FINAL DAYS 77 TH ANNIVERSARY SALE RUG CLEANING CARPET CLEANING 25 % OFF 3 ROOMS PICKUP & DELIVERY $ 77 Expires 04/17/16 Expires 04/17/16 Passover fundraiser includes sale of a book of witty, inspiring lessons and memories. Shelli Liebman Dorfman | Contributing Writer R some restrictions apply Expect the Best... Expect the Purple Truck! 1-800-HAGOPIAN (424-6742) OR Schedule your cleaning online at www.originalhagopian.com RUGS U CARPET U UPHOLSTERY U LEATHER U TILE & GROUT HAGOPIAN CLEANING SERVICES Oak Park | Birmingham | Novi | Utica | Ann Arbor Serving our customers for 77 years Kaddish For My Mother 2078380 uchie Weisberg’s mission to pro- vide shoes — and later, monetary gifts — for the Detroit Jewish community’s needy before Passover has grown to include proceeds from her recent book, written about the woman who inspired it all. Kaddish For My Mother is a tribute to the late Chana Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor who Weisberg calls remarkable, strong and courageous, and tenacious and resilient. What began as a short story became a key chap- ter about Rosenberg as a young girl in a small Czechoslovakian village whose parents could not afford much-needed foot- wear before Passover. In each brief section of the book, first-person narratives and memories build on the reader’s glimpse into who Rosenberg was, her relationship with her daughter, where she came from and the lessons she taught. With wit and insight, Weisberg of Southfield meshes current events with historical detail of her mother’s life, per- sonal interpretations and reactions. “My mother thought nothing of bang- ing on a teacher’s door when she felt a grandchild was wrongly judged or calling an overnight camp to remind the coun- selor that a grandchild wasn’t feeling well,” Weisberg wrote of her mother. Of her softer side, she wrote, “My mother would befriend anyone who ever worked for her — the gardener, the plumber, the mailman — always offering encouragement and a delicious piece of kokosh (babka-like pastry) or gefilte fish.” STRONG FAITH “My mother was a survivor who never lost her belief in God,” Weisberg said of Rosenberg, who was interviewed and filmed for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation in 1996. Describing her mother’s optimism, drive and independence, she said, “My father passed away in 1962 and my moth- er, a very talented seamstress, worked in a high-end men’s clothing factory and raised my brother and me on her own.” Devastated by her mother’s 2011 death, work on the book was “cathartic relief over the sadness and loneliness I felt,” said Weisberg, who is married to Itzy and has 2086020 56 April 14 • 2016 four children and 11 grandchildren. All proceeds from Kaddish For My Mother go to Weisberg’s Y’shoe-ah Foundation, whose name is a collec- tive play on the words ‘shoes’, ‘Shoah’ (Holocaust) and Rosenberg’s oft-used Yiddish expression, “Yeshuah (help from God) will come when least expected.” Foundation funds — now providing monetary gifts before Passover and also Rosh Hashanah — are admin- istered through the Southfield- based Matan B’Seter Detroit, a volunteer-run, charitable agency providing financial aid to those in need in the local Jewish community. The 96-page paperback book (2015, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform), Weisberg’s first, is now in its fifth printing. She studied English literature, American literature and creative writing at Wayne State University in Detroit and taught Hebrew school for more than 20 years. She also just completed a book for chil- dren about sensory issues and is currently working on Junking for Judaica, “about my years of collecting old and interesting pieces of Judaica.” Weisberg does not take for granted growing up with new shoes when needed and wrote that she wanted to make sure “other children feel special, too, with a brand new pair of shoes.” “Because my mother was a huge believ- er in tzedakah, she never had fewer than four tzedakah boxes in her house at any given time,” Weisberg said. “It just struck me that if I ever published a book, all the money would be given to tzedakah and, in particular, for shoes. I knew she would have loved the idea!” * Kaddish For My Mother is available at amazon.com, Borenstein’s Hebrew Books and Music Store in Oak Park and Spitzer’s Hebrew Book and Gift Center in Southfield. $18. Donations to Matan B’Seter may be sent to Rabbi Shaul Broner, 25971 Stratford Place, Oak Park, MI 48237, and earmarked, Y’shoe-ah Foundation. *