95 reasons to love Helen Tishman

How many 94-year-olds do you know who can email, Facebook, and Skype? Helen Tishman of Brookdale Retirement Community in Longwood can. She even owns a scanner and a copier. Helen has experienced almost a century of progress, and this active nonagenarian has always been ahead of her time.

Originally from Brooklyn, Helen raised five children with husband Leon of 27 years. When Leon passed away prematurely, Tishman finished her college education in 1970 at the age of 50, becoming a social worker. Helen shares, “Before graduation I gave a speech. A woman in the audience was from DCF (Department of Child and Family Services). She told me as soon as I was certified, I had a job in Dade County.”

During the course of her career, Helen was active and influential in the courts with adoption cases. “I used to argue with attorneys about jurisdiction, and inform judges about adoption law,” she said. One day Tishman received a call from a judge who asked her to appear in court the next day. The judge asked Helen to sit beside him on the bench. And after the case was heard the judge asked, “What do you think, Mrs. Tishman?” Helen shared her ideas, and the judge said, “And so it shall be!”, and the ruling was made.

Tishman’s activism extended beyond the workplace and into the community. She was the first licensed Sunday School teacher in Dade County. Later, she administered two different synagogue schools. Helen was also an avid volunteer, serving as the president of B’nai B’rith and Hadassah. When she moved to Orlando 11 years ago to be near two of her children, she headed up several groups at the JCC, and visited seniors in elder facilities with the Jewish Pavilion. Though she was well into her 80s, Tishman visited residents at Horizon Bay until she herself entered assisted living. Helen holds the Pavilion close to her heart, as it brings holidays and companionship right to her doorstep now that she is no longer fully mobile. Today, Helen remains an active Pavilion volunteer, assisting with weekly and holiday services at her Longwood Brookdale facility.

Though almost 95, Tishman is still quite the community activist. For the past two years she has served as board liaison between the Brookdale residents and the staff. “If residents need something done, they know they can come to me, and I’ll try to help,” she said. Interpersonal relations have always been important to this retired social worker. Just last month Helen contacted the Interfaith Council of Central Florida to help foster multi-faith enrichment at her senior community. “As the world becomes more global, we find ourselves living near neighbors from a variety of backgrounds. It is my hope that through these classes we can get to know the diversity each of us represents. I am so pleased that the Interfaith Council of Central Florida is a coordinating a series of presentations at Brookdale Retirement community in Longwood to help foster this enrichment starting on Feb. 6,” she said.

The Interfaith Council of Central Florida is a coordinating a series of presentations at Brookdale Retirement community in Longwood (formerly Chambrel) at 160 Islander Court, which will run from Feb. 6 to May 15 on the first and third Friday of the month from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the facility’s community room. For more information, contact 407-767-6895.

Helen reflects upon life as a single mom with a demanding job, an uncommon role for women born in the 1920s. “I don’t know how I did it. It just needed to be done,” she said. “I had a family to raise, and needed a career. I have had a full life… I was writing my memoirs, and said to myself, ‘How the heck did I pull this off?’” Now, life is all about family, volunteering, and maintaining ties to the community. For Helen Tishman, family and company is never far away, between her children and visits from the Pavilion. And if there is ever a dull moment for this grandmother, as well as great-grandmother, there is always email and the Internet, not to mention Skype.

Pamela Ruben is community educator and marketing director of the Jewish Pavilion, for more information about volunteering with seniors visit jewishpavilion.org or call 407-678-9363.