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Mitzvah Day Reunites Lost Family

S

ESTHER
ALLWEISS
TSCHIRHART

Special to the
Jewish News

omething unexpected happened
when the Nathanson family of
West Bloomfield went to their
volunteer assignment on
Mitzvah Day.
They met a new cousin.
Gregg and Sheryl Nathanson, with
children Sara, 10, Andrew, 7, and Zoe,
3, were among the nearly 900 Jews who
joined this year's "Volunteer
Extravaganza" on Christmas Day spon-
sored by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Joining other families, the Nathansons
traveled to Pontiac to visit with residents
of a home for aged called Grovecrest

Supportive Care.
In one of the rooms, they were introduced to
Lillian Tennen, 74.
"Tennen — that's my mother's maiden
name," said Gregg Nathanson, an attorney in
Farmington Hills. They began to explore the
possibilities and -soon realized they were cousins
by marriage and that Tennen remembered his
mother.
Nathanson used his cell phone to reach his
vacationing parents Corinne and Bernie
Nathanson of West Bloomfield. His mother
grew excited because she had lost contact with
Tennen, who was married to her late first
cousin Herbert.
"Herbert's father was Gregg's grandfather's
brother," said Corinne Nathanson, making
Lillian Tennen her son's first cousin once
removed.
The memories were coming back for
Corinne: "My father,- Charles Tennen, and
Lillian's father-in-law, Joseph Tennen, owned a
bar together near Wayne State — the
Piccadilly."

`

As young married couples living in the same apartment
building on Chicago Boulevard in Detroit, Corinne said
they loved to play bridge together. Asked about it, Tennen
said, "Gregg's dad [Bernie] would swear only when he
lost."
But after Herbert's sudden death more than 20 years ago,
Lillian lost touch with his family. Bernie Nathanson said
he'd assumed she wasn't around anymore.
Not hardly. Lillian Tennen, a lively resident of Grovecrest
for the last five years (and among a handful of Jews at the
facility), may not play cards anymore, but she often helps
in the dining room. "It keeps me out of trouble," she said.
Tennen also likes to watch TV, do a lot of walking and
read a bit. She is visited by her daughter Julie Tennen-
Iwanski of Waterford and son Randy Tennen of Detroit.
And now, due to Mitzvah Day, she has even more family
than she thought.

Related story on Mitzvah Day: page 26

❑

udaism is sometimes described
as a legal system. Can you
name examples of Jewish prac-
tice which are legal terms?

— Goldfein

-auani2pni
Jo AEG atp qndcl!-N tuox uo 1!EAve
e E1.0‘. st 1DIRTQA aLp !laanuop p2a!
E sr QgETITE111 aropq pauals qpqnpai
alp
s! Jake_id so; papaau
uEAu!tu QT. Jo uatu 01 ata uanistry

notables

"Daily 'safety' reckonings, while per-
haps largely futile, are at the core of
the bizarre calm, the ability to impose
reason on the unreasonable, allowing
devastated human beings to go on
with -their everyday lives."

Sar K Eisen, an Israeli writer, in the
December issue of Hadassah magazine,
speaking on Israeli life in the story "The
Nation That Worries Together."

Yiddish Limericks

Your zaidehs* farshnoshket," mein

kind.***

The Nathanson family
of West Bloomfield,
clockwise from top,
Gregg, Sheryl, Andrew,
Zoe and Sara, pose with
their long-lost relative,
Lillian Tennen, center.

Shabbat Candlelighting

To miss it, you'd have to be blind****
It's pointless to bicker.
When I say he's shikker,*****
He's, glaib meer,****** three sheets to the
wind.

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

* grandfather
** drunk
*** my child
**** blind
***** drunk

****** believe me

"When I light Shabbos candles and cover my eyes, I feel as if I am covering all the troubles and
worries of the week. When I remove my hands and open my eyes, I see a bright light and I know
that everything will turn out for the best because it's all in God's hands."

— Shulamis Kagan, 17, Oak Park

Sponsored by Lubavitch
Women's Organization.
Ti, submit a candlelighting
message or to receive
complimentary candlesticks
and information on Shabbat
candlelighting, call Miriam
Amzalak of Oak Park at
(248) 967-5056 or e-mai•
amzalak@juno. corn

41

2002

[Editor's note: In the Dec. 20
Yiddish Limericks, the definition of
"Toches ahfen tish" was misprinted.
The correct definition is:
(literal) bottom on the table;
(idiomatic) put up or shut up.]

Yiddish-isms

Candlelighting

Candlelighting

Friday, Jan. 3, 4:54 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 10, 5:01 p.m.

Shabbat Ends

Shabbat Ends.

Saturday, Jan. 4, 6:01 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 11, 6:08 p.m.

kopdrayenish

Something that makes one's head spin
with its difficulty; something that
• confuses because of its noise.

Source: The Joys of Yiddish by Leo
Rosten (McGraw Hill).

it 3
2003

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