26 | OCTOBER 28 • 2021 

W

hen Shari Finsilver was 19 
years old, she was eating 
a holiday dinner with her 
family when her spoon flew out of her 
hand, landing across the room. Her mom 
was horrified. “She really thought I had 
Parkinson’s disease and rushed me to a 
neurologist,” explains Finsilver. 
As a young girl, Finsilver had become 
adept at hiding her Essential Tremor 
(ET), a condition which is believed to 
affect 5% of the population, and which 
varies widely in severity. Some people 
have a tremor in their hands and arms, 
others might have it in their head or 
other body parts.
Finsilver had first noticed the condition 
when she started art classes in middle 

school: Unlike other children, she was 
incapable of drawing a straight line. As 
she got older, the Orchard Lake resident 
became an expert at making adaptations 
to normal activities most of us take for 
granted. “In high school I learned to put 
paper on a clipboard and balance the 
board on the edge of a desk and write 
at an angle,” she explains. “I mostly ate 
sandwiches when I was out so I could 
balance my elbows on the table, and I’d 
never eat soup. I used a straw for drinks. 
Like many sufferers, I was very good at 
working out how to disguise my symp-
toms.”
Finsilver’s remarkable story, which 
includes deep brain stimulation surgery, 
will be shared at the 13th Annual JVS 

Human Services Trade Secrets event, 
which raises money for Women to Work, 
a program which has been changing 
women’s lives since the 1980s by provid-
ing important skills to women needing 
immediate employment. Finsilver is 
this year’s Honorary Chair and keynote 
speaker at the Nov. 11 event, invited 
because of the dedication she has shown 
in advocating for fellow ET sufferers, and 
for the courage she has shown in reclaim-
ing her life. 
Paul Blatt, CEO of JVS Human 
Services, described Finsilver as a brave 
and inspiring woman. “So many of the 
women utilizing Women to Work have 
faced incredibly tough circumstances, but 
their strength and drive allowed them to 
move forward and reinvent their lives. 
Helping remove barriers to work and pro-
viding access to necessary trainings for 
this community is our commitment and 
our honor at JVS,” Blatt said. 
“Shari has used her own life circum-
stances to overcome obstacles and be a 
voice to help others do the same. This 
passion embodies the mission of Women 
to Work.”

A BRAVE JOURNEY
Essential Tremor often runs in families. 
In Finsilver’s case, her father’s aunt had a 
severe tremor, her father a less severe one. 
“My father used to say his tremor was 
something from the war,” says Finsilver, 
whose own son also has a mild tremor.
At the age of 19, after the spoon inci-
dent, the neurologist diagnosed Finsilver 
quickly. “That was actually unusual as 
most patients have to see many doctors 
before they get an answer to what is 
going on, but he immediately knew it was 
Essential Tremor,” explained Finsilver. 
She was given the drug Librium to help 
manage her symptoms, but the drug did 
little to help so she stopped taking it.
Finsilver married Stanley, now her hus-
band of 50 years, and the couple had two 
children, Brett and Amy. “My husband 
and kids were fantastic, doing everything 
they could to help me, but it was a strug-
gle,” she says. When the kids were babies, 

OUR COMMUNITY

COURTESY OF JVS HUMAN SERVICES

JVS Human Services Trade Secrets event 
features keynote speaker with an inspiring 
medical journey.

Women 
Reinventing 
Themselves

ALISON SCHWARTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Shari Finsilver danc-
ing bolero in her first 
national Fred Astaire 
competition with 
teacher and partner 
Mykhailo Annienkov 
in 2019