Milwaukee Lost an Advocate in Janine Arseneau

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Photo courtesy Dianne Dagelen

Janine Arseneau

Janine Arseneau

On October 17 this year Milwaukee lost a true friend and advocate. 

Janine (nee Sarfaty) Arseneau was born August 2, 1948, in Athens, Greece to Matildi “Mitsi” (nee: Asseo) and Jacob “Jack” Sarfaty.  Reportedly her mother left France as Nazis were coming to power and fled to Greece where she met and married Janine’s father. As Sephardic Jews, her paternal grandparents, aunt, uncle and six-month old cousin died at Auschwitz in 1941.   In 1951 Janine, her brother Maurice (born 1940) and her parents emigrated to the United States through Ellis Island. They located in Milwaukee within the year. Reportedly, although both professionals, her parents worked in factory jobs to support their family “and never complained.” Her mother also taught French at Berlitz school for languages.

Janine graduated from Washington High School in 1965, from UW-Milwaukee with a degree in social work in 1969 and a master’s in social welfare in 1971. She worked as a social worker at Milwaukee County Social Services with sexually abused children, and then as a supervisor, until asked to direct the Sexual Assault Treatment Center at Sinai Samaritan Hospital in 1990. She was part of the Milwaukee Child Sexual Abuse Task Force and co-founder of The Healing Center at Dewey Center. She was an ardent advocate for the safety and solace of those abused. She met monthly with a work support group of her fellow social workers for the past 30 years.  

In 1970 she married George Arseneau, a social worker with Milwaukee County Juvenile Court. A Vietnam veteran, he died in 2003 of leukemia from Agent Orange. Janine advocated successfully for his name to be added to the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC. They shared many adventures from camping to opera. 

Janine did not return to work after her husband’s death, but instead contributed her time and talents to her community. 

Some Highlights

Janine was a significant supporter of Urban Ecology Center’s first building constructed for community and environmental education at Milwaukee’s Riverside Park in 2004 to address poverty and crime with the love and knowledge of nature. She was also a member of Urban Echo Poets there, writing poetry inspired by nature.

In 2006 she assisted Amy Peterson in establishing Grandmothers Beyond Borders to help aging Ugandan women raise their grandchildren whose parents had died of AIDS. She was undaunted by the degree of suffering or the distance between continents. Today the African cooperative is independently flourishing and expanding their skills to assist other villages in Uganda. As its principal organizer, she oversaw the annual community fundraiser of authentic Ugandan dinners. Janine periodically traveled to Uganda to monitor the program’s progress.  

In 2008 she helped found Woodland Pattern Book Center’s Wednesday Writers group for sharing poetry; she read at annual Poetry Marathons. Janine became a board member there in 2017. She was “a passionate reader and prolific poet who believed in the power of poetry to connect people in bonds of shared creativity.”

In 2010 as a member of Friends of Hartung Park, Janine helped organize the Hartung Park Farmers Market, designed to attract drivers along Menomonee River Pkwy. Still meeting every Wednesday from May till October, the market includes music and other entertainment to bring the community together.

In 2010 Janine joined Amy Peterson in starting Community Pies. The project gathered fruit from the neighborhood of Washington Park, had young people make fruit pies from scratch, then served the pies at community gatherings. This tradition continued with the Young Scientists group at Washington Park UEC, making and serving free pie at a summer bandshell concert and at Winter Fest, until the COVID epidemic of 2020.

Janine was on the program planning team for Friends of Real Food, which focuses on sustainable agriculture and healthy eating for all. She was a primary volunteer with Friends of the Monarch Trail. She assisted with the annual UWM Festival of Films in French through Alliance Francaise, and spoke French fluently. She cheered on musicians at the Coffee House. She met with various local groups around monthly brunch or pancakes, or with Riverwest Elders, to support the visions of fellow artists and activists. She made monthly sandwiches for MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary; and volunteered often to care for hospice patients.  

Janine was a student of Chi, through her practice of Taiji, and enjoyed “Gathering in the Stars.” At periodic Moon Parties she read her poetry with others ahead of the moon rise on Lake Michigan. She also lent a hand to local environmental programs from river clean ups with Nearby Nature, to Sierra Club Earth Day programs, reading as Rachel Carson and dancing as a monarch across the stage to Madam Butterfly. And at any dinner gathering she always provided a bar of dark chocolate to share for dessert.

Some Farewells

In addition to her husband, Janine is preceded in death by her parents Mitsi and Jack, and her brother Maurice. She is survived by a nephew Alexander and great nephew Nicholas Sarfaty; cousins Marck (Kathy Brown), Albert (Cindy), Evi Sarfati and Jenny Kurman; other relatives in the US and other countries; and by the many, many friends who shared in her life and loved her dearly.