Sinai Closing Nears
Planning body tells Detroit Medical Center hospital should merge into Grace.
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
S
inai Hospital, Detroit's only
Jewish hospital, will more
than likely close its doors in
the near future.
Jewish community leaders were
informed this Wednesday that a
Detroit Medical Center task force had
recommended closing the northwest
Detroit facility, which it purchased in
1997, and moving its current services
to neighboring Grace Hospital.
They said the DMC board will
vote on the matter next week, and
there is not much doubt that [the
recommendation] will be accepted,"
said Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit President Penny
Blumenstein.
A spokesman for DMC, Leigh
Sullivan, said Wednesday evening that
the recommendation for closing was
made by an outside consultant group
the center hired to assess the physical
plant of both Sinai and Grace.
She stressed that no final decision
had been reached and that none was
possible before the DMC board
meets. She said the board is scheduled
to meet March 16 but could meet as
early as next week.
The center is facing enormous
operating losses, in excess of $100
million a year.
'`
facility does not affect that in any
Federation officials do not yet
know when Sinai would close, but
The DMC, which runs seven hospi-
have been assured that the "Sinai"
tals
and a score of outpatient facilities,
name will appear alongside the
has planned to merge Sinai with Grace
"Grace" name and that Grace will
for over a year, but originally intended
have a kosher kitchen and offer the
to implement extensive renovations.
same services to the Jewish communi-
One doctor, who asked to remain
ty — such as chaplaincy programs and
care for Jewish immigrants — that
have been offered at Sinai.
It is unclear what will happen to
Sinai's physicians — many of whom
are Jewish — when the hospital clos-
es, and it is also unclear what impact
the closing may have on the north-
west Detroit neighborhood sur-
rounding Sinai.
Founded in 1953 as a haven for
Jewish doctors facing discrimination
elsewhere, Sinai was sold to the
DMC for $65 million. Proceeds
Main entrance of Sinai
from the sale formed The Jewish
Fund, an endowment administered
unidentified, said that DMC is not
by Federation that has provided
telling employees, which hospital is
approximately $6 million in grants so
closing. Most of the doctors are leav-
far for health and human services. The
ing when their contracts are up in
Jewish Fund mainly benefits Jewish
July, she said Wednesday evening.
organizations, but also provides a lim-
DMC Sinai has cut the support
ited number of grants to other Detroit
staff,
and basic services, the doctor
initiatives.
claimed.
"We've had no toilet paper or
"People's lives will be affected by
tongue
blades,"
she said, and no one
the closing, but in terms of provision
cares
anymore
because
their feeling is
of services for our community, the
no one is going to be employed any-
legacy of Sinai has been set through
more and they can let the practice go
the creation of the Jewish Fund," said
down the tubes." Fl
Aronson. "The closing of the physical
Marking
100 Years Of
Detroit Jewry
Residents of the Jewish Home
for the Aged on Petoskey in Detroit
produce knitted items in the
hobby shop, circa 1950.
Photo courtesy of Leonard N. Simons
Jewish Community Archives/Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Ilyou have information about this
photograph, please call Sharon
Alterman, Jewish community
archivist: (248) 203-1491.
2/19
1999
26_D_eir_oltlewish News.
Remember
When
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1989
In the first time that two high
schools from the same city placed
one and two in the State
Championship Debate
Tournament, Southfield High
defeated Southfield-Lathrup.
Commenting on the chance of
vandalism by skinheads, ADL
regional director Richard Lobenthal
said, "It's a lot like terrorism. It
only takes one individual to do it."
1979
Dr. Hua Trang Kuan, the leader
of 68 Vietnamese boat people set-
tled in Israel, reports that the
group's children have Israeli
friends and are speaking Hebrew.
The refugees were rescued by an
Israeli ship in 1977 and brought
to Israel when no other country
would accept them.
1969
The Ten Mile Branch Jewish
Community Center opened its new
gymnasium named in memory of
Jimmy Prentis Morris, a 13-year-
old who died in a car-train accident
while returning from a University
of Michigan football game in 1965.
Wayne State Professor Otto
Feinstein and Hillel director Dr.
Max Kapustin led a meeting of 500
students in an effort to counter
anti-Israel propaganda on campus.
1959
With the immigration of 7,000
Romanian Jews to Israel and the
expected arrival of 10,000 more
this month, Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion predicts the eventual
flow of immigrants from the
Soviet Union.
1949
In a letter to Philip Slomovitz, pres-
ident of the American Association
of English-Jewish Newspapers,
President Truman writes, For one
hundred years, the Jewish press has
been a potent force in building the
America we love. May it long con-
tinue to uphold the highest ideals
of human dignity and justice!"