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Volunteers Hadas Corey, 14,

and her mother, Lisa, of

Birmingham with Ruth Farber

of West Bloomfield

High

Teen joins volunteers in helping seniors visit gravesides of loved ones.

Robert A. Sklar
Editor

adas Corey, 14, feels
blessed to have such a
wonderful family and is
eager to give back.
Helping seniors visit the graves
of their loved ones is among her
favorite mitzvah moments, and
she has had plenty of those
through her work with Volunteer
Impact.
"Helping is such a nice feel-
ing," said Hadas, a Birmingham
Seaholm High School sopho-
more. "I'm so fortunate —
instead of taking life for granted,
I've chosen to give back to sen-
iors in a very special way."
Hadas gives back through
Kever Avot, an annual communal
event of Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield and Ira Kaufman
Chapel in Southfield. The event
allows seniors without the means
or ability to get to the cemetery
to recite Kaddish at the grave-
sides of family and friends dur-
ing the High Holiday season. Just
finding the graves can be a chore.
This year, 100 Temple Israel
volunteers, including youths like
Hadas, assisted 85 Jewish seniors
picked up by bus at 10 assisted
care and independent living
complexes. More than 200 graves
at 12 cemeteries were visited.
In a dvar Torah as volunteer
chaperones gathered at Temple
Israel on Sept. 25, Rabbi Jennifer

H

September 29 2005

Tisdale said: "This fulfills a beau-
tiful tradition and mitzvah going
back a long, long time."
"I'm so proud of you:' said
Herbert Kaufman of Ira
Kaufman Chapel. "I'm sure God
also is proud of you because you
are doing God's work."
It's the human connections
that make Kever Avot work.
Hadas and her mother, Lisa
Corey, accompanied Ruth Farber,
79, of West Bloomfield as she vis-
ited the grave of her husband,
Edward, at Machpelah Cemetery
in Ferndale. They were married
17 years when Edward died in
1966 age 43. Lisa accompanied
Ruth last year as well; the two
have kept in touch since. Most of
Ruth's family lives out of state.
The Coreys took a few minutes
to visit the graves of Hadas' great
grandparents Sue and Harry
Rubenfire and her grandfather
Joseph Corey.
"She has a good heart," Ruth
said of Lisa. "This mitzvah is one
of the best things that you can
do; I can't tell you how much it
means to have a companion
when you visit the cemetery"
Ruth, a mother of four, loved
having Hadas along this year. It
means so much to me to have a
young person to talk to and
enjoy,' said Ruth, who lives at
Hechtman Apartments on the
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum
Jewish Community Campus in
West Bloomfield.

Ethyl Green of Southfield with Kever Avot volunteer Marcy Bell of

Wixom at the Machpelah grave of her husband, Ralph, who died in

1972 at age 59.

"She connects well and is fun
to be around:' Hadas said about
her new elderly friend.
"It's a great experience, meet-
ing all the seniors and hearing
their stories:' Lisa said. "Ruth is
such a bright, lovely lady.

"I get more out of this than
you might imagine."
All of which explains why Lisa
has worked seven of the eight
Kever Avots and Hadas five of
them — since she was 8 years
old. ❑

Kever Avot, Hebrew for
"Graves of Our Ancestors:' is
an 8-year-old effort of
Temple Israel's Robert
Sosnick Family Life Center.
Ira Kaufman Chapel spon-
sors it with assistance from
the temple's Hanley and
Susan Yorke Builder
Endowment Fund.
Fleischman Residence in
West Bloomfield donated
snacks and lunches. Breath of
Spring of Bloomfield
Township provided a flower
for each senior. The program
is open to the community.

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