Atriums residents mark 13 years of Shabbat services

The organizers of the informal Jewish congregation at The Atriums, 7300 W. 107th St., celebrated a B’not Mitzvah Saturday. It marked 13 years since they began holding weekly Sabbath services at the senior-living center.

When in 1995, Tillie and Nat Goodman moved in to Atriums, they soon met Sylvia Schnaer, who had already organized a couple of Chanukah celebrations there.
Schnaer, now 98, is believed to be the Atriums’ longest standing resident.

On Friday, Oct. 25, 1996, they held the first “Jewish Friday Services” at The Atriums in the card room, starting at 11:15 a.m. They posted a notice and got a gratifying turnout. So the Goodmans and Schnaer announced that services would be held “every Friday” thereafter; and so they have. More than two dozen people took part last Friday.

“There was only one problem,” Tillie Goodman recalled last week, “Eleven-fifteen didn’t feel like Shabbos.” So they soon rescheduled the service to 4 p.m.

The Goodmans were founders of the now-defunct Reform congregation, Temple Beth El, while the Schnaers were stalwarts at Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner. Yet their services, while using donated Reform prayer books and recorded music played on a boom box in lieu of a cantor, have drawn Atriums residents from all Jewish denominations.

Since he moved in a couple of years ago, Frank Adler, now retired after a long tenure as administrator of B’nai Jehudah, has run the weekly service, lending his scholarship in Judaic matters to the proceedings.

The Atriums group has made sure that Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Rosh Hashanah are all celebrated, too.

They collect tzedakah each week. “Lately, we’ve been giving to hunger charities like Mazon and Harvesters,” Tillie Goodman said.

Goodman and Schnaer are quick to credit and thank the Tutera family, which owns and operates The Atriums, for their support. On Saturday, Lucille Tutera announced that, as a B’not Mitzvah gift, donations had been made to their local synagogues in honor of Schnaer and Goodman.

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