THE JEWISH NEWS

THIS ISSUE 60cP

SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

GAZING
INTO
THE '90s

Story on Page 22

JANUARY 5, 1990 / 8 TEVET 5750

Kosher Food
Pantry To Open

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

A

new Oakland County
food pantry hopes to
soon hold out a help-
ing hand to hungry
Jews.
Gary Dembs, one of the
pantry's organizers, expects
Yad Ezra to open its doors in
February.
Like the 80 other food pan-
tries, soup kitchens and
shelters in Oakland County,
Yad Ezra will distribute food
to the hungry. Unlike the
others, Yad Ezra will hand
out only nonperishable
kosher food so Jews who are
hungry can still observe the
dietary laws.
Jim Macy, Oakland Coun-
ty Food Bank executive di-
rector, estimates up to
70,000 people in the county
need some type of food
assistance from time to time.
About 40,000 of these peo-
ple may work or collect
welfare benefits, but find it
difficult to stretch their in-

come to pay rent, utility bills
and food costs, Macy said.
Many are senior citizens on
fixed incomes or families
who live on meager earn-
ings. While these people can
make it through most of the
month, many must decide at
the end of each month
whether to pay for doctors'
bills, heating costs or food.
On a monthly basis
Oakland County's food pan-
tries, soup kitchens and
shelters feed more than
15,000 people, Macy said.
According to Jewish Fami-
ly Service, which provides
financial and housing
assistance to the needy,
about 1,400 area Jews need
food assistance. Most of
them, about 1,200, live in
either Oak Park or
Southfield and are between
the ages of 1-19 or 60-79.
But Dembs believes 1,400
is a conservative estimate.
He thinks about 2,000 area
Jews go hungry, but have
not sought help from JFS.

Continued on Page 16

JHA Is Playing
A Waiting Game

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

ntangled in bu-
reaucratic red tape
and plagued by a
lawsuit that has been linger-
ing in the courts for eight
months, Jewish Home For
Aged administrators have
been playing a waiting game
over plans to relocate 418
beds to a proposed West
Bloomfield facility.
"It is hard to develop a
game plan when so much
hinges on one factor," said
Home Executive Vice Presi-
dent Alan Funk, referring to
the state-required certificate
of need process, which Home
officials said has prevented it
for four years from proceeding
with plans to move.
ceeding with plans to move.
Now the Home's future is
in the hands of the state,
which has three requests

from the Home For Aged
pending before its certificate
of need (CON) board.
Hospitals and nursing
homes in Michigan can not
build facilities to move or
add beds without the ap-
proval of the board.
Also complicating the
Home's hopes to relocate are
CON requests for additional
beds in Oakland County on
behalf of Robert Gurwin,
who co-owns the West
Bloomfield Convalescent
and Nursing Center, and
Beaumont Hospital. The
only CON approved for nurs-
ing homes was for JHA for a
100-bed facility to replace
Prentis Manor, and that
CON has been tied up for
eight months in Ingham
County Circuit Court.
After JHA secured its
CON last February, Gurwin
— joined by Beaumont —fil-

Continued on Page 17