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is talking multiple
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A Brilliant
Retirement!

For 30 years, inquisitive
retirees have expanded
their horizons at the IRP.

Barbara Lewis | Contributing Writer

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Accessible to folks in
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need assistance.

Light meal served.

Validated parking.

Space is limited.
Please RSVP
by calling
1-866-682-7491.

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
East Hanover, New Jersey 07936-1080

© 2015 Novartis

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2103220

24 May 19 • 2016

IRP’s poetry discussion group includes co-facilitator Melissa Kaplan-Estrin,
Joel Shere, co-facilitator Phyllis Aronson and Shirley Kramer.

hen Aaron Lupovitch
retired from working as a
pathologist, he felt he was
in danger of becoming a “ROMEO” — a
Retired Old Man Eating Out.
Lupovitch of West Bloomfield says
he was saved by the Jewish
Community Center’s Institute
for Retired Professionals (IRP),
a group he became active with
about three years ago and now
leads as president. He par-
ticipates in groups that study
history, current events, and sci-
ence and technology.
Aaron
IRP will celebrate its 30th
Lupovitch
anniversary May 25 with a
gala dinner at Congregation Beth Ahm in
West Bloomfield. The evening, featuring
the Dave Bennett Quartet in a Tribute to
Benny Goodman, starts with a reception
at 5 p.m. Tickets are $36 for IRP members
and $45 for non-members.
IRP started in 1985 when Mort
Plotnick, then executive director of the
JCC, recognized a need for intellectually
focused activities for seniors. He enlisted
the late Irwin Shaw, who modeled the
program on one started at New York’s
New School for Social Research in 1962.
“There was nothing like this in Detroit,
certainly not in the Jewish world,” said
Plotnick. “Lunch and Learn programs are
very popular now, but they didn’t exist
then.”
Detroit’s IRP, like the New School
model, emphasizes ongoing member
facilitator-led groups, rather than instruc-
tor-led groups or classes. All the JCC did
was provide space, said Plotnick. The
members did the rest.
That is the secret of IRP’s success,
Lupovitch said. “Members determine the
subjects, and they are the presenters.”
Members don’t have to be Jewish or
retired or former professionals. Some con-
tinue to work part time. Some never went
to college. But all share a curiosity and
love of learning.

Lupovitch said the first time he attend-
ed a group he noticed a man across the
room who asked very insightful questions.
“The man next to me leaned over and
said, ‘Not bad for 96!’”
IRP has more than 20 active groups
ranging from biographies to medi-
cal issues to opera and film. New
groups are welcome.

NEW FRIENDS
IRP members form strong friend-
ships, some of which have blos-
somed into romance.
Faye Menczer Ascher, a retired
teacher and social worker, and her
husband, Al, who retired in 1991 as
executive director of JVS, had known each
other for many years but they became
close through IRP, where they saw each
other almost every day.
They married in 2011, the year she
served as IRP president.
“It’s a wonderful place to meet people
who are intelligent and social,” said Ascher
of West Bloomfield. “There’s something
interesting to do every single day.” Many
members meet outside of IRP as well, to
visit museums or for lunch or dinner.
Jerry Lapides of Southfield joined IRP
in 2003 after retiring from the University
of Michigan-Dearborn but while still
working as an educator for Ford Motor
Company. He became even more involved
in 2006.
“IRP saved my life,” he said. “I was
still recovering from brain surgery and
depressed. It gave me something intellec-
tual to do.”
Lapides joined a group on the origin of
Jewish thought, which meets four times a
month, and later became its facilitator.
He also co-facilitates biweekly groups
on current events and Jewish social action
with David Marcus of Southfield.
Lapides’ groups meet at Congregation
Beth Shalom in Oak Park, which wel-
comed IRP after the Oak Park JCC closed
at the end of August.

Lapides was sorry to see the Oak Park
Center close. “I would go to the gym,
have lunch at the deli, then lead my study
group,” he said. He said membership in
his groups declined somewhat after the
Oak Park JCC closed.

HISTORY BUFF
Tev Estrin of Huntington Woods joined
IRP after reading a blurb about the history
group in the Jewish News.
Retired in 2000 from teaching manage-
ment and accounting at the University
of Windsor, Estrin says he’d never been
a history buff but has been fascinated by
what he’s learned through IRP. The group
recently studied the Irish uprising of 1916.
Estrin now co-facilitates the history
group with John Gardon. He also co-facil-
itates a group on Implications of Science
and Technology with Bill Rolnick and
one on National and International Issues
with Mal Hillman. All meet at the West
Bloomfield JCC.
His wife, Melissa Kaplan-Estrin, a
retired Wayne State psychology professor,
co-facilitates a poetry group with Phyllis
Aronson.
She’s also active with a film study group,
where members discuss current films that
they view on their own ahead of time,
Sharon Levine of Oak Park is IRP’s only
paid employee. The organization is run by
an executive committee and a governing
council. There’s also a facilitators’ council.
IRP has about 200 members, said
Levine. Anyone interested can attend
up to three group sessions as a guest;
after that, they’re asked to pay the $150
annual membership fee, which also
includes cultural membership at the
JCC. (IRP membership is free for Beth
Shalom members). Members can attend
an unlimited number of group sessions
and programs.
For more information about IRP or
the anniversary dinner, call or email
Levine at (248) 432-5406 or slevine@
jccdet.org.

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