Ben Boverman is an experienced JF&CS volunteer who became a Friendly Visitor in November 2019 with our Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Jewish Healing. The Friendly Visitor program matches trained volunteers with isolated older adults to provide friendship and a treasured connection to the Jewish community.
Ben speaks Russian, so we were excited to connect him with Frima. As they were getting to know each other, Ben shared that he was from Odessa, Ukraine. They quickly realized that Frima had lived two doors down from Ben’s family in Odessa and had been a classmate of Ben’s (now deceased) mother!
As Frima told Ben stories about his mother, she described her exactly as Ben remembered her. She shared that his mother had been strong in math and the sciences, and Ben commented that she had become a high school math teacher.
The two have built a strong relationship since those initial conversations. Over the summer, Ben traveled from his home in Dennisport to bring Frima masks and hand sanitizer in Brookline when she wasn’t able to get them herself.
“I’m so grateful that by volunteering with JF&CS I made this special connection, one that I now cherish deeply,” said Ben. “The fact that I found such connectivity with someone who had been a stranger to me is just unbelievable!”
Visit our Volunteer page to learn more about how you can get involved with JF&CS. For questions about volunteering, please contact Ava Harder, manager of volunteer services, at volunteers@jfcsboston.org or 781-693-5007.
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