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L

Joyce Keller: JARC's executive
director.

A Manageable
Future?

JARC anticipates
losses in funding and
quality as the state
cg• shifts
. . Medicaid
rectpients into
ci managed care plans.

Life
B
Goes On

As JARC residents age, their
increasing needs
have to be met but how?

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER

arbara Hertsberg, 68, says she has
trouble walking as well as she did
when she was younger. "I have to hold
onto walls. I'm afraid of the ice."
Other than that, Ms. Hertsberg — who
is under the care of the independent living
program run by the Jewish Association for
Residential Care (JARC) — appears fit, en-
ergetic and forward-thinking. Every so often,
she throws her arms around Ruben Dom-
nitch, 72, another JARC resident who for 10
years has been the love of her life, and gives
him a kiss.
But not all JARC residents are as mobile
and lucid as Ms. Hertsberg and Mr. Dom-
nitch. Some come to JARC with severe de-

The Peace
Pulse

A group of community leaders returns from
Israel with emotions that range from
cautious optimism to buoyant enthusiasm.

JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER

velopmental disabilities
and, as they age, it doesn't
get any easier.
JARC serves 55 people
over the age of 55, six of
whom are older than 70,
according to Christine
Hench, JARC's assistant
director. None of the 16 JARC group homes
in southern Oakland County is expressly for
seniors, says Arlene Schofield, a Rill-time
staff member at the Harry and Sara Berlin
Home, where Mr. Domnitch lives.
As JARC residents age, their growing
needs place additional demands on the staff,
JARC Page 22

Barbara Hertsberg
and Bithen
Domnitch, both
JARC residents,
have been
sweethearts for
about a decade.

rline Gould would say
she's fairly conservative
when it comes to Israeli
politics. She aligns herself
with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's harder-line stance
on Palestinian demands, reject-
ing any notion of a state within
a state.
David Gad-Hart, the executive
director of the Jewish Communi-
ty Council of Metropolitan Detroit,
calls himself a "middle-of-the-road
pragmatist" who would like to see
an end to the bitter warring be-
tween Jews and Palestinians but
has no illusions about a harmo-
nious future.
And then there's Michael Trai-
son, the chairman of the Ameri-
ca-Israel Chamber of Commerce

of Michigan and a frequent visi-
tor to Israel. He believes a strong
Israeli economy is the key to a
lasting peace with Arabs inside
and outside of the country, and
believes Israel also has an ethi-
cal responsibility to assist pover-
ty-stricken areas like the Gaza
Strip — a place he described as
a hell hole.
The three were among 14 De-
troiters who returned last Sun-
day from a one-week visit to
Israel, where they met with the
Jewish leader of a West Bank
town, a Palestinian Legislative
Council member, Richard Roth
of the U.S. Embassy in Israel,
and others. The visit coincided
with the signing of the agreement
on the Israeli military with-

JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER

sense of anxiety is
gripping social service
agencies as the state em-
braces managed care
plans for Medicaid beneficiaries.
At the Jewish Association for
Residential Care (JARC) in
Southfield, officials are unsure
what the future holds, but they
are certain it means fewer dol-
lars, a lot more competition,
and perhaps an erosion in stan-
dards of care.

A

LOSSES page 23

drawal from Hebron — provid-
ing them an up-close look at the
makings of a new peace.
"Nobody would have antici-
pated that while we were there,
the Hebron agreement would be
signed. I did not expect the
Likud government to not only
agree on transferring control of
most of Hebron to the Pales-
tinians, but even more signifi-
cantly, to lay out a road map for
the peace process here on out,"
Mr. Gad-Harf said.
"I did not anticipate that such
an overwhelming majority of the
Knesset, representing both Likud
and Labor and many of the
smaller parties, would vote in fa-
vor of the Hebron agreement.

PEACE PULSE page 26

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