54 Friday, March 21, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Investigation of Nursing Home Operations Embarrasses New York City Jews By DAVID FRIEDMAN (Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.) investigations, including politicians are also Jewish. The investigation into the The lawyer for the Metro- operations of proprietary politan New York Nursing nursing homes in New York Home Association and the City has embarrassed the industry's chief lobbyist in Jewish community. Some New York state is Stanley Jews fear that the public is Lowell. He is also chairman viewing the issue as .a Jew- of the National Conference ish scandal. on Soviet Jewry. There is the fact that the But on the other hand, central figure in the investi- Andrew J. Stein, the gations now being con- young assemblyman who ducted on the state and fed- heads the Temporary eral levels is Rabbi Bernard State Commission on Liv- Bergman, a leader of the ing Costs and who first New York Orthodox com- began the investigation munity and for many years into nursing homes, is a leader in the American Jewish as are many mem- and world Mizrachi move- bers of his staff. Rep. Ed- ment. Most of the other ward Koch (D-NY), who nursing home operations asked the U.S. Senate sub- and others mentioned in the committee on long - term From All Of Us To All Of You— A Peaceful, Happy, 'Joyful Passover BRODY'S BOYS & YOUNG MENS WEAR 13745 W. NINE MILE RD. • BankAmericard • Master Charge LI 3-4115 • Layaways —..J J L ings in New York is a Jew active in'the Jewish corn- munity. Many of the re- porters who have been ex- posing the abuses of the industry are Jewish,- in- eludingJack Newfield of the Village Voice, who, along with John Hess of the New York Times, has taken the lead in investi- gating Bergman's opera- - tions. But perhaps most impor- tant of all is the fact that an estimated 33 percent of the patients in private nursing homes are JeWish and these are the people who suffer the most from the abuses of the industry. The 'Senate subcommittee has. found these same abuses in the nursing home industry throughout the country. Sen. Charles H. Percy (R-I11.), the ranking Republican on the subcom- mittee and considered a leading expert on the indus- try, has called it a "national scandal." Unfortunately, the probe has taken a- Jew- - ish color in New York City because almost all of the nursing home owners are Jews and many of them are Orthodox Jews. However, should the charges against Bergman and others be proven cor- rect, this should not be al- lowed to reflect on the Jew- ish community or even the a Orthodox segment. In this matter, some of Bergman's supporters can be faulted Jew- for trying to make it a Jew- ish issue. L 1 1 L care to hold public hear- Bergman's lawyer, Na- than Lewin, while stress- ing he was not charging anti-Semitism, told the Senate subcommittee that he believed that the state health department was prejudiced against Ortho- dox Jews. John Hess of the New York Times claims that when City Commissioner of Investigations Louis Kaplan investigated the nursing home industry in 1960 and accused Bergman of estab- lishing a "stranglehold" on the industry, the charges were dropped after a group of rabbis persuaded city of- ficials that the scandal would bring disgrace on the Jewish community. The Jewish community can only be faulted in the present scandals because it, like the entire community, has ignored the problems of nursing homes. The 40-page American Jewish Congress report issued at the end of July 1974 said there were an estimated 5,000 Jewish pa- tients in private, profit- making nursing homes who along with non-Jewish pa- tienth, "suffer from indif- ferent treatment and dire disregard of their human needs. Jewish tradition and law require the care of the sick and the aged. Sen. Percy noted that among the best run nursing homes were those operated by the Jew- ish community. Public attention has now been thrown onto the operations of the profit- making homes in New York City. A Senate sub- committee is looking into them as is the U.S. Attor- ney's Office. Gov . Hugh Carey has. named two USY Regional Begins Today 1 . 1 L L L L L L Central Region United Synagogue Youth will have its 22nd annual regional 1 convention today through Sunday in the Sheraton Cadillac Hotel. More than 360 USY'ers and 50 advisers from Indi- ana, Pennsylvania, Michi- gan, West Virginia and Ohio will attend. The theme of the weekend is "Symbols of Judaism," and the conference will fo- cus on Pesah. The conven- tion will begin 9 a.m. today with registration, and will follow with study groups and socials. The Kol Yisroel musical group, and Pande- monium, monium, a rock band, will entertain. Chairpersons for the weekend are: Andrea Tar- noff, overall chairperson: Steve Isenberg and Marsha Raimi, social; Pamela Lip- . pitt and Sheryl Rose, hospi- Sincere best wishes for a joyous and festive Passover Helen and Paul Zuckerman 1 L 111 II Cost for Parley -- Approval Sought. WASHINGTON (Zins) — The State Department has asked Congress to approve a sum of $442,000 to cover the expenses of the American delegation to the Geneva Conference which will deal with the Arab-Israel dis- pute. The USSR is a co- sponsor of the conference. tality; Harold Youra and Susan Acker, kits; Sander Davidson and Miriam Sil- verman, religious; Robert Kimmel, transportation; Cindy Bloom, Ronn. Nadis and Lisa Levin, registration; and Lori Grushko, typing. Advisers are Karen Knop- pow and Howard Beneson. Communal Service Meeting in Israel An International Confer- ence of Jewish Communal Service will be held in Jeru- salem, Aug. 10-14. - Created in 1965, the Inter- national Conference of Jew- ish Communal Service grew out of the need of Jew- ish communal workers throughout the world to strengthen their under- standing of each other's pro- grams and to communicate better with their colleagues in order to enrich the qual- ity of their work. The overall theme of the 1975 conference is "Con- tinuity and Change in Jew- ish Life: The Role of Jewish Communal Service." Plen- ary sessions, forums fol- lowed by small discussion groups and workshops. will he he held. Additional information about the conference and re- lated tours can be obtained from El Al Israel Airlines. special committees, one headed by Charles J. Wines, who was appointed a special prosecutor for nursing homes, and the other a Moreland Act Commission headed by Morris B. Abram, a for- mer president of Brandeis University and former president of the American Jewish Committee. But these will only have short-term effect: The abuses have existed because as the AJCongress pointed out there has been "neg- ligence by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare" and, as the New York City hearings have shown, negligence by city and state agencies in seeing that standards set for nurs- ing homes are enforced. 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