A Cross-Generational Gift

Pairing with a senior on a cemetery visit is a profound experience.
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Hadas and Sam Corey assist Sarah Cwagenberg at Machpelah Cemetery.

Hadas Corey
Teen2Teen Writer

I

sn't it ironic that you could start your
day with the intention of giving, yet
by mid-morning, realize you've been
the one to receive the gift?
Kever Avot — a time to accompany
senior citizens as they visit the gravesites
of loved ones, say Kaddish and place ritual
stones — had that affect on me on Sept. 9.
On that gloomy Sunday morning weath-
er-wise, Temple Israel volunteers awoke
with the intention of helping others. After
gathering around bagels, juice and coffee
in the West Bloomfield synagogue, the 150
volunteers divided into groups to climb
aboard small buses.
This was the 10th year that Temple
Israel, together with the Southfield-based
Ira Kaufman Chapel, has arranged for the
mitzvah morning Kever Avot, Hebrew for
"Graves of Our Ancestors!" The program,
which each year usually takes place the
Sunday before Rosh Hashanah, assists
seniors who have no other means of trans-
portation.
This is the eighth year that my fam-
ily and I have participated in Kever Avot.
Each year, I find that I am apprehensive

when it comes time to pairing off with a
senior. I know that sounds horrible, but
for some reason, I feel as though I will
choke up and have nothing to say to this
stranger. And each time, I am surprised
and delighted to realize that I come away
from the cemetery with a warm feeling,
a new friend and a history lesson — one
that cannot be taught in the classroom.
Upon boarding Bus 3, my family was at
first disappointed to find that Ruth Farber,
the women who we had assisted in the
past, was not going to be joining us. But
instead, we met Sarah Cwagenberg and
Dorothy Weinberg.
My mother and brother, Lisa and Sam,
13, began talking to Sarah while Dorothy
and I got acquainted. Dorothy, 90, went to
Machpelah Cemetery in Ferndale to visit
her husband and son. Billy, only 15, tragi-
cally died from a brain tumor in 1963.
Just three years later, she lost her beloved
husband of 28 years, Sydney.
Dorothy is also the mother of Jerrold, a
prominent physician and a past president
of Temple Israel. Dorothy spent most of
her life in the Detroit area. She vividly
retold stories of the troubles her family
and her faced during the Great Depression
and for years after. Prejudice and injustice

Dorothy Weinberg takes part in Kever Avot.

played large roles in her Jewish life. Today,
she lives at Fleishman Residence in West
Bloomfield and enjoys spending time with
her grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren.
Soon after our journey to Machpelah
began, my mother and brother learned
Sarah's past. Sarah, a Holocaust survi-
vor, finds tremendous joy in her family.
She came to Machpelah from Hechtman
Apartments in West Bloomfield to visit the
graves of her husband, Jack, and son Allen.
She grew up in a small town in Poland
that bordered Germany. When she was just
16 years old, World War II began and the
Germans tore her family apart. Separated
from her brothers, sisters, mother and
father, she was sent to a work camp, only
to later discover the rest of her family had
been sent to crematoria.
From 1939-1943, Sarah worked in the
labor camp until liberation. She then went
to a displacement camp for another six
years before marrying her husband and
coming to Boston with her young son
in 1949. Soon after coming to America,
daughter Ann was born.
Spending a morning making a differ-
ence in these seniors' lives was extremely
gratifying. I hope to keep in touch with

them and I look forward to seeing them
again next year.
I couldn't finish this without mention-
ing the loss of one volunteer member
of Bus 3, Nate Shapiro, a former Jewish
Community Relations Council Activist
of the Year who died this year at age 87.
I know each one of us were saddened by
his absence, but thought of him with a
smile. I 1

Hadas Corey, 15, lives in Birmingham and is a

senior at Seaholm High School.

Kever Avot is organized by Temple
Israel's Robert Sosnick Family Life
Center. In 10 years, more than 800
seniors from local assisted-care or
independent-living facilities have
visited 11 local cemeteries. Seniors
are paired with volunteers, who
make it easier to find headstones of
family and friends and who provide
camaraderie. This year, 75 Jewish
seniors were hosted. The program is
open to the community regardless
of affiliation. Co-directors are Kari
Provizer and Marc Siegler.

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September 13 • 2007

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