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Jewish Social Services of Madison
CONNECTIONS W I N T ER
2020
You Are Doing a Mitzvah!
By Dawn Berney, Executive Director
JSS staff know using this issue to give them an pages and reflect on this season
the impact we opportunity to tell you. of thanksgiving and miracles,
have on the lives I hope you see that by consider the good deeds you
of our clients, supporting JSS in whatever way are performing right here for
volunteers, and you choose, you are doing a your community by supporting
even our donors. mitzvah (a good deed). Whether JSS.
Our readers rarely you reach out for our assistance,
get to see the good we do up attend our events, offer your “Acts of kindness never die.
close, because we must protect time as a volunteer, or donate They linger in the memory,
the confidentiality of our clients. goods, services, or funds, you giving life to other acts in
But many clients, volunteers, allow us to fulfill our mission. As
and donors want the wider return.” Rabbi Jonathan
you read the stories and look
community to know how we Sacks z”l.
at the faces in the following
change lives here. And we are
(Another) Blessing to the Jewish Community
JSS honors Tim and Kathy time in history. And they provide
Mazur for taking the mitzvah so much more than financial
of tzedakah (creating justice in support! They are active
the world through charitable participants in growing the
giving) so seriously. For the past program, from sponsoring Rabbi
two years they have generously Eric Weiss’ inspiring talk last fall,
funded JSS’s chaplaincy to helping us launch our new
program. Their support pen pal program by donating
demonstrates the power of notecards featuring one of
charitable giving on people’s Kathy’s beautiful paintings. Their
lives. The Mazurs enable JSS generosity and vision bless us
to care for the spiritual needs and our community.
of unaffiliated Jews in our
community at this very difficult
Tribute Donations
JULY–OCTOBER, 2020
Tribute Gifts
A tribute gift is a meaningful way to convey sympathy to the bereaved, memorialize a loved one, commemorate a
special occasion, or honor a person’s life and accomplishments.
Your gift to Jewish Social Services made in honor or memory of this special person ensures a legacy that extends
far into the future. To make a Tribute gift, please visit our website at jssmadison.org or call 608-442-4081.
In Memory of Harriet Amsterdam In Honor of Izzy Liam Goldstein In Memory of Loris (Lou) Levy In Honor of the Marriage of
Sara Berg Livia S. Asher Andrea H. Levy Ben Wolf and Kate Snyder
Brad Goldstein and Rachel Rosenfeld Dr. Jeffrey Kushner
In Honor of Frederic and Trude Arm In Honor of Jim Mackman
Benjamin Arm In Memory of Kaete Granick Eve-Lynn Siegel In Honor of Nan and
Barbara L. Granick Jim Youngerman
In Honor of Richard (z”l) and In Honor of Tim and Kathy
Daniel and Bettine J. Lipman
Elizabeth Askey In Memory of Florence Grossberg Mazur’s Anniversary
Benjamin Arm Dawn Berney and Ed Angelina Eve-Lynn Siegel In Memory of Betty Zechman
Steven Koslov and Mary Fulton Linda S. Barrett
In Honor of Rabbi Renée Bauer In Honor of the New Grandson of
Louise Goldstein and William and Bunny Spitz
Dr. Robert Bauer and Rosyland Bauer Sue Milch & Wilt Saunders
Bruce Thomadsen
Joseph and Carol Chulew Louise Goldstein and
Jim Mackman
Dr. Roseanne Clark Bruce Thomadsen
Karen Pollak
Felyce Gilford
Elaine R. Rosenblatt In Memory of Betty
Lynn Lederman
David J. Schwartz Sommerfeld Miner
Dr. Erica R. Serlin
Eve-Lynn Siegel Merle and Patti Sweet
In Memory of Ghita Hill Bessman Bill and Bunny Spitz
Robert Van Der Leest In Memory of Marshall Mitzman
Dr. Marcus Cohen and Sheila Cohen
Rabbi Paula Winnig Rabbi Irvin and Vivian Ehrlich
Louise Goldstein and
Bruce Thomadsen In Memory of Robert Pantoga
In Memory of Dolores Colen Gruen
Donna A. Friedsam
In Honor of Paul Borowsky Dr. Michael Ostrov and
Dr. Karen Ostrov
JSS 2020-2021
Eve-Lynn Siegel In Honor of Nancy Resnick
In Honor of Ari Jacob Censky In Honor of Betsy Haimson Dr. Marcus Cohen and Sheila Cohen Board of
Marianne Rosen Judith Herstand In Honor of Ralph Rice Directors
In Memory of Edgar R. Holmes Yael and Eric A. Lund
In Memory of Iva Cohen
Marc Shovers and Jan Loeb Barry Mirkin and Dr. Irene Mirkin In Memory of Matilda Ripley Brad Goldstein
In Honor of JSS Staff, For All Louise Goldstein and (President)
In Memory of Alice Fenyo
the Good Work You Do Bruce Thomadsen
Dr. Marcus Cohen and Sheila Cohen
Marjorie Aiello In Memory of Reine Rothblatt Carousel Bayrd
In Honor of Thomas Maya Garbuz (Vice President)
Cheryl Lerner
and Jeanne Foss David Goldenberg
Benjamin Arm In Honor of Francie Saposnik Barry Gidal (Immediate
In Honor of Dawn Berney, and Joseph and Carol Chulew
In Memory of Lois Frank Wonderful JSS Staff & Volunteers!
Past President)
Barry Mirkin and Dr. Irene Mirkin William and Corliss Karasov In Memory of Naomi Siegel
Daniel and Bettine J. Lipman Nathan Lipton (Treasurer)
In Memory of Lottie Frank In Memory of Yakov Kaplan David J. Schwartz
Jerri McCallum-Schwartz and Bela I. Elkin Rachel Rosenfeld
Eve-Lynn Siegel
Robert D. Schwartz (Secretary)
In Memory of Iver and Molly Karp In Honor of Bill and Bunny
In Memory of Ralph D. Gants, Norma Klagos Spitz’ 60th Anniversary Livia Asher
brother of Fred Gants
In Memory of Erin Karp Dr. Marcus Cohen and Sheila Cohen
Rabbi Paula Winnig
Norma Klagos Bob Breslow
In Memory of Meyer
In Memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In Honor of Seymour Katchkey and Beatrice Sweet
Jack Sherman Ariela Karasov
Anonymous Merle and Patti Sweet
In Memory of Jeff Golden
In Memory of Judith Klehr In Memory of Ruth Tsotsis Stormy-Kito Justice
Kathleen N. Nichols
Louise Goldstein and Rachel Reed
In Honor of Toony Goldenholz Bruce Thomadsen Nancy Leff
In Memory of Mindy Wiseman
Haya and Moshe Yuchtman
In Memory of Sheldon Klein Alene Wiseman Amy Lessing
In Memory of Herman Goldstein Carol Klein
Kendall and Mary Rouse Sarah Sherman
In Memory of Julia Lakritz
Amy Lakritz
2 Jewish Social Services of Madison
Volunteering Updates
Our current volunteers to develop safe ways to keep in
help in many socially- touch. We invite you to share your
distanced ways. Through ideas and experiences as we work
phone calls to program to find ways to provide support
participants, gift baskets throughout the community safely.
for Rosh Hashanah and
Hanukkah, and online and Have an idea, a suggested
written correspondence, topic, or presenter? Questions
we are working to all stay or suggestions for volunteering?
connected during an ever- I look forward to hearing from
evolving situation. We you: paul@jssmadison.org or
will continue to reach out 608-442-4083.
Denny Geller, Debbie Spear, and JSS Volunteer to program participants,
Engagement Coordinator Paul Borowsky, prepare clients, and volunteers
menorahs for delivery in 2019.
H Jewish Social Services Extends a Sincere Apology to Some 2019 Contributors
In the Summer 2020 issue of Connections, we accidentally omitted some of the generous donors who supported
JSS during 2019. We extend our deepest apologies. Without ALL of our donors, JSS could not provide valuable
services to our community.
Harriet (z”l) & Michael (z”l) Amsterdam Steven Goldstein & Laura Heisler Pearl Nathanson
Beth Israel Center Islamic Relief USA Carol Ottenstein & Ronald Sklansky
Lawrence Dahl Steven Levine (z”l) Muriel Rotter
Bernie & Lenora Goldstein Rona Malofsky (z”l) Sol Zaichick
Herman Goldstein (z”l) Joel & Deborah Minkoff
Maskerade Parade with JSS Staff
JSS staff in costume greet visitors for our safe drive-by fall celebration on October 28. See if you can recognize
staff in their various creative costumes!
CONNECTIONS | Winter 2020 3
JSS Changes Lives!
FAMILY
Maya Garbuz has provided our family with invaluable
assistance in the process of adapting in a new country.
We would like to express our deep gratitude from our entire
family – new immigrants – to JSS case manager Maya Garbuz!
MARINA
Personally for me,
a lonely woman with
hearing impairment, JSS has
been like a caring mother.
LINDA
In 2020 JSS provided assistance for me and
my family to get stable housing. I want to say a
big ‘thank you’ to Jewish Social Services for the
excellent work that they do.
JUDI
BETH
Joni (Pico, JSS Social My dad was dying. He
Worker) made me feel asked for a Rabbi. Rabbi Renée...
a warmer, truer, lucky was exactly who we needed. I
connection with the knew, though it wouldn’t be the
Madison Jewish community. same, things would be alright.
M&O
In challenging days, we made a call for help (a cry of
our souls) to these remarkably kind people. And for
three years now we have been feeling their care,
attention, and constant support.
We are grateful to fate for such a generous gift – a meeting with the wonderful
people at Jewish Social Services (Maya Garbuz, Dawn Berney, Paul Borowsky
and Jim Mackman). Our gratitude and a deep bow to you all.
4 Jewish Social Services of Madison
Beit Olamim: A Serene Oasis on Madison’s West Side
By James Stein, MD, President of Jewish Burial Association of Madison
I invite you to take a walk or space already feels more shrubs, and flowers keep living
drive to visit Beit Olamim, serene. It is heartwarming to see from season to season. If you
located within Sunset Memory families using the driveway to have questions about the
Gardens at 7302 Mineral Point visit their loved ones. Jewish Burial Association of
Road. The driveway is complete, Madison (JBAM), please see our
so you now can enter directly Madison’s Jewish cemetery is a website at www.jbamadison.org,
off of Westfield Road. With our place of life where we connect call 608-467-3493, or email
recent beautiful plantings and to those who have moved on info@jbamadison.org. We are
landscaping, our community and keep them alive forever in here to help.
our hearts, just like the trees,
Doing Mitzvot (Good Deeds) at JSS and Beyond
By Linda Reivitz, Past President, JSS Board of Directors
Many years ago,
I decided I was
going to do one Many years ago, I decided I was going
good deed every
day. Give someone
to do one good deed every day.
a call. Visit or
lend a hand or an agencies in Dane County Jews not affiliated with a local
ear when needed. It seemed were leaving. But they were congregation. With generous
like a nice thing to do. I wasn’t replaced by new staff, and our funding, we initiated the Levy
expecting a Nobel Prize, but if it excellence in compassionate lecture series each summer.
brought a little joy to someone, service never wavered. Over the years, I experienced
so much the better. many of these and I saw how
We continued to picnic with
How lucky for me that, in 2011, much joy they could bring.
seniors and deliver menorahs
I joined the JSS Board, an The smiles tell all.
to them at Hanukkah. We
organization whose mission is held Shabbat programs at A few years back the Board
doing mitzvahs! In my first few senior living facilities and made the decision to partner
years on the Board, change offered Lechayim meals and with HIAS to resettle refugees.
was the watchword. Senior staff programs on Mondays. We I had the opportunity to help
who had made JSS one of the began a chaplaincy program people new to the U.S. learn to
most respected social services to serve the spiritual needs of grocery shop (so many boxes
Continued on page 6
CONNECTIONS | Winter 2020 5
of cereal!), to register kids for more times than any other. That the playground. I’ll keep trying
school, to go to a public library decision brought even wider to do my own mitzvah every
for the first time, and to share community support to JSS. day (you can too). I leave the
laughs over silly Swahili-English board knowing that JSS will
My tenure on the Board is now
translations from Google. continue also.
done. I’ll miss my trips to the
Helping the stranger is one of
JSS office, interacting with
the most basic of our Jewish
the staff, and hearing the Gan
values, repeated in the Torah
(preschool) kids chattering in
Why Jewish Social Services Matters to Us
By Ronnie Hess and Ron Rosner, Volunteers and Contributors
or providing assistance and a We’ve found new
sense of community to seniors, resonance in the old
the infirm, disabled, and
disadvantaged. cliché: ‘It is better to
give than to receive.’
We think it was our friendship
with Barbara Spierer, Francie
Saposnik, and Louise Goldstein honored our friends and their
that got us involved with Jewish families with tribute gifts, in
Social Services. They thought moments of joy and sorrow.
there was something we could Contributing to refugee relief in
offer by way of skills, time, Madison is of special interest to
and inclination. We hope they Ronnie. JSS’s work in this area
were right. is vital.
Ron: Ronnie started out giving Ron and Ronnie: We’ve found
a talk at a Lechayim Lunch. new resonance in the old
She befriended a woman cliché: “It is better to give than
Ronnie: I don’t know if my
who had grown up speaking to receive.” We’re grateful that
father, Louis Hess, benefited
French, as Ronnie had; the two in small ways we’re helping
from a Jewish social service
became lunch buddies. We’ve people live more peaceful and
network when he arrived in New
also delivered menorahs and prosperous lives through JSS.
York during World War II, but I
would like to believe he did.
Ron: I remember my father,
Louis Rosner, writing checks on
weekends to various charities.
Ron and Ronnie: We both
learned from our families the
Warm Hanukkah
importance of connecting Wishes from
with people committed to
helping others – refugees JSS Staff
settling into a new home,
needing food, clothes, a job;
6 Jewish Social Services of Madison
Staying Connected While Staying Safely Apart
By Paul Borowsky, Volunteer Engagement & Events Program Manager
the personal experiences
of friends and participants
of JSS. Topics include: talk
with local author Doug Moe,
retracing family histories of the
Holocaust, working with Tibetan
At JSS, Zoom gatherings are “the new normal” (for now). refugees, life and resilience after
becoming blind, and learning to
With online-only programming, who participated in pre-COVID play the wooden spoons during
there are both challenges programs to find out what COVID times.
and opportunities. The most barriers people have to joining Many new presentation and
challenging aspect is not us online. discussion topics are in the
being together in person. The works. Rabbi Renée Bauer will
Don’t forget that every Monday
opportunity is the wide variety present topics related to the
a volunteer leads Yoga from a
of people we can invite (from Bible and Jewish wisdom on the
Chair on Zoom. You can also
anywhere with an internet third Thursday of each month.
find links to Zoom recordings
connection) to present and Her presentations on using
of our guest programs on
participate. We realize that Jewish wisdom to help during
the JSS website under the
joining in an online event challenging times, and her
“Programs” menu (jssmadison.
is dependent on a person’s discussion of Eve and Lilith in
org/zoom-recordings). Look for
willingness and computer the Garden of Eden are among
recorded programs on health
experience, and on having the the Zoom recordings you can
and wellness, history, ecology,
right equipment. We are in the find on the JSS website.
and more. Many of these are
process of surveying people
Volunteer of the Year Award Goes to Betsy Haimson
At our Annual
Meeting in October, What an honor to be selected
JSS Board and staff as ‘Volunteer of the Year’
presented Betsy at JSS. I adore teaching Yoga
Haimson with our
from a Chair. I am, every week
2020 “Volunteer of
the Year” Award. I teach it, completely
Betsy began overwhelmed by the fantastic
volunteering at JSS group of people who join me!
over 20 years ago.
She participates in - Betsy Haimson
many aspects of
our work including
strategic planning and currently serves on the by moving “Yoga from a Chair” to an online
Senior Adult Committee, helping with event format. Monday without yoga is like a luncheon
and program planning. We appreciate Betsy’s without food! Thank you, Betsy, for your decades
dedication to helping JSS adjust to COVID times of service to our community.
CONNECTIONS | Winter 2020 7
Jewish Social Services of Madison
Nonprofit Org.
6434 Enterprise Lane
U.S. POSTAGE
Madison, WI 53719-1117
PAID
Madison, Wis.
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Permit No. 1341
Jewish Social Services of Madison
CONNECTIONS
Published by Jewish Social Services of Madison
6434 Enterprise Lane Together we create the light of hope in our community.
Madison, WI 53719
Phone: 608-442-4081
Fax: 608-278-7814
info@jssmadison.org
www.jssmadison.org
RABBI’S CORNER by Just as we add one candle at a time to
the menorah, we can add more light to
Rabbi Renée Bauer the world with simple, small deeds.
The Talmud records a debate about
the lighting of Hanukkah candles. When we ask, “when will this pandemic end?” let
Shammai says: On the first day one us shift our attention to where we have been. Let us
kindles eight lights and, from there, find power in the creativity and resiliency we have
gradually decreases the number of used to adapt to life in the time of COVID.
lights. Hillel says: On the first day one kindles one Just as we add one candle at a time to the
light, and from there on, gradually increases the menorah, we can add more light to the world with
number of lights. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b) simple, small deeds. We can call a family member,
Shammai’s decreasing light reflects the story of write a note to a friend, volunteer for an hour, help
the jug of oil that lasted 8 days. But instead, we an immigrant find the right English word, say a kind
celebrate according to Hillel, lighting candles based thing to a stranger. With each small gesture we
on the days that have passed, not the days that are increase the light.
left. And Hillel’s practice reflects the principle that Jewish Social Services is here to help if you are
holiness should always increase, never decrease. struggling to find light in your life or if you want
As we add one candle to our menorah each night, to brighten someone else’s. Do not hesitate to
let us use Hillel’s reasoning as spiritual guidance. reach out to us.
JSS is a beneficiary agency of:
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