Super Seniors: Volunteering to make a difference
Sam Friedman: enjoying every day
“I’m not a macher!” insists Sam Friedman of Springfield’s Temple Sholom, using the Yiddish expression for a big shot. “I’m just a volunteer.”
At Temple Sholom, he is a key volunteer. Since joining the Reform temple in 1945 he’s taught Sunday school and Hebrew; founded and still leads the Shofar Choir; makes assignments and schedules for the High Holy Day honors; organizes Simchat Torah dinners and kosher Passover Seders; and, “between rabbis,” Sam modestly notes, has coached five or six Bar Mitzvah students.
For years he was the cemetery committee chair, and he still serves on the committee. He regularly attends Friday night services and on occasion, when the rabbi must be absent, he leads services and gives “crazy sermons.”
Sam is 88 years old and was born and raised in Dayton. He grew up attending Beth Jacob Congregation and moved to Springfield as a newlywed in 1941.
“We owned the first neighborhood department store in Springfield, The Fair Store,” he recalls during an interview at Temple Sholom. “We were the first store around open until 9 p.m.”
Later, Sam managed four Read More Stores. He’s vague about when he retired — ”I never retired, I just changed my priorities.”
He’s proud to announce that this Jan. 26 he’ll be married 64 years “with the same woman!” Three rabbis were involved in the wedding ceremony: “We were tied tight.”
“I’m the extrovert and she’s the introvert,” Sam says of his wife, Ida. “Like she says, we have nothing in common, so we have nothing to fight about.”
The pair have four sons, three granddaughters, and three great-grandchilden. Their youngest son lives with his wife in Centerville and is a member of Temple Sholom.
“A small congregation relies heavily on a small number of people and Sam’s a real mainstay of the congregation and a delightful person,” says Temple Sholom’s Rabbi Janice Garfunkel. “He’s also a good role model for Jewish life.”
“I enjoy doing things,” Sam says. “That’s what keeps me alive.”
In 1990, Sam learned that his PSA — a blood test marker for prostate cancer — was 435, a hundred times higher than normal.
“My doctor said, ‘Go home and enjoy your last six months,’” Sam recalls. Sam and his family did not go for this.
“I went to Ohio State and I had two prostate surgeries and I take medicine and I’ve been OK,” Sam says, shrugging.
“Tell all the wives, if your husband’s over 45, make sure he gets a PSA.”
Sam’s volunteering is not confined to Temple Sholom. He’s active with the local Elderly United agency, helping out with Bingo every Wednesday and preparing lunches every other Thursday for a lunch and movie event.
Several times a year he helps serve meals to the poor. He also works with the Dad’s Club promoting soccer at Warden Park/Wayne Elementary School.
He’s received many volunteer awards. “My wall at home is covered with those plaques.”
“If your mind is working,” Sam says, “your body keeps going.”
“I’ve seen a lot of people die,” Sam muses, shaking his head. “I don’t have that many friends left. I used to like the springtime best, but now all I’ve got is today. At my age, every day you say, ‘Thank you, Lord, I can enjoy another day.’”
Before he leaves the Temple, Sam has a question for the rabbi. “You want the kosher Seder again this year?” he asks, referring to one of the events he organizes.
“Of course,” Rabbi Garfunkel says, sounding startled that Sam would even ask.
Betty and Russ Remick: legendary volunteers
Russ Remick has always believed that whatever he gives of himself, personally or financially, returns to him tenfold. His volunteering started at The Ohio State University and has stretched out in all directions in the Dayton and Xenia communities.
“My parents were role models for me,” says Betty Remick, who was born in Columbus and grew up in Urbana. “I have the time and if I can be helpful, that’s the way I was brought up.”
So, it is not surprising that this wonderful couple, married 61 years, have been giving of themselves until it is legendary in our community.
Living in an apartment high enough to see the river, skyline and sunsets daily, the Remicks share their love of life and giving freely.
Some of their volunteering is done in tandem, such as leading numerous missions to Israel and service as docents with the Holocaust exhibit, Prejudice & Memory, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, or working every Tzedakah Sunday since the Jewish Federation instituted the phonathon.
They both make weekly visits to Covenant House: he spends time with Howard Lubow. Betty visits and has become friends with Ruth Deeber.
During Operation Exodus, they were a satellite family for Russian-Jewish émigrés to Dayton and continue to invite some of them over for each of the holidays.
Then there is all the volunteer work they do separately. Betty is an usher at the Victoria Theatre. She is also on the Citizens’ Review Board for children in foster care.
“It is challenging, heartbreaking, but I hope something I write on their reviews helps to change what is going on with a child,” she says. “Do they need to be tutored, need treatment? I make suggestions to help them at the once- a- month meetings after the case worker explains things.”
Betty has been avidly involved with Hadassah as treasurer, membership chair and in other roles. She has served on the board of the Jewish Federation Women’s Division and has been volunteering once a week at Children’s Medical Center since 1987.
“Betty has served thousands of hours at Children’s,” Russ says. “She gets there before 7 a.m. to help with outpatient surgery.”
“It’s a couple of hours and they are on their way home, but you see a lot of things and say, ‘thank God,’” she adds.
Russ, who was born in Fall River, Mass., has been on the boards of Beth Abraham Synagogue and the Jewish Federation. He has worked on every United Jewish Campaign since 1947, he says.
He has made an enormous mark on Xenia, which is where the couple ran a clothing store that initially belonged to Betty’s father. In 1945, Betty’s father became ill and she came home to run the store in Xenia while Russ was in the U.S. Army Air Forces. When he came out, Russ also came to the store to help.
And there they were, for 41 years, working at the Xenia store, with Betty taking time off to have their four children, a son and three daughters.
Russ served on many boards in Xenia and said that he never hid his Jewishness there. He often gave benedictions in Hebrew, translating for his fellow board members.
After the Xenia tornado in 1974, Russ served on the Interfaith Council, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for people who fell through the cracks.
“So many people came and asked for help. Most didn’t have any insurance. I felt like I had to help. We hired two advocates and met twice a week to decide who would get assistance.”
Russ also was part of a group that formed the Xenia Area Development Corp. after the tornado. They bought land and established an industrial park. He voluntarily served as vice-president until the mid- 1990s when it was dissolved after all the land was sold.
For more than 30 years, Russ also served on the Xenia United Voluntary Services executive board. “This organization furnishes all types of clothing to men, women, and children — and everything is voluntary. No funds come from any government agency and their entire personnel is voluntary,” he says.
Russ has also volunteered with the outdoor summer drama Blue Jacket.
“I was on the board for over 20 years and worked very hard for Blue Jacket. I just retired this year. I loved it because it was part of history.”
After he retired from work, the Xenia Chamber of Commerce asked him to become executive director for three months. After three years as volunteer director, Russ brought the chamber’s membership from 200 to 400. He also served as president of the Xenia YMCA.
One other group that has benefitted from the Remick’s good deeds is the Xenia Rotary. At the annual Christmas party for underprivileged kids, Betty and Russ don colorful elf costumes and hand each child bags of presents. They help serve the pizza and soda and raise money at an auction.
For all that Russ has done for the city, he was awarded the prestigious Torrence Award by the Xenia Chamber of Commerce in 1992. It has his likeness carved in wood and a tribute to his volunteer work.
Among their many honors is the Jewish Federation’s Robert A. Shapiro Award which they received in 2002 for their significant role in shaping the direction of the Dayton Jewish community.
Betty says that sometimes she does feel “over programmed, but then something new comes along.”
Their life is not all volunteer work by any means. Betty plays tennis, exercises and plays bridge. They subscribe to the Dayton Philharmonic, UD basketball, the Dragons, and she ushers for the ballet.
The Remicks also go on cruises and vacations and have been to Israel 24 times.
They go to graduations and weddings of their 11 grandchildren, four of whom are married.
Russ and Betty, both 81, can visit children from coast to coast. Ron is in Vancouver, Kathy is in San Jose, Carole in Chicago and Sue lives on Long Island.
They have become the role models for their large family. All their children are volunteers. Betty says, “you follow what you see.”
Zelda and Ira Segalewitz: the heart and soul of their congregation
Martha Moody Jacobs
Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer
Four and a half years ago, Zelda and Ira Segalewitz followed their oldest son, Scott – and, perhaps more significantly, their grandchildren – from New Jersey to Pittsburgh to Dayton. Now they live in Centerville and have become, as Rabbi Judy Chessin of Temple Beth Or says, “the heart and soul of our congregation.”
“They’re here, they’re committed, they’re involved,” Chessin says. “They might be retired, but they’re our youngest volunteers.”
In their home in New Jersey, where Ira worked as an electronics/communication engineer and Zelda as a bookkeeper, the couple was also active in their synagogue.
Ira, now 69, was temple president for three years and on the board for 25. But Zelda, 66, says the couple is happy to be in Dayton.
“It’s a better life than I had in Jersey. Jersey was very clique-ish.”
Here, they belong to Temple Beth Or, the Dayton Jewish Community Center and several social clubs.
Zelda stitches beautiful double-sided quilts for family and friends. For a recent project she crocheted an afghan for a temple fund-raiser.
She also makes blankets for needy children. Ira is on the temple’s board, serves as chair of the administrative committee, and is a perennial attendee/volunteer at any congregational event.
Under the congregation’s auspices, Ira has volunteered with Zelda at a food bank and a church, presented adult education programs on Yiddish and Maimonides, and used a nail gun at Habitat for Humanity.
Ira is a member of the DJCC’s Yiddish Club and the Holocaust Education and Yom Hashoah Committees.
A Holocaust survivor, he’s a regular speaker for the Holocaust Education Committee at its permanent installation at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
“The children really listen, and then they come up and want to get their picture with me,” he smiles.
Ira’s first five years were spent in the largely Jewish town of Sarny in Poland, a place that came under Russian occupation at the start of World War II. When the Nazis began their attack on Russia, Ira’s father put his son and his wife on a train east. Ira would never again see his father; he believes he was killed in the battle of Stalingrad. Ira and his mother ended up deep in the Ural Mountains, where Ira’s mother worked in a Russian labor camp.
“As far as I know, we were the only Jews there,” he recalls.
In the labor camp, Ira and his mother lived in a cubicle in an unheated barracks, sleeping on mats on the floor. His mother was paid in small amounts of food. A piece of cheese or a rat was a feast. Ira recalls his mother returning from her work with icicles hanging from her eyelashes. “People think it’s the story of my survival,” Ira says, “but really it’s the story of my mother.”
After the war Ira and his mother returned to Poland to find Sarny destroyed and most of their family murdered. They spent five years in an Austrian Displaced Persons camp before coming to the U.S.
“Heaven,” Ira says of the D.P. camp. “Heat, beds, plenty of food.”
By the time he got to Brooklyn, Ira spoke Polish, Russian, German, and Hebrew, although the language he shared with his mother was Yiddish.
Zelda was born in Brooklyn. Her parents had emigrated from Poland in the 1920s. Ira and Zelda met at a Halloween party. Ira was 18, Zelda “15 and a half.”
“I went home and told my mother, I’ve met the man I’m going to marry,” Zelda recalls. “She just laughed.”
“I liked the way she looked at me and the way she spoke to me,” says Ira. “My English was still rusty.”
Zelda smiles. “I liked his accent, the way he said certain words.”
Their attraction survived Ira’s stint in the Army in Korea and they married four years later. Ira got a degree in engineering. Before settling down in New Jersey to raise their four sons, the pair lived all over the country.
“Places we couldn’t get kosher meat,” says Zelda with a laugh. “Our families got tired of putting our name in pencil in the phone book.”
In the early 1990s, a heart attack forced Zelda to retire early. “I miss working,” she says fervently, “but I’d always been crafty, and I just started to do more.”
Crocheting is her first love — as evidenced by a curio cabinet filled with dolls she’s clothed in elaborate period costumes — and the yarmulkes she made for a celebration a year ago still appear on congregants’ heads.
Eighteen months ago, Zelda had a heart pacemaker and defibrillator implanted.
“It’s been great,” Zelda says of her health since the procedure. She grins, heading for another chest full of quilts in the cheerful, comfortable apartment: “I’m going to go out fighting.”
“Live every day the best you can,” says Ira. “Be involved.”
The phone rings. The ceiling of the lobby at Temple Beth Or is leaking and it’s time for Ira to get involved with that.
© 2005 The Dayton Jewish Observer
