HOSPITAL,

continued from page 7

Oak Park High School with became
physicians and about six of them, all
Jewish, are now on the staff at
Beaumont," said Dr. Joel Seidman, a
pulmonary specialist.
Seidman, who came to Beaumont
in the 1970's, said he never witnessed
even subtle anti-Semitism there. "It's
a very, very good place to work.
There's never a sense of religious prej-
udice. My ears are open all the time,
and it's not something that happens,
not even people making jokes in the
stairwells or back rooms."
Dr. Myron Laban, a specialist in
physical medicine and rehabilitation,
agreed. "Race, gender and religion are
not issues at Beaumont," he said.
"I've never experienced any kind of
/- religious problems." .
When he first came to Beaumont
32 years ago, you could count the
number of Jews on your hand," said
Laban. But he noticed a growing
number of Jewish patients in the mid
1970's, a trend that accelerated in the
1990's, when Jewish doctors — many
from Sinai — became a growing pres-
ence at Beaumont.
For Laban's partner, Dr. Ronald
Taylor, Beaumont is literally family.
Taylor's daughter, Dr. Stacey
Wittenberg, is a pediatric resident
there, and his son-in-law, Dr. Marc
Wittenberg, is an anesthesiologist
there. On a recent Tuesday, Taylor's
daughter stopped to chat with him
H over lunch in the doctors' dining
/—
room, sharing news that she'd helped
deliver triplets and teasing him about
his and his wife's upcoming appear-
ance on the talk show Oprah.
Taylor has been at Beaumont for
22 years and estimates that it's had
more Jewish patients than Sinai has
for years.
"When you lose any institution
H there's some sadness," he said of Sinai's
closing. "But I don't think there's a
need for a Jewish hospital now."

Giving Spiritual Care

/—)

TEMPLE 5111R 511ALOM
BROTHERHOOD
and the JEWISH NEWS

Although Beaumont does not have a
kosher kitchen, it does offer kosher
meals that are prepared off-site and
reheated before serving. Patients' visi-
tors and doctors, as well as the
patients themselves, can order them
free of charge.
Suzanne Crankshaw, Beaumont's
longtime director of dietetics, is not
Jewish but brings an understanding
of kashrut from experience working
in a Delaware Jewish nursing home in
the 1960s. She works closely with
Rabbi Leo Goldman, one of the

Jewish chaplains on staff, to ensure
that kosher food served adheres to
religious standards.
Crankshaw said that while kosher
meals are essentially "TV dinners"
served on disposable dishes rather
than the hospital's china, she often
supplements these meals with other
pre-packaged kosher items, such as
yogurt and cottage cheese.
"We have so many variations of
kosher requests," she said. "Some
people want to be very strict and
some want our food but with paper
service rather than china."
"Recently we've had some very
seriously ill Jewish patients with swal-
lowing problems," she added, "so
now we also have pureed kosher
meals available.
The hospital employs three rabbis
(Conservative, Orthodox and
Reform) and a Jewish chaplain, part
of a 27-chaplain team and a depart-
ment that includes a training pro-
gram in pastoral care, holiday services
for Jews and Christians and chaplains
available on-call 24 hours a day.
Although fewer services exist for
other religions, such as Islam and
Hinduism, chaplains are trained to
help people of all faiths, and Muslim
prayer rugs are available in the chapel.
Jewish patients can visit with their
own congregational rabbis (Beaumont
faxes local synagogues a list of
patients who identify as Jewish) and
the hospital's chaplains. They also can
watch Jewish services on the hospital's
television network, receive electric
Shabbat and yahrtzeit candles and
pray or meditate in the chapel. A
comfortable room decorated in earth
tones, the chapel has only a few reli-
gious symbols: a movable cross and
menorah stand on a table at the front,
and a portrait of a priest hangs by the
entrance.
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz, the first
Jewish chaplain to come to
Beaumont, said he has seen a growing
awareness of Jewish needs in his 15
years there. "Pastoral care was almost
like an afterthought at first, but as the
spiritual got more ingrained in a
whole healing process, it became a
more relevant department."
Michael Killian, Beaumont's direc-
tor of marketing and public affairs,
said the hospital has made no specific
efforts to market to Jewish patients
but We have made a sincere effort to
accommodate specific needs of all
kinds of patients... To the degree that
that makes Beaumont more attractive
to Jewish patients, that's terrific." I I

',

Present
up close and personal

Elmore Leonard

"Writing and Books Made
into Movies"

Sunday, March 28th

Elmore Leonard
is the author of
thirty-five novels. •
Among them are
the bestsellers:
Out of Sight, Rum
Punch and Get
Shorty, that were
adapted into block-
buster films. In
February, this
Bloomfield Hills
resident published
his most recent
work, Be Cool.

L
M
O

Sunday, March 28

Breakfast
Program

9:00am
10:00am

Temple Shir Shalom Members
Non-members

$10.00
$15.00

Call to order your tickets today!
Orders must be received by March 22.
Tickets will be mailed.

O

Purchase tickets through the
office at 248-737-8700
Or contact: Merryl Schwartz,
Ticket Coordinator 248-932-5199

Elmore Leonard's books El Libre, Out of Sight,
Get Shorty and his latest, Be Cool, will be
available for purchase and autographs.

A

TEMPLE

‘

SHIR
SHALOM

3999 WALNUT LAKE ROAD
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48323

D

3/12
1999

Detroit Jewish News

17