AEI

DETROIT

New Sinai Department
Will Focus On Families

PHIL JACOBS

Managing Editor

A

t Sinai Hospital, a pa-
tient can come in for a
mix of sub-specialties
that are as technically ad-
vanced as laser therapy and
brain imaging.
But what if a person comes
in with a bad cold, a child
has an ear infection or some-
one needs to talk with a doc-
tor about a personal prob-
lem? That kind of doctor
carries a black bag full of
remedies, delivered parents
and their children, and for
years has taken care of the
family
That's what is happening
now at Sinai Hospital where
staff recently decided that
while the high-tech was nice,
it is also important to touch
base with what might be
more medically old fash-
ioned, a family doc.
Dr. Sander Kushner, who
for 30 years has had family
practices in the Detroit area,
is chairing the new Sinai
department. The new group
brings a personal, involved
touch to Sinai.
Not that Sinai's physicians

aren't working closely with
their patients. But family
practice is different. These
doctors not only treat their
patients, but are typically
familiar with the dynamics
happening within a family.
For instance, if a family is
experiencing marital prob-
lems, it's not beyond Dr.
Kushner to see how that is
affecting the mental and
physical health of the fami-
ly.
The doctor also acts as a
clearinghouse for sub-

"More than any
other medical
specialty, a family
doctor does about
everything."

Dr. Donald Thomas

specialties. If there is a spe-
cialist that a patient needs
to see, the patient might
have more faith in the spe-
cialist because it comes on
Dr. Kushner's recommenda-
tion. It all sounds shmaltzy
and sugary, but this is exact-
ly what family practice med-
icine is all about, according
to Dr. Kushner. It's building

trust so the doctor is almost
part of the family.
"In the original practice of
medicine, the family came to
trust the doctor for its care,"
said Dr. Kushner.
"Specialists and sub-
specialists have increased
over the years, and we are
able to direct our patients to
the proper specialist if
necessary. We bring a total
health care package to the
patient, everything from
delivering a baby and taking
care of that baby. For me,
it's a wonderful experience.
It's what I wanted to do in
medicine. Many of the
babies I delivered are still
with me as adults. Now I
deliver their babies."
Sinai is planning to have
between 10 and 15 family
practice physicians on staff.
"Dr. Kushner was selected
to chair this department be-
cause he is known and
respected in the medical
community," said Dr.
Donald Thomas, Sinai's
interim executive vice presi-
dent of medical affairs. "We
believe he will be a beacon in
bringing quality family
practice physicians to our
hospital."

Dr. Sander Kushner:
Trust and house calls.

He said patients still pic-
ture the family practice doc-
tor as the man with the
stethoscope around his neck
checking out the sick child
at the farmhouse. While
there might not be much
rural clientele for the Sinai
department, Dr. Kushner
and his staff still make
house calls if necessary.
"More than any other
medical specialty, a family
doctor does about every-
thing," Dr. Thomas said.
Family medicine is a spe-
cialty of its own, requiring

three years of graduate
training.
"The world is full of spe-
cialists and sub-specialists
who don't have their finger
on the pulse of the commun-
ity," Dr. Thomas said.
"That's what family practice
is all about. You know your
patient. You know his or her
family, the personality and
dynamics of that family."
Dr. Kushner said his pa-
tients like the fact that they
can come to one doctor whom
they trust, who is going to
care for them and help them
make decisions regarding
their health. He also said
that because of the instabili-
ty of the modern family with
a 50 percent divorce rate,
single parenthood and
societal pressures that can
result in substance abuse,
emotional and physical
abuse, economic problems
and now AIDs, the challenge
for a family practice physi-
cian is often to keep the
family together.
"We want to know what's
going on with the family,"
Dr. Kushner said. "We want
to know who lives at the
house."
"It's easier to cozy up to
the family doctor because
they've grown up with him,"
said Dr. Thomas. "The key
word is trust between the
patient and the physician.
That's our goal." El

Holocaust Children Are Subject Of New Research

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

A

s a child, Deborah
Dwork repeatedly
heard stories from
her aunt, Sara Grossman,
about war-time life for the
young people in the ghetto of
Lodz.
Her friend's mother, who
grew up in Aerenhout and
Amsterdam, spoke of similar
memories.
Dr. Dwork never forgot
these tales — which factored
largely in her decision to
study the history of children.
As a result of her studies,
she has recorded hundreds of
oral histories of child sur-
vivors. Many of their stories
have been told in her book,

Children With A Star: Jew-
ish Youth In Nazi Europe.

"These stories were not
part of the scholarly litera-
ture of the Nazi era," said
Dr. Dwork, who is working
on a related book, Flight
From The Reich."As a social
historian of modern Europe,
I was familiar with the
Holocaust canon, and I real-
ized that while there was a

14

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1992

Deborah Dwork:
Life during the Shoah.

rich memoir literature and a
plethora of psychological
studies on child survivors,
there was utter silence about
the history of children."
An associate professor at
Yale University who former-
ly taught at the University
of Michigan, Dr. Dwork
visited metropolitan Detroit
last weekend to kick off Adat
Shalom Synagogue's 10th
annual film series with her
program, "Life During the
Shoah: Its effects and af-
fects."

A feminist scholar, Dr.
Dwork, 37, began her
historical studies on chil-
dren in 1984 because no one
else had recorded the histo-
ry.
Yet, she said, if "more
women were in the profes-
sion of history, someone
would have done this
sooner."
"We needed a feminist ge-
neration of scholars," she
said.
Research on the children
was complicated. She found
no printed literature, nor
any archive boxes on the
subject. Information was
mixed with other files on the
Holocaust.
She met one survivor after
another through a "human
chain." She traveled
throughout Europe and Nor-
th America to conduct the
interviews.
Last weekend, she spoke at
a luncheon about the wo-
men's resistance network,
saying extraordinary women
were primarily responsible
for saving children during
the war.
"These women disap-

peared after the war," she
said. "For them, it was just a
natural thing to do. They left
few records, and they want-
ed no media.
"These women, even to-
day, insist they were not
remarkable," Dr. Dwork
said. "They said they did
what had to be done."
She is currently resear-
ching a third book — Extra-

ordinary, Ordinary Women

— about the wartime wo-
men's resistance network.
On Saturday evening, Dr.
Dwork captivated an au-
di ence of 200 as she
moderated a panel discus-
sion featuring four local
child survivors interviewed
for her research. They were:
Mania Salinger Hem, who
survived the death camps;
Martin Koby, who survived
in hiding; Alex Ehrmann,
who survived the camps; and
his wife, Judith Denes
Ehrmann, who survived in
hiding.
"When the war was over,
Jews — adults and espe-
cially children — were told
to put this behind. They
were told the war was over.

Move on. And the children
obliged," Dr. Dwork said.
"They came out of the war
with silence and for many,
the past is still with them,
unopened."
Judith Ehrmann was 3
years old when Hitler invad-
ed Europe and her
hometown of Budapest. She
remembers bits and pieces,
mostly stories her mother
told her. She provides no
reasons for rarely speaking
about her war experiences
with her children. She just
does not talk about it.
Her father had been taken
off to a labor camp. With her
mother and 18-month-old
brother, the rest of the fami-
ly lived in hiding with phony
identification papers and the
generosity of some non-
Jewish families.
"My mother saved our
lives," Mrs. Ehrmann said.
"Every time a dangerous
decision arose, she made a
quick decision. She toughed
it out."
To this day, Mrs. Ehrmann
is filled with a certain anxi-
ety. She said she has trouble
dropping a facade that