work –“to work with troubled youth” – and his professional and personal insights on what it means to age successfully. And he shared the importance attitude, gratitude and his wife, Bernice, have played in his life as, in his 80 th year, he continues to age successfully.
When and where were you born and where did you spend your early years?
I was born on January 27, 1930 in a small village, Kis-Sikarlo, in Transylvania , close to the Slovakian border. Transylvania was, at various times, under Romanian control and at other times under Hungarian control.
The village was simple and unsophisticated: It had only an elementary school that went to the 4 th grade. You learned reading, writing and how to add and subtract. In 1939, we moved to Nagy Banya, a city about 10 miles from the village, so my brother, who was four years older than myself, would be able to attend high school, which was 5 th grade to 8 th grade. When I started the 4 th grade there, I had to catch up on the things I hadn't learned in the village school.
In 1940, the region we lived in became part of Hungary . Because of the Hungarian government affiliation with the Nazi regime, I was not allowed to continue my 5 th grade education and my brother wasn't allowed to continue his education, either.
My father was an engineer and my mother was a homemaker. When we lived in the village, he worked nearby. When we moved to the city, he worked in a factory. Both my parents had many brothers and sisters who lived not far from us. On holidays we'd spend time at our place or at one of our relative's residences. At our house, the adults would sleep on one side of the house and the children would sleep on the other side.
Though my father owned his own land, we led a simple life. We didn't have running water. There was no store in the village, so we raised our own food and preserved our own meat. I remember putting the potatoes and carrots and that kind of produce away for the winter by covering them with dirt to preserve them; they kept quite well until spring. And I remember going out into the snow with my shirt off to “bathe” with my grandfather, who lived with us.
What was it like, growing up Jewish during those years?
The Jewish life was at home. In the village, there was no synagogue, so the few Jewish families would gather for prayer services at someone's home. When we moved to the city, we attended religious services at the synagogue there.
In early 1944, our family – along with all Hungarian Jews in Nagy Banya, the city we were in – was moved to a Jewish ghetto and then to Auschwitz, the extermination camp in Poland. That is where we were separated. First I was sent to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria , and then to Ebensee another concentration camp, where my brother also was with me. We were there for about a year, until we were liberated, but I rarely saw him because we were in different barracks and work details.
When were you liberated, and what exactly did “liberation” mean to you at that time?
The 3rd Calvary of the U.S. Military Forces liberated me at Ebensee on May 5 th , 1945. I was then 15 years old. I owe them my life and I've had the pleasure and privilege of thanking many of them, in person, because they, the Third Calvary unit, have had reunions and I've attended several of them.
When the SS guards had left the camp, we just started walking away from the camp and I fell into a ditch. I found out later, when I was in an Austrian hospital about 10 miles from the camp, that an African American soldier had picked me up and carried me to the hospital. The nurse told me that he'd come to see how I was several times. I tried to locate him, but I was never successful.
How and when did you immigrate to Israel ?
After the liberation, my brother, then 19, went to a youth village that had been set up for young survivors. When I recovered and left the hospital, I spent a short time – about three weeks – working with the Russian military in Austria . I was comfortable using Russian and all the Slavic languages, but I wanted to go “home,” so I walked away, and went back to the village where I'd grown up. There was nothing there for me, so I went back to Bergen-Belsen, a Displaced Persons camp in Germany , which was under British control.
There were soldiers from the Palestine British Brigade stationed there and their commanding officer befriended me. I assisted them with their illegal immigration of Jewish Holocaust Survivors to Palestine . When I was asked if I wanted to go to Palestine , I was 15 and knew nothing about Palestine , but I said yes. I was given the outfit of a Palestine Jewish Brigade soldier who stayed behind and I took up his identity as we made our way through Holland, Belgium, France and, by boat, to Egypt…Since I ‘was' the person whose identity I'd taken, I had to act like him. He was a sergeant, and spoke English. When I had to interact with the British, the Jewish Palestine Brigade soldiers I was traveling with told me what to say. I memorized it in English, so I could ‘talk' to the British officers and staff who headed the military headquarters there. I was discharged from military service with the Jewish Brigade when we arrived in Palestine .
When you got to Palestine , what did you do?
In Palestine , there were many youth coming in who had been in concentration camps, so I went to live in one of the Youth Immigration Communities that had been set up. But already, when I arrived, there was talk of establishing the State of Israel. So, when I was 16, I volunteered to serve with the Palmach, which was considered an elite military unit.
I was assigned to the Harel Brigade of the Palmach and served with that military unit during the War of Independence. First, I was involved with the caravans – mostly bringing supplies and food to Jerusalem . Next, I was involved in battles in the central and southern parts of what became the State of Israel. After discharge, at one of our reunions, a good number of the people who served in the Harel Brigade decided to change their names. I was born Zev Herskovits but changed my name to Zev Harel,
When the war was over and I was discharged, I began working with youth immigrants – after all, I was an immigrant myself. I also served in the Military Reserves, where I was in reconnaissance from 1949 to 1965. Toward the end of that time, I'd become a commanding officer of one of the reconnaissance companies. We were doing intelligence work but we didn't have the sophisticated surveillance equipment and aircraft they have today, so we did most of our work on the ground and went into countries that surrounded Israel in those years.
During all this time, when did you have the time to go to Hebrew University in Jerusalem and get a degree in social work?
I started thinking about going to college after I visited my brother in Canada in 1958. As a youth educator and commanding officer in the Military Reserves, I'd been sent to Canada to help with Jewish youth activities and education. When I got back to Israel I started thinking about getting a degree where I'd be working with youth. I studied for and passed the high school equivalency test the year I turned 30, and started classes at Hebrew University .
Three years later, in 1963, I received my bachelor's degree in social work. I'd already been working as a teacher and group worker at a youth village, and had a good reputation, so almost immediately I got the opportunity to become the Director of Youth Village Kfar Galim. It was an agricultural boarding school at the outskirts of Haifa with about 400 high school students.
Two years later, Yigal Allon, who was then Minister of Education, and had been the commanding officer of the Palmach, called me and asked me if it was OK to bring a group visiting from the US to show them the youth village. Of course I was happy to show them the place. Two weeks later, he called and asked me if I'd be interested in going to the US – to the University of Michigan – to get a master's degree in social work. Naturally I said yes.
That's where I met Bernice. She was a year ahead of me at the University of Michigan School of Social Work program. We got married in 1966 and began our life-long partnership. When you have the good fortune to have someone in your life who is a true partner, who will always be honest with you, you are lucky. There are few things that Bernice and I have done over the years where we have not listened to one another.
I know you spoke Russian and Hungarian and Hebrew, but how was your English when you came to the US ?
Not too bad. I'd been to the US and to Canada before – working with Jewish youth – so I'd studied English before that visit. I learned a lot from the kids at the summer camp in Canada . Also, I worked on my English the summer before I started the program at the University of Michigan . And, I do have a facility with languages as well.
What was the program at University of Michigan like?
It was a good program and I was fortunate to have a fellowship. While I was going to school, as part of the program, I had to engage in a field practicum, which prepared me with skills for psychiatric social work. After I graduated, I worked for a couple of years at the University of Michigan Hospital. Then, Bernice suggested that I go on for a PhD. I applied to the Washington University in St. Louis , Missouri , and got a fellowship to study there in a joint degree of social work and social science.
In Israel , you were working with children. In the US , your career has focused on issues related to aging. What got you professionally and personally interested in aging?
Circumstances. When I went to Washington University to work on my PhD. I was supposed to assist the person who taught research there. It soon became apparent that wasn't going to work out, so I went to the Director of the Social Work Department and asked him what I should do. He advised me to look around and find a research project that I was interested in because that was what was going to pay my tuition and stipend.
That's where I met Eva Kahana , who was working on aging issues. Eva hired me to work on one of her nationally funded research projects. Then, even though I had no background or experience in aging, I decided in my doctoral work to focus on organizational factors in the delivery of long-term-care services. It was a very exciting project. And I had a student doing his field placement working with me, so I had an interested and competent assistant. That enabled me to complete my research faster so it only took me two years to finish my PhD instead of the usual three or four. My professional collaboration and friendship with the Kahanas has continued over the years.
(Note: The Kahanas came to Cleveland in the 1980s. Eva is currently Director of the Elderly Care Research Center and Director of the Gerontological Studies programs at Case Western Reserve University and Boaz is the former Dean of Psychology and former Director of the Center on Applied Gerontological Research at Cleveland State University.)
When did you, and your family, move to Cleveland , and what brought you?
After I got my PhD, I worked one year at Wayne State University , and in 1972, both Bernice and I were offered positions at Benjamin Rose Institute. With her master's in social work, Bernice became a Community Service Organizer and Group Worker and I was the Interim Director of Research.
This was a very exciting time to do research in Cleveland . I applied for and received several grants from the Cleveland Foundation and did research on the quality of long-term care and service needs of public housing residents. One of my contributions there was the hiring of Dr. Linda Noelker, who has become a stalwart contributor to the reputation and prestige of the Benjamin Rose Institute at the local, statewide, national and international levels. We have continued our friendship and professional collaboration to this day.
I was at the Benjamin Rose Institute for four years; and while I was there, I was doing some teaching at Cleveland State University . When the Director of the Social Work Program asked me to join there full-time, I agreed, but only if I would be appointed as an associate professor not an assistant professor. I was offered the Associate Professorship and taught there for 32 years.
It's obvious, from your work at Benjamin Rose Institute, your teaching at CSU, the books you have written or co-written, and the education awards you have won, that you are an extraordinary educator. Why have you put so much energy and time and effort into teaching?
I enjoyed my years at Cleveland State University contributing to the preparation of knowledgeable and skilled social work professionals and the enhancement of service quality in Northeast Ohio . I really enjoyed teaching but I also had other responsibilities, including directorship of the School of Social Work . I spearheaded the development of our joint Master of Social Work Program with the University of Akron . I've always felt privileged and thankful for my life and all the opportunities I've had – both in Israel when I was working with troubled teenagers and here, working with students preparing for professional careers. I've always looked at potential, always focused on how to get students to do as well as they can, to take themselves seriously. There is an old Jewish saying: If you invest yourself for real, you will not come away with nothing.
But I wasn't just working in the classroom; I was involved in our very diverse community, too. For example, I developed the Anna V. Brown Community Forum for African American Aging. It's now in its 25 th year. I also aimed to contribute to knowledge development and professional competence locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. (Note: Anna V. Brown was the Director of the City of Cleveland's Department of Aging under Mayor Carl Stokes and was elected president of the National Council on Aging in 1984.)
Writing has never been too hard of a challenge for me. I wanted to contribute to the development and enhancement of knowledge and service to older persons. I focused in my writings on three areas: vulnerability and quality of life; ethnicity and aging; and extreme stress and aging.
When you retired from CSU in 2008, you hardly stopped working. At 80 you're consulting and volunteering with government and/or nonprofit organizations – including the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, Cuyahoga County Department of Senior and Adult Services, and the Kol Israel Foundation. Where do you get the energy – both physical and mental – for all this post-retirement work?
I enjoy all the things I'm involved in now. And, now that I'm not working, I can do more of what I want to do, not what I have to do so I've disengaged from a number of previous involvements.
Right now, I'm really following what's going on with the county government changeover, especially as it affects older adults and the Department of Senior and Adult Services. Also, when we came here in 1972, I got acquainted with the Holocaust Survivor Community and the Kol Israel Foundation here in Cleveland . I'm a past president of the group, and I'm still board member and treasurer of the organization.
You have to invest time and energy and physical strength to stay engaged and active. And you have to adapt. That means doing what you can the best way that you can.
You have been competing in 10K runs for over 30 years. What got you interested in running and what's kept you running all these years?
In my younger days, when I lived in Israel , I always enjoyed sports. And I was pretty good, especially in soccer. In fact, I was good enough in it that I was invited, three years in a row, to be part of the national roster from which they selected the national Israeli soccer team.
But, when I came to the US , my routine was altered. I was not involved in fitness or exercise routines. That changed one day, after I came home from consulting work in Europe where they'd wined and dined us. I got on the scales and got a real shock – I weighted about 230 pounds. I consulted my physician and joined Cleveland State 's Fitness for Life Program. And I started running. I've been running 10Ks, 10 kilometer runs, ever since. Lately, though, I've been running less and walking more.
But running isn't all I do. Bernice and I belong to Urban Active at Legacy Village and we go to the community pool to swim, and we walk together. Of course, sometimes I'll do a pre-walk – say up to Coventry Road and back – before we do our walk around the neighborhood.
It doesn't look like there's an ounce of fat on you. Part of that is exercise, but that's not all of it. What do you do diet-wise to stay so fit?
Both Bernice and I work consciously to stay in as good health as we can. And that means we eat sensibly – another way of saying that we are doing something that is important to us. We eat seasonal fruits and vegetables. And we take turns cooking, too. Maybe one night I'll do hamburgers and the next night she'll make a pasta salad. And the only time we have dessert is when we have a guest – a really important guest – for dinner.
A major facet of successful aging is, for lack of a better way to say it, “keeping your wits about you.” What are you doing to stay so mentally fit, focused, engaged?
I take myself seriously, but not too seriously. And I don't add insult to injury. When I've had a bad experience, I don't dwell on it. I move on. It's not that I ignore things, but I don't get emotionally overcharged. I do what I can to make things better and recognize when I can't.
What's your “philosophy” of aging?
I have always felt that aging is a privilege – there aren't too many people around today who are in my age group. I am thankful that I'm here. I am also thankful for what we have…I don't expect things – anything – to just come my way, but when opportunities come up, I've always taken advantage of them. But I'm not just talking about things that affect only me. I'm talking about the things that have an impact on others that I care about.
What part do you think attitude plays in successful aging? Or do you think it does?
It's very important. An important part of attitude is your ethics and values…As you get older, it's not that it becomes less and less important what others think, it's that you become more sure of who you are.
I feel very fortunate and I take pride in my identity. I take pride in my dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship. I take pride in being a survivor of the Holocaust. I'm proud that I've had all kinds of opportunities, so I start the day spending a minute or two looking in the mirror – looking at who I am, where I am – expressing my appreciation, my gratitude…If you can look back – at any stage in your life – and not be ashamed of what you have done, that is successful aging. Both Bernice and I relate to our life and living as positively as we can.
What do you think people – including those who'll be reading this profile – need to know about aging well?
There are three important things. They are all related. You can't pull them apart. We already talked about attitude, values and ethics – and how what's in your heart impacts your ability to enjoy what you have. The second thing is knowledge, conscious knowledge – in your head – about what it takes to age well. That's critical because you must know as much as you can about what is in your best interest and what's going to work against you as you age. The third is the physical ability and skills to do the things that you need to be able to do to age well, or to care for your significant other.
As a person who has been studying aging for over 40 years, where do you think the field of aging studies – both gerontology and geriatrics – is headed?
It's going to be challenging and the main challenge will be to ensure the security of as many seniors as possible. We have to strive for a contemporary USA that will assure the welfare and wellbeing of both the old and young. For that, we need bi-partisan support – like the bi-partisan of support we had in the '80s under Reagan – to ensure the future of Social Security.
Another challenge is the funding of our public benevolence programs, the Old Age-Survival-Disability-Health Insurance “package.” The future of that package is in peril…and that must be addressed.
You have had a long and productive – and personally rewarding – life. When you bow out, is there any one thing you want to be remembered for?
Not especially. Life is a continuum. I did certain things at certain times, at certain points in my life, but what I did and do is always a part of the continuum of who I am. And it's the whole continuum that is important, not just one or two things done at one or two points in time.
And yes, there are events – life-changing events – that are of special importance, but they are still part of your continuum. My favorite expression is: You are who you are and you become more so as you age. Back to the top
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