Source: The Houston Chronicle

On September 30, 2000, The Houston Chronicle reported that "Ben "Bunny" Leff's vision is fading. At 81 years of age, he can no longer read or drive. Joe Mendelovitz, 84, needs a three-legged cane to assist his strides. But their hearts are strong. For years, Leff, Mendelovitz and other volunteers have shown up at Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services to lead the morning prayer service known as a minyan, Hebrew for quorum. Orthodox Judaism requires the presence of 10 men to hold a public worship service or Torah reading. Mendelovitz is usually the first to arrive, gathering prayer shawls and prayer books from the storeroom of the nursing home's small Miller-Kaplan Memorial Chapel. He then goes to the second floor where residents are finishing breakfast. 'Want a great photograph?' he says to an accompanying photographer. 'This woman has a great smile.' The elderly woman blushes as she flashes the smile. In a few minutes Mendelovitz is holding a door open for resident Hal Goldman as Goldman shuffles along on his walker. 'I try to hide from them, but somehow they find me,' Goldman said of the volunteers, tongue firmly planted in cheek. The morning service is a 16-year tradition for Mendelovitz, a retired bar supplies business owner. 'It was March 1984. My mother was here at the time. Leff asked me one morning if I could stay and help them because they didn't have enough for a minyan. I stayed...and the next day I started to bring some people with me, and I am still coming. 'Right now I am living in senior citizen assisted housing where I would go crazy if I didn't have this to come to every morning. God is important to the residents.'"