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JEWISH NEWS
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SOUTHFIELD MI 48034-2203
23 SHEVAT 5754/FEBRUARY 4, 1994
New JHA Director
Begins In 2 Weeks
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
argot Parr, a nurs-
ing-home adminis-
trator with ex-
perience in shut-
ting down facilities
like Borman Hall,
Feb. 16 will replace
Denise Bortolani-
Rabidoux to be-
come the fourth
executive director
of the Jewish
Home for Aged
since 1990. Ms. Parr will serve on an
interim basis.
The change comes at a time of con-
tinued uncertainty about the Jewish
community's role in caring for mem-
bers of its frail elderly population —
many of whom reside at Borman Hall
nursing home in Detroit. In late March,
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit will announce plans to sell or
shut down Borman Hall.
Ms. Parr anticipates her arrival to
compound the worries of Borman res-
idents and family members, many of
whom already oppose relocating the
elderly to different nursing facilities
when JHA discontinues operations
at Borman.
Ms. Parr says flux in leadership
"makes it very difficult for everyone."
However, she described herself as up-
front and available and said: "I think,
most important, folks have to get to
know me."
Prior to her appointment by the
JHA board, Ms. Parr had seen
Borman Hall only briefly during a
visit with Ms. Rabidoux last year. To
better acquaint herself with JHA, its
residents and staff, Ms. Parr will
spend time at the Home with Ms.
Rabidoux next week.
Ms. Rabidoux late last month an-
nounced that she would not renew
her one-year contract as executive di-
rector of the Home. She said her de-
cision was based on professional and
family concerns.
Following her work at the Home,
which ends this month, Ms. Rabidoux
will take a position with the
Evangelical Homes of Michigan.
Ms. Parr will oversee operations
at Borman Hall and Prentis Manor.
Lucy Miller will continue to serve as
the director of Fleischman Residence,
JHA's third facility serving non-frail
elderly.
Ms. Parr must meet with the JHA
board before establishing any long-
range objectives, but one possibility
involves supervising closure of
Borman. The main challenge of the
procedure will be "insuring the well-
mazoo when she was 4. During her
teen-age years, she worked as a nurs-
ing assistant with a caseload of 30.
Her pay: 90 cents an hour.
Since then, Ms. Parr served in the
army as a paramedic, traveled
through Europe and returned home
to work as a police service officer in
Kalamazoo.
Some years after she married, Ms.
Parr decided to go back to school to
being of residents and staff. It's trau-
matic for both," she said.
At Prentis, she and her staff will
prepare for an upcoming state in-
spection.
The new JHA official — who has
worked for Greenery Health Care
Center in Howell, Lutheran Social
Services of Michigan and Mercy
Services for Aging — says she is ac-
customed to working within commu-
nity-based institutions, which often
call for early-morning and late-night
meetings with laypersons.
Ms. Parr says she looks forward to
Sunday Family Forum meetings and
community events like the upcoming
Millionaires Party to benefit the
Home.
"I think that's what the Jewish
Home is all about. It's about commu-
nity," she said.
Aside
"fe
Lid
A Diverse Past
Margot Pam New at Borman.
Margot Parr, JHA's newly appoint-
ed executive director, was born and
raised in the Netherlands. Her moth-
er, Jenny Van de Belt, worked for the
Resistance during World War II and
hid a Jewish family in her home.
Ms. Parr immigrated to Kala-
study nursing-home administration.
"I decided it was the one thing I liked
most," she said.
A self-described "trouble shooter,"
Ms. Parr has 10 years of experience
working at faltering nursing
homes. ❑
ni LI!)
Three Years Later • •
Inquiry Into Riot Death
w
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
hen Yera-
chmiel Rabin
went to study
at a yeshiva in
Melbourne,
Australia, he
was surround-
ed by hun-
dreds of
students in a community he describes
as warm, flourishing and "filled with
Jewish life."
Among the students he met was
Yankel Rosenbaum.
Yankel was a Melbourne native
attending Yeshiva College, a
Lubavitch high school, of about 500
students, on Hotham Street. His
brother, Norman, learned with
Yerachmiel Rabin.
Both Yankel and Norman were
bright, thoughtful young men. "If you
needed a ride, needed someone to
help for Sukkot or to give out
Chanukah candles...that's the kind
of kids they were," Mr. Rabin says.
Mr. Rabin has since left his native
Australia and today lives in Oak Park
and teaches at the Lubavitch cheder.
Yankel Rosenbaum is dead —
stabbed in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,
in 1991.
And Norman Rosenbaum, an at-
torney, has been a leading figure in
the investigation into his death.
Last week, that investigation re-
ceived its first major boost when
Attorney General Janet Reno an-
nounced she will take over the case.
As part of her efforts, she said, she
will consider bringing federal civil
rights charges against Mr.
Rosenbaum's murderers.
The civil rights charges spring from
reports that Mr. Rosenbaum's mur-
derers yelled, "Kill the Jew!" just be-
fore they attacked.
Mr. Rosenbaum was in New York
doing research when he was mur-
dered. He was killed after a driver,
leading a motorcade of Lubavitch
ROSENBAUM page 12
Negative
Influences
The bitter divisions within
the Free-Pollard movement.
Story on page 60
PROFILE
A Woman's Place
Jewish precepts took Molly
Resnick to Orthodoxy.
Page 98
Contents on page 3