PPJC Men's Club - August 2021

On the last Sunday of the month, July 25, 2021, our Men’s Club had a meeting at Gigi’s. Merv Levin, temple president, reported that we had collected money in support of the people who had suffered during the collapse of the Surfside building in Miami.

In honoring the celebration of his 100th birthday, our club welcomed Harold Horowitz in becoming a new member of our club. A motion to have his not paying dues because of living to this momentous age and for all others, in our club, who reach the milestone age of 100 years, in the future, had been approved.

Our August 26 Bingo event will be sponsored by Men’s Club and Sisterhood.

Our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur meals will be held at our temple or can be picked up as a drive through. The 50 – 50 was won by Sheldon Privin.

After our brief meeting concluded, Steve Reinstein, our club’s president introduced Mandy Stellman as our guest speaker. A dynamic and fascinating speaker made her presentation by discussing certain events which had been instrumental in her life. She was one of six children who had a mother and father as the owner of a grocery store during the 1920’s. If some of their customers could not pay for their food bills after their purchases, her parents would allow them to pay later and would not hold it against them if any could not pay them back in full.

There were times when her father had been slicing food as cheese or meats giving them more than they had asked for and did not charge them for the extra amount. Her family had cots for people who did not have a place to live or did not have jobs to help them in their quest to survive.

Mandy learned about Civil Rights growing up during the Great Depression.

After not being accepted as a nursing student because of her being Jewish, she became a 4th grade teacher on an “occasional list”. Then, she taught in a one room school building which later became a museum.

Later, she had been accepted into Marquette as a social worker. What followed was her becoming a lawyer. She related, that as a lawyer, “she had changed the world” suing hospitals, corporations and corrupt government officials. She and her husband worked together in writing a book titled “What Two Can Do” which was published after he died. She ended by reading statements of wit from her parents such as =respect your elders, respect your peers, do not marry a doctor, instead be a doctor and girls should let boys win when they are playing ping pong, or they will never get married.

We are so thankful for Mandy’s presentation and are amazed at her being so alert, intelligent and displaying a wonderful personality and character at the age of 99.

Submitted by,

Bernie Stauber