metro

Jewish Memories

Former Detroiter Yoel Finkelman
now curates Judaica at the
National Library of Israel.

At work: Cheryl Mcllhon of Bloomfield Hills, Teresa Bowers of Farmington, Dianne

Kern (also an instructor) of Northville, instructor Terrye Mock, and Toby Faber and
Lorraine Applebaum, both of West Bloomfield.

Increasing Movement

Ballet class helps Parkinson's sufferers.

Barbara Lewis

Contributing Writer

T

Yoel Finkelman at the National Library of Israel

T

o fulfill their mission, libraries
have had to change to adapt
to the digital age. In the past,
libraries provided the public a service
by storing and preserving books for
patrons' visits. Now libraries also need
to help make information available to
people in the most convenient formats.
These new tasks demand librarians who
master a new and changing set of skills.
The National Library of Israel
recently hired former Detroiter Yoel
Finkelman as curator of the library's
vast collection of Judaic materials.
Listing his responsibilities, Finkelman
defines the traditional tasks of a library:
"By law, the National Library of Israel is
responsible both for creating as compre-
hensive a collection of Jewish books and
print material as possible:'
So the curator works at preserving
the current collection, setting policy for
acquiring newly published works and for
acquiring old works of continuing value.
But the library also has new tasks,
actively projecting the collections to the
general public. In Finkelman's words, it
seeks to "make that material as acces-
sible as possible"
New tasks include digitizing the
library's treasures, cooperating with
other collectors to digitize their trea-
sures and making those digital files
available. Curators find ways to use
electronic formats to put even fragile
materials on mass display. Library
administrators, including curators, host
cultural events to bring the library's
mission to the public.
Finkelman sees a perennial Jewish
theme in his new post.
"There are few things that Judaism
values more than memory, and it is a
privilege to be charged with the task
of gathering the raw materials out of
which that memory can be constructed,

24 October 2 • 2014

JN

whether by a scholar poring over a
manuscript, a rabbi looking for prec-
edent for a legal decision or someone
from the wider population trying to
track down the time that the newspaper
published an article about their grand-
mother," he said.
Before assuming his post as
curator, Finkelman taught at the
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program
in Contemporary Jewry and in the
Israel Experience program for for-
eign students at Bar-Ilan University.
He served in the administration and
taught Talmud and Jewish Thought at
Midreshet Lindenbaum, a program for
post-high school women in Jerusalem.
He also served as director of projects
at the ATID Foundation in Jerusalem,
a program for Jewish educators. He
worked as managing editor of the
journal of the Association for the
Social Scientific Study of Judaism,
Contemporary Jewry. And he is the
author of many articles on contempo-
rary Judaism and one book, Strictly
Kosher Reading.
Finkelman earned a doctorate in
Jewish Thought at Hebrew University,
writing on religion and public life
in the works of major 20th-century
American Jewish thinkers; he earned
his undergraduate and master's degrees
at Yeshiva University in New York.
After graduating high school at
Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, Finkelman
studied at Shaalvim in Israel and served
as a combat soldier in the armored
divisions of the Israel Defense Forces.
He had earlier attended Yeshiva Beth
Yehuda.
Yoel Finkelman lives in Beit
Shemesh, Israel, with his wife and
their five children. His parents, Louis
"Eliezer" and Marilyn Finkelman,
reside in Southfield.

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welve years ago, Toby Faber was
diagnosed with breast cancer
and Parkinson's disease — on the
same day.
She overcame the cancer, but there's
no cure for Parkinson's, a chronic and
progressive movement disorder marked by
tremors, rigidity and difficulty maintaining
balance. On a bad day, says Faber of West
Bloomfield, walking can feel like trudging
through cement.
Movement is helpful for people with
Parkinson's, who number 1 million in the
United States. That's why Faber eagerly
enrolled when she learned about a new class
for people with Parkinson's at Christina's
Adult Ballet & More in Farmington Hills.
The six-session program, called
Movingthru: Dance & Parkinson's, started
Sept. 15.
Instructor Terrye Mock follows the pattern
she uses in most of her ballet classes. She
starts with exercises, set to music, to warm
up the students' bodies; the Parkinson's stu-
dents do this while seated in chairs arranged
in a circle.
Then the students go to the barre for
standing stretches and exercises. Finally, they
do a series of short dances on the floor to a
variety of tunes, ranging from classical ballet
to swing and klezmer.
Mock, a former principal ballerina with
the Indiana Ballet Theatre, took special
training to teach students with Parkinson's.
The program was developed by the New
York-based Mark Morris Dance Company
and follows the idea that professional danc-
ers are movement experts. Dancers under-
stand balance and rhythm and how dance
increases awareness of the body and the
space around it — all skills helpful to those
with Parkinson's, Mock said.
Mock also has taught movement and
music at Friendship Circle and other pro-
grams for people with special needs.
Dianne Kern, an occupational therapist,
assists in the class.
Faber, 74, a member of Temple Shir
Shalom and NCJW had a long and varied
career before she fell ill. She was a speech

Instructor Terrye Mock is pleased with
Toby Faber's dance moves.

and language therapist, taught school for 14
years and worked in advertising sales.
Faber's Parkinson's didn't bother her much
until a few years ago. She traveled to Israel
and frequent visits with her daughter in
Seattle. Locally, she liked being active with
her son and his family, including grandsons
now 15, 12 and 9.
She knows she won't get better, but she
takes each day as it comes.
"Without exercise I feel stiff and rigid," she
said. She tries to walk three miles a day and
practices yoga with friends.
She continues to be startled that she can't
do what she used to.
"Sometimes I'll tell my foot to lift, and my
foot will say, 'Not today!" she sighed.
Faber said she always enjoyed dancing.
When she was young, she said, her parents
couldn't afford to give her dance lessons con-
sistently, but as a teen she enjoyed ballroom
dancing, and she dabbled in tap as an adult.
"The movement just makes you feel good:'
said Faber, who enjoys Mock's class because
it's happy and upbeat.
Christina's Adult Ballet & More, tucked
behind a parking lot on 13 Mile Road just
west of Orchard Lake, offers classes in a
variety of dance styles — ballet, Zumba,
hip-hop, samba, modern — for adults
only. Owner Christina Kimmuller, a former
principal dancer with a company in Brazil,
taught adult classes at other area dance
schools for more than 20 years before open-
ing her own studio last winter.
For details on the class or to register, call
Terrye Mock at (248) 505-3951.

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