DETROIT

Let Us Entertain You

Jews And AIDS

Continued from Page 1

Ellis Island
March 7, 1992

The Rothchilds
February 29, 1992

Starring:

Starring:

Bernie Dean

The Award Winning Broadway
Musical covers the history of
Western Europe over the past
150 years.
Champagne Reception
8:00 p.m.

Inner Circle Reserved Seats: $25.00
Reserved Seats: $15.00
Senior Reserved Seats: $12.50

The Montreal Yiddish Theatre

An English - Yiddish Revue
A cast of 27 actors

Champagne Reception
8:00 p.m.
Inner Circle Reserved Seats: $25.00

Reserved Seats: $15.00
Senior Reserved Seats: $12.50

For further information call:

661-1000,

ext. 293

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11,

AIVIERICAN
CANCER
SOCIETY'

take responsibility for AIDS
patients and their families.
They have to change
people's prejudices and find
solutions that don't leave
families of AIDS patients
feeling shunned and wor-
thless, as patients with
AIDS are made to feel."
For Mrs. Beck, asking
Detroit's Jewish health and
social service agencies for
help was like "banging my
head against a brick wall.
"I should have been able to
call our local Jewish nursing
home," said Mrs. Beck. "I
should have been able to find
a Jewish AIDS support
group. The only thing I got
was Meals on Wheels, and
that was billed to my
grandmother and uncle."
Because Mrs. Beck wasn't
able to access a nursing
home in Oakland County,
she had to admit her uncle
into an inner city nursing
home. "He wanted to be
close to his home in
Southfield, and we weren't
able to do that for him," she
said. "Instead, his parents,
both of whom are in their
80s, had to travel every day
into Detroit to see him.
"We're a part of Detroit's
Jewish community," said
Mrs. Beck. "We're not very
religious, but we go to tem-
ple. My uncle taught Sunday
school for years. I guess I ex-
pected to use the resources
available to the rest of the
Jewish community. If it had
been cancer or some other
respectable disease, I believe
we would have been helped."
David Techner, a funeral
director at Ira Kaufman
Chapel, deplores the
sluggish rate at which Jew-
ish communities across the
country have reacted to the
AIDS epidemic. As chair-
man of a Jewish hospice task
force, he hopes to find local
solutions to housing,
counseling and health care
for Jewish AIDS and other
terminally-ill patients.
The task force, initiated by
the Jewish Family Service
and Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, has
been talking to the Hospice
of Southeastern Michigan
about training and
educating field workers in
Jewish burial, bereavement
and dietary laws.
"AIDS is here and Jews
can't keep looking the other
way," said Mr. Techner, 40.
"We have to be able to reach
out to them. Mary Fisher
proves it's not a gay disease.
I am very proud of her; she's
doing the world a tremen-
dous service."
Mr. Techner believes that
Ms. Fisher's announcement
will prove more significant

than that of basketball star
Magic Johnson. "I love that
guy, but people can always
bring up his sexual
lifestyle," said Mr. Techner.
"Mary was a heterosexual
woman in a married,
monogamous relationship."
Ms. Fisher, 42, didn't
know she was at risk until
last summer, when her ex-
husband, artist Brian
Campbell, told her he was
HIV positive. The couple,
married in 1987 and divorc-
ed in 1990, have two young
boys. Both have tested
negative.
"If you're lucky, you have
money or a strong support
system," said Mr. Techner,
who was diagnosed with
testicular cancer three years
ago. "If my cancer had
spread, I'd have been over-
whelmed with support and
concern. If I'd been HIV, you
can bet the entire commun-
ity would've ignored me. If
you have AIDS and no fami-
ly to turn to, you have
nowhere to go in this com-
munity."
Susan Efros of Huntington
Woods was able to mobilize
her family in caring for her
26-year-old brother, Harvey
Berkowitz.
"We knew there would be
no place for Harvey, so we
didn't bother trying to find

"If you have AIDS
and no family to
turn to, you have
nowhere to go."
David Techner

one," Mrs. Efros said. "It
was hard, but we wanted to
care for Harvey at home."
The Hospice of
Southeastern Michigan and
the AIDS Consortium of
Southeastern Michigan
helped Mrs. Efros and her
family get organized. "We
called the Jewish organiza-
tions in the community, but
kept getting the
runaround," she said. "It got
to the point where it became
so frustrating, we turned to
other, secular agencies. I felt
bad they didn't think the
problem existed in the Jew-
ish community. Harvey was
so sick, we didn't have the
luxury of shopping around."
At present, not one Oak-
land County nursing home
— Jewish, Christian or
secular — will admit an
AIDS patient. Last April,
one Jewish AIDS patient
died alone and disoriented in
an inner city Baptist nm-s-
ing home — with a cross
hanging over his bed. His
parents, both Holocaust sur-

Continued on Page 18

