Code Blue fi)r Borman Hall?
TODAY'S
ACTIVITIES
In the worst-
case scenario,
Borman would
fail inspection,
forcing state
case workers
to relocate all
residents to
other non-
profit homes.
Friends Sylvia Ginsberg and Jean Krajden.
Borman Hall was not
built to accommodate
nursing home patients.
Rather, it was a place for
the poor, yet indepen-
dent, elderly to live.
Now the majority of
residents are on govern-
ment assistance, and
they are sickly. The
needs are greater.
For Nancy Cohen and
an alternative group
called Concerned
Citizens for the Jewish
Elderly, the community
must take an active role
in elderly care. The
group of less than 20,
which formed a few years
ago, meets periodically to
protect rights of the
Jewish elderly.
They have written to
Jewish clergy, JHA
board members and
administrators. They call
experts all over the coun-
try. Though they are not
recognized as an affiliat-
ed group of Detroit's
JHA, their voices have
been heard. They want
the community to wake
up, and to better care
for its aging population.
"Honoring and caring
for one's parents and
dependents has always
been a cherished part
Markey Butler (head of the table) meets with Borman management team.
of our Jewish heritage,"
Ms. Cohen said. "It is
shameful that this afflu-
ent community, known
for its generosity, cannot
or will not support its
elderly.
"How can we provide
much-needed help to
Israel and Russian
Jewry and ignore the
plight of our own com-
munity's most vulnerable
and needy who are
caught in this period of
the Home's transition?"
Across the country,
there are 105 not-for-
profit Jewish nursing
homes. According to
Herb Shore, director for
the North American
Association of Jewish
Homes and Housing For
the Aged, no nursing
home has closed. A few
in California, he said,
have faced similar code
violations as Borman.
"At Borman, they are
smelling the coffee, hear-
ing the wake-up call,"
Mr. Shore said. "The
future now is what
becomes of the issue.
Is the community pre-
pared to really maintain
the high level of care
that Jewish homes have
provided in the last 100
years?
"Of course, there is a
need for Jewish nursing
homes," Mr. Shore said.
"The way in which we
care for the elderly is a
moral imperative, it is
part of our faith, tradi-
tion, the fifth command-
ment.
"The Jewish communi-
ty never has and never
will abandon the elderly.
Borman was at the
wrong place at the wrong
time and the community
stopped paying attention
to it. It is time to join
hands, fix it and go for-
ward." 0
CD