THE JEWISH NEWS
THIS ISSUE 75(
MAY 18, 1990 / 23 IYAR 5750
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
Home For Aged Move Is Approved By State
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
M
ichigan Department
of Public Health Di-
rector Raj Wiener
brought a special gift to the
Jewish Home for Aged's an-
nual meeting on Monday,
where she was the scheduled
guest speaker.
Before the meeting began,
Wiener handed a long-
awaited, signed certificate of
need (CON) for a 212-bed
facility in West Bloomfield
to JHA Executive Director
Alan Funk. The CON allows
the Home to move Borman
Hall from Detroit to its pro-
posed site at the Maple-
Drake campus of the Jewish
Community Center.
A separate certificate
allowing the Home to move
100 Prentis Manor beds from
Southfield to Maple-Drake is
being contested in court.
"I knew better than to ad-
dress this crowd without the
certificate of need," Wiener
told the 100 people who at-
tended the meeting at
Fleischman Home for Aged
in West Bloomfield.
The certificate culminates
a four-year battle with state
regulators, who have been
cautious about approving
requests for beds in nursing
homes and hospitals during
a volatile health care era in
which government reim-
bursements are sparse.
"We are ecstatic," Funk
said. "This is the day we
have been waiting for. The
future is brighter."
Funk said he expects a
new, state-of-the art 312-bed
Jewish Home for Aged to
open at Maple-Drake within
four years. The project
should be contracted out to a
builder within the next year,
he said.
The Jewish Home for
Aged's plans to move its
Detroit-based facility to
West Bloomfield faced its
first setback in 1985, when
the certificate of need board
ruled against the Home's
original request to move 312
nursing home beds at Bor-
man Hall and Prentis
Manor.
After the rejection, the
Home applied for another
certificate based on religious
needs criteria. Religion was
previously not an acceptable
category with the state.
"The (Public Health)
department has been in-
volved in the certificate of
need process for years,"
Wiener said. "It has not
been swift and easy on either
side.
"This took both sides
working through a system
that was rigid and didn't
allow for religious needs. We
made history. We changed
the system."
In addition to the request
for 212 beds, the Home ap-
plied separately for a CON
for the 100-bed Prentis
Manor, which was approved
last year. However, JHA is
entangled in a lawsuit over a
CON that was filed by the
owners of the West Bloom-
field Convalescent and Nur-
sing Center, located near the
proposed new facility.
Funk said he expects a
favorable court ruling on
Prentis in the next few
weeks now that the Home
has secured the certificate to
move Borman Hall.
Wiener said she doesn't
expect any private nursing
home providers to file
lawsuits over the Borman
Hall certificate of need. But,
she added, "even if they do
sue, the certificate of need is
totally defendable."
"To us, this (CON) is the
continuity of everything this
community stands for," said
newly installed JHA Presi-
dent David Hermelin. "This
will be a big undertaking.
There is a commitment to
the elderly. Our job is to
work with and outreach to
the Jewish community. We
need hard work, vision and
input.
"Together we will define
the meaning of the Home in
the '90s," Hermelin said.
Exodus Drive
At $12.9 Million
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
D
etroit contributors
boosted the Operation
Exodus campaign for
Soviet Jewry by $4 million
on Monday, bringing the
local total to $12.9 million
since the campaign began in
April.
Shoshana Cardin, chair-
man of the National Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry,
challenged the crowd of
major contributors at the
home of Paul and Marlene
Borman. "This is a time of
miracles," Cardin said.
"This (exodus of Soviet Jews)
is a living miracle which we
are partners in creating and
managing. It can change the
Jewish configuration.
"One million . . . 1.5 mill-
ion . . . No one knows how
many we can bring home to
Israel."
Mikhail Gorbachev has
been the leader of the Soviet
Union for five years, "but
there has been no improve-
ment. Rubles abound, but
they don't buy anything and
they are not worth anything.
"Communism is a failed
god and everyone recognizes
it. So what is left, whom do
you blame?
"Jews don't belong
anywhere in the Soviet
Union. You can't be Arme-
nian and a Jew. You can't be
Continued on Page 14
Why today's family seems unable to
withstand the force of modernity.
PAGE 26