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February 9, 2001/Shevet 16, 5761, Vol. 53, No.19
Tutor shares life's lessons
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
Phillip "Pat" Grosse reviews material for one of his bar mitzvah students.
Photo by Barry Cohen |
Phillip "Pat" Grosse, 90-year-old Hebrew tutor at Beth Ami Temple in Phoenix, remarks that very often, where you end up is an accident.
He has been the personal assistant to a French artist, substitute teacher, corrections officer, teacher's language license examiner and world traveler.
Grosse retired in 1974 after 40 years of service as a French teacher and language certification supervisor with the New York City Board of Education.
"Most retirees go to Florida, but my son, Fred Grosse, rabbi at Beth Ami Temple, was here," says Grosse.
He had not intended to devote much of his spare time to tutoring children and adults in Hebrew. "When I came out here, I refused to get involved in anything other than golf or swimming," he says.
Then one Sunday, a Beth Ami religious-school teacher was absent, and he was asked to substitute. Soon thereafter he says, he took on the challenge of teaching Hebrew, "for a modest fee."
All temple members play a role, he explains. Congregants are not just there for worship services.
As a tutor for bar- and bat-mitzvah students, he has learned that students bring different levels of need. So rather than bringing the students together in one classroom, he often tutors over the phone which addresses the individual needs of each student.
When Grosse asked one student if he liked being tutored that way, the student remarked, "Yes. I get to eat cookies and drink milk without you knowing about it."
Grosse's response: "You know what? I like it too because while you're reciting lessons, I'm having coffee and cake."
Another student, Alex Fidel of Phoenix, will become a bar mitzvah on March 16. Grosse has tutored him and his older brothers as well.
"He always stays on my case when I get something wrong," says Fidel, who enjoys being tutored on the phone, noting the convenience, as he lives far away from Grosse's Scottsdale residence.
Grosse has been tutoring young students by phone for the last decade, but he says he is most proud of working with an adult.
"One day a grandparent, Blossom Osofsky, got in touch with me and said she wanted to become a bat mitzvah. The problem was that she could not read a word of Hebrew. I made a whole bat mitzvah service in transliteration," says Grosse.
"When we had the Torah reading, the Torah was open (but) she had a transliteration she was reading," says Grosse. "But everything was wonderful."
Grosse is also pleased with how he has helped adults to become comfortable with Hebrew and participate in the worship service. He remarks that too many adults have never studied Hebrew, or they refuse invitations to say the Torah blessings or the blessing over the Shabbat candles because they are embarrassed.
Grosse has worked with many adults at Beth Ami, giving them transliterations or private lessons over the phone. Currently, he is tutoring two bar mitzvah pupils and one adult.
In addition to phone lessons, he prepares worksheets with everything his students need, from the blessings for the reading of the Torah to the Torah portion, verse by verse, with vowels and without.
Grosse says when he was an undergraduate student at City College of New York, he did not intend to become a teacher. During his sophomore year, he was looking for an afternoon job and responded to a want ad from a French artist. He became the artist's chauffeur and translator and had a great deal of interaction with his family, Grosse remarks.
He took more French classes at CCNY and soon became fluent.
At this time, he was dating Ruth Cherkaska. The two met in high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., and when Grosse was 21, they decided to marry. The marriage has lasted 69 years.
Though he graduated in 1930, it wasn't until 1938 that he was able to take a required exam to teach language classes full-time.
"Those days - 1929, 1930 - those were bad times," he says. Grosse scrambled for jobs in order to make a living. He would go to a school, sit in the office and wait, hoping a teacher would not come in, he remarks. He worked in the prison system for a while as a corrections officer to make a few more dollars.
Once he took and passed the language test, he gained a full-time position teaching French to 14- and 15-year-olds.
When he decided to become a language examiner and certify language instructors for the New York City Board of Education, he needed proficiency in a second foreign language. "So (Ruth and I) spent a little time in Italy. I took a leave of absence and polished off my Italian over there," he says.
Grosse became an examiner and later was promoted to chairman of the department of supervisors. The teachers' union set up $200 round-trip charter flights. This enabled the couple to go to Europe every summer, where he kept his language skills fresh.
"You could not pass up such a bargain," says Grosse.
During his many trips to Europe, he came to understand the everyday challenges facing tourists unfamiliar with a nation's language, from placing orders in restaurants to driving in cities and on the highway.
The waiters "give you a menu, and you can pick out what you want, but how are you going to tell the waiter you want it medium-well-done?" asks Grosse.
In his spare time in retirement, he has written English-French, English-Italian and English-German dining guides, including everything from saying "hello" to ordering beverages, cooking styles and desserts. He has also written an English-French and English-Italian guide to navigating on European roads, including reading road signs and requesting an oil change.
While teaching and supervising in New York in the 1950's, Grosse also received a teaching certificate from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. In Forest Hills at Temple Isaiah, he taught Bible studies and elementary Hebrew for almost 20 years.
The Grosses also have a daughter, Lynne Ackerberg, who lives in Minneapolis and works at the University of Minnesota in an English as a Second Language program that is specialized for professionals.
They have three grandchildren.
Grosse no longer plays the golf or tennis he once enjoyed.
"Age has caught up with me," he says.
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