20 | OCTOBER 22 • 2020 

R

achel Fox is, to say the least, a very 
experienced member of the elector-
ate. With her absentee ballot already 
mailed in, she can now say that since she 
was 21 years old, she has voted for presi-
dent 23 times. No, she didn’
t fraudulently 
vote more than once for the same candi-
date. The fact is, when you’
re over 105 years 
old, you get a lot of opportunities to cast 
your vote. 
Rachel was born on June 11, 1915, five 
years prior to women having the right to 
vote and three years prior to the first pan-
demic of her lifetime. Unfortunately, some 
Black women would have to wait another 
50 years for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 
to secure their rightful place in the voting 
booth.
When I spoke to Rachel on the phone a 
few days ago, I learned that she’
s participat-
ed in every election since she voted in 1936 
to re-elect FDR to a second term. My brain 
is not very big, but I’
m still having trouble 
wrapping that fact around it.

For Rachel, the current voting process 
actually began months ago, pre-coronavi-
rus, when Debbie Binder, West Bloomfield 
Township Clerk, paid a visit to Jewish 
Senior Life (JSL) residents on the Eugene 
and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community 
Campus. 
“I routinely visited our senior housing 
facilities to ensure residents were registered 
and/or had the opportunity to complete 
their absentee voter applications,
” Binder 
said. “Our goal is to enable access to the 
ballot for all of our residents, and we will 
do whatever is permissible in adherence 
to state and federal election law to ensure 
our residents have access to free and fair 
elections. That includes curbside service 
to seniors who are able to secure a ride 
to Town Hall.
” [Call the West Bloomfield 
Clerk’
s office for more information: (248) 
451-4848.]
Rachel, who lives in the Fleischman 
Residence, took advantage of signing up for 
a ballot, and the rest is presidential election 
history. By the way, the 105-year old told 
me she does more than just exercise her 
right to vote — she literally still exercises 
in the comfort of her own apartment. She 
takes advantage of Touchtown, an exclu-
sive in-house program offered to residents 
throughout JSL communities to stay con-
nected, especially during these difficult 
times.

CENTENARIAN VOTES
Rachel Fox is not JSL
’
s only civic-minded 
centenarian. The day I spoke with Meer 
resident Jean Becker, she was waiting for a 
driver to take her to the West Bloomfield 
Township Hall to drop off her ballot in 
person. Born on April 29, 1920, she was a 
100-year-old on her way to cast her vote at 
the West Bloomfield Clerk’
s office over 100 
years after the 19th Amendment was rati-

fied. Incredible.
Jean is a firecracker of a personality. She 
is always dressed to the nines and it turns 
out, like Rachel Fox, exercising her right to 
vote is not her only exercise regimen. Jean 
recently resumed her Monday through 
Friday routine of being dropped off at the 
Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield to walk 
for an hour and a half.
Jean did offer some comforting words 
when I asked her what it was like at 100 
years old to be voting in what is arguably 
the most contentious and divisive election 
in our nation’
s history. “We have to accept 
what we get,
” she said of the outcome of the 
election. “Unless you want to be misera-
ble, and you want to go off the deep end. I 
mean, we will have to get along with that, 
there’
s nothing else we can do.
” 
Sage advice. But what would you expect 
from a woman with 100 years of life expe-
rience?
Seniors at all JSL residences, on both 
their West Bloomfield and Oak Park 

IN 
THED
JEWS

COURTESY OF JSL

A Vote for the 
Ages

JSL, JFS and West Bloomfi
 eld 
Clerk’s offi
 ce off
 er support 
to senior voters.

ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rachel

Fox

COURTESY OF JSL

Jean

Becker 

continued on page 21

