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As May was National Older Americans Month, the Martin and Edith Stein Assisted Living Residence in Somerset had a perfect opportunity to celebrate the half-birthdays and unique lifetime accomplishments of its two centenarians.

Telly Goldstein and Herbert Rand, who will both be 102 in October, received special certificates on behalf of Somerset County from Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine at the Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus For Senior Living May 21.

Somerset County has 53,673 citizens who are 60 or older, according to a proclamation Levine read before a crowd of over 50 people at the ceremony.

"Of all the residents who live in Franklin Township, you are at the top," Levine told Goldstein and Rand. "There is so much emphasis on youth these days, but we should really be revering those in society who have experience and have made real impacts."

Goldstein's son, Lenny, presented her life story to the audience. She moved from Germany to Brooklyn at age 16, working as a seamstress and then a dress designer. In conjunction with a politically connected relative who still lived in Germany, she filed the necessary paperwork to help her father escape the Dachau concentration camp, Lenny said.

Over a 10-year period before, during, and after the Holocaust, Telly would help bring various other German cousins to America, paying a $2,500 bond to authorize the immigration of each one. The cousins would live with the Goldstein family for about a year apiece until they were ready to support themselves, Lenny said.

"If everyone that [my mother] helped during her lifetime was here today, the room would be too small," Lenny said.

Telly lived in Brooklyn until she moved into the Stein Residence last September. Recounting Rand's accomplishments, his daughter, Barbara Daniels, said that his diverse career included work as an attorney, author, archaeologist, and artist.

"As Herbert likes to say, he has gone from 'A' to 'A'," Daniels said.

As a gift, Daniels presented her father with a framed juris doctor certificate, which he earned from Brooklyn Law School. Rand retired from law at age 80 and then taught English as a Second Language for six years, an appropriate profession considering that he can also speak Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, Daniels said.

Sitting by Rand's side at the celebration was Pearl, his wife of 72 years and counting.

Jackie Kott, director of recreation at the Wilf Campus, gave background on Older Americans Month during her closing remarks. The month's theme this year was "Living Today for a Better Tomorrow," with an emphasis on reinforcing healthier societies and creating better health care for America's elderly population.

"[Telly Goldstein and Herbert Rand] have been through so much more than I can ever imagine," Kott said in an interview after the ceremony. "It's a pleasure and an honor to work with people like this. They certainly get a hello from me every time I pass them."