bar mitzvah have made the dolls for mitzvah credit.
Hadassah received a Michigan Week 2001 Volunteer
Leadership Award for the Doll Project.

1982
Detroiter Benard L Maas p l ed
$ 250, 00 to'assure consta x©
Michigan dormitory at Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology in Israel.
Detroiter Daniel Lee Pernick is
ordained a rabbi at the Plum Street
Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio,

Hadassah House in West Bloomfield holds doll-niak-
ing workshops every Thursday, between 9 a.m. and
noon. Groups may make arrangements to participate
at other times. For information, call Greater Detroit
Chapter of Hadassah, (248) 683-5030. To learn more
about TOV projects, call Melissa Bronstein at
Federation, (248) 642-4260.

Ce,

1972
'. h e
erica,
will-receive a piano as a contribu-
tion from the Music Study Club of
Detroit for its newly formed Music
Department.
Detroiters Leonard Simons and
Philip Slomovitz have been re-elect-
ed to the executive'council of the
American Jewish Historical Society.

1962
Beth Aaron Congregation an
United Hebrew Schools in Detroit
renewed an affiliation relationship
for a second 10-year term.
Longest-running U.S. chess
champion Samuel Reshevsky will
play 100 opponents simultaneously
in a tourney sponsored by the
Men's Club of Beth 'Yehudah
Schools at the Jewish Community
Center in Detroit.

Clockwise from top left:

Ethel Droz of Novi prepares
a hospital gown for a doll
at Hadassah House.

Lydia Cutler (foreground)
and Candia Riollano, both
ofWest Bloomfield, sew ou tfits
for the dolls on machines
donated to the project.

Fran Mirsky ofWest Bloomfield
cuts patterns for the dolls,
which are destined for
children in the Detroit
area and Israel.

The national commander of the
Jewish Welfare Veterns of the USA,
Paul Ginsberg will be a guest at the
Convention of Jewish War
Veterans, Department of Michigan
this Memorial Day weekend.

The Union of American Hebrew
Congregations announces a retire-
ment pension plan for rabbis.
A large collection of books in
Hebrew, English and Yiddish is
aquired by the Congregation
Shaarey Zedek library in Detroit.

— Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
CA Archivist,
Rabbi Leo M Franklin Archives
Temple Beth El

5/24
2002

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