65 Years and Still Counting

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My earliest participation with NCJW/Greater Detroit was 65 years ago helping my mother with mailings.  She would bring home giant boxes of flyers which my sister and I helped to fold, seal with little water-soaked squeegees and then apply the labels.  I don’t remember any other details, but it was before any automated assistance.  Around the same time, I sang a duet with Judy Rosenberg’s mother, Dorothy Dunitz, at one of our musicales, (perhaps at an Angel Ball) to publicize Ship a Box, a project to send clothing overseas to the needy.  I still remember what I wore and the lyrics.

As a teen, I was a proud member of the Councilettes, Greater Detroit’s answer to B’nai Brith Girls (BBG).  It was started primarily by mothers of teenage girls who belonged to the reform movement’s youth groups, but wanted a specific group for girls only.  This branch came on the heels of another NCJW offshoot designed for unmarried high school graduates and beyond.   This group actually held national meetings, one of which featured Eleanor Roosevelt as a speaker.  Most of the Councilettes’ activities were social, but also we assisted our section on large projects.

Although I wasn’t as active with council as an adult during my working life, I fulfilled my promise to return to NCJW, and have renewed friendships and formed new ones with the most amazing group of women as we have worked together on Jewish Youth Awards, Education Assistance, Literacy at Coleman Young Elementary and so much else.