LAST CHANC Cap*Gown metro Major itzvah YEARBOOK Brenda Betel pens her letter with Rabbi Moshe Druin. Shir Shalom extends its Project 613 to JSL residents/Holocaust survivors. Julie Edgar Special to the Jewish News Ad Deadline: May 9th Free Listing Deadline: May 9th. Graduation Time! The Jewish News will honor all Jewish students who are graduating this spring from Michigan high schools in our Cap & Gown Yearbook 2014. The Yearbook will be published in our May 22nd issue. You can now go online to submit your free listings: www.thejewishnews.com/contact/cap-and-gown/free- listing/ Or your paid ads: www.thejewishnews.comkontacticap-and-gown/. Place a listing in Cap & Gown by emailing jheadapohl@renmedia.us . and to place a paid ad, email kfarber@renmedia.us . 16 May 8 • 2014 A s their children, grandchil- dren and great-grandchil- dren proudly looked on, Henry Upfall and Brenda Betel each put quill to parchment to ink a Hebrew letter in an expanse of holy real estate — small marks that represent the whole of the Torah. "It's a mitzvah for me" said Upfall, 101, who has lived at Jewish Senior Life's Meer Apartments in West Bloomfield for nearly a year. Upfall is Metro Detroit's oldest living Holocaust survivor. Betel, 90, also has lived at Meer for a year, and she, too, survived the Nazis. JSL staffers chose them to partici- pate in the scribing session on April 28 — Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) — because they are survivors. In honor of its 25th anniversary, Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield is offering members an opportunity to participate in writing a sefer Torah to fulfill the 613th mitzvah. The Torah will become Shir Shalom's ninth. "We wanted to give back to the com- munity and honor survivors in our community," said Andre Douville, Shir Shalom's executive director. Carol Rosenberg, JSL Foundation director, said the morning was emo- tional for residents and staff. "Living among us are so many amazing stories" she said. "Like all of our residents, and so many com- munity members who participate in activities like this, our older adults are reminders that their legacy continues from generation to generation" Rochelle Upfal, JSL CEO, was hon- ored Shir Shalom brought its Torah writing project to JSL. "They chose to involve our older adults, and this is a great honor not only for them but also for Jewish Senior Life," she said, adding thanks to Patti Tauber, Meer administrator, Myriam Cohen, program coordinator, and Shir Shalom's leadership for arranging the event. Betel, who volunteers twice a week at the Holocaust Memorial Center Henry Upfall speaks Yiddish to Rabbi Druin. and the Berry Surgery Center, both in Farmington Hills, was born in Poland. She and her family escaped to Siberia. After her parents died, she was sent to a refugee camp for children in Cyprus. As a teenager, she immigrated to Palestine, where she met her future husband, Sam Betel. Betel was proud to take part, a "yid- dishe daughter," surrounded by her family. Before they inscribed their respec- tive letters — hers a "bet" for her Jewish name, Bracha, and Upfall's "aleph" (significance unknown) — the Torah scribe, Rabbi Moshe Druin, spoke to Meer residents about the 613th mitzvah. The parchment, he explained, is made from a kosher animal's skin, and the quill comes from a kosher bird, typically a turkey. Druin works for a Miami company called Sofer On Site, which provides sofer services around the country. The sections of parchment congregants have penned are certified by rabbis here and in Israel. Upfall spoke Yiddish to Druin, tell- ing him he learned mishnayot, sections of Talmud that are the first codifica- tions of Torah. Betel spoke to him in beautiful Hebrew. As Druin helped each position the quill over the parchment, he reminded them that Am Yisroel chai — the Jewish people lives. ❑ Julie Edgar is manager of public relations at Your People LLC in Southfield.