A Life Not
Forgotten

Synagogue and church mourn
homeless man they fed and befriended.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Special to the Jewish News

hen Bruce Stearn, a home-
less Detroiter, died at age
56, it was not at first appar-
ent to the funeral home who, if any-
one, would want to attend his Dec. 2
burial.
Because of mental and emotional
disabilities, Stearn had lived in board-
ing houses and temporary apartments
for as long as his friends could
remember. He had no car and no job;
he walked with a lurching gait and
spoke audibly to no one in particular.
Otto Dube, a director at the Ira
Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, set
about planning a simple funeral for
Stearn after he received a call from an
assistant to Troy attorney Alan May,
the court-appointed guardian and
conservator (legal and fiscal guardian)
for the native Detroiter.
After receiv-
ing the call
about Stearn's
death, Dube
first notified Ralph Zuckman, execu-
tive director of Birmingham's Clover
Hill Park Cemetery, who quickly
agreed to donate a burial plot. Then
Dube called Rabbi Joseph Krakoff at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, asking
if he'd contribute his time to officiate
at the graveside service.
"Of course, he said yes. Then he
asked for the name of the deceased,"
Dube said.
Even over the phone, Dube recog-
nized the sorrow in Rabbi Krakoff's
voice when he heard Stearn's name.

COVER STORY

Then he heard "a commotion" from
the Shaarey Zedek staff and syna-
gogue members in the rabbi's office.
"It turns out that this man, who had
been abandoned by his own family as
a child, had a lot of extended family
that he didn't realize," Dube said.

Across Religious Lines

Stearn's extended family was unusually
ecumenical.
Every week, he would take two
buses from Detroit to Shaarey Zedek
to attend 7:15 a.m. minyan (prayer+,
service) at the Southfield synagogue.
Later in the day, he was an usher and
men's club member at a Detroit
Catholic church, St. Gregory the
Great, at Dexter and Chalfonte.
"Bruce would go to the Shaarey
Zedek minyan and have breakfast; go
to St. Gregory's and have dinner," said
his friend Martin Deutch of West
Bloomfield.
"He had a remarkable ability to
survive. He walked around down-
town Detroit, and no one ever both-
ered him."
Leonard Gutman, Shaarey Zedek
ritual director, said Stearn would put
on a tallit and pray with the other
"minyanaires." Mostly older men,
they treated him with respect, even
as they recognized his differences.
"He knew everybody's name and
said 'thank you' to everyone, "
Gutman said.
Stearn always stayed for breakfast,
where he mingled freely with the other
worshippers. He had an encyclopedic
knowledge of automobiles, knowledge
that he was anxious to share.
"From their interactions with him,

A LIFE NOT FORGOTTEN on page 16

2/17

2005

15

