years of independent existence.
More and more Jewish patients
were finding themselves in sec-
ular or Christian healthcare
institutions, where the staff
was less likely to understand
their religious needs and prac-
tices.
So Parr asked questions and
she learned. Now Parr is help-
ing others through a book she
has co-written, Jewish Resource
Guide: A Caregiver's Reference
to the Jewish Culture and
Traditions. The 118-page
paperback, co-written by Oak
Park Rabbi Avie Shapiro
(director of religious activities
for Fleischman
Residence/Blumberg Plaza in
West Bloomfield) and pub-
lished with a grant from
Barbara Jean Frankel of West
.3 Bloomfield, has become a fix-
ture at nurses' stations in many
of the area's major hospitals
.1 and nursing homes since its
publication in the spring.

on Jewish
caregiving
to a
national
audience.

Margot Parr, fore-
ground, is flanked by
Rabbi Avie Shapiro and
Sheyna Wexelberg-
Clouser.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
Special to the Jewish News

W

hen Margot Parr
first came to work
for the Jewish
Home and Aging
Services in 1994, she admittedly
had a lot of questions.
They weren't about the opera-
tion of the JHAS. Parr pretty

much had that nailed, having
worked for both a Lutheran and
a Catholic healthcare institution.
But when it came to some of the
things the residents were doing,
she was in the dark.
Parr, a Christian, had never
been exposed to such a degree of
Jewish ritual observance and
Jewish holidays. She didn't know
what a lulav or an etrog were or,

for that matter, why they were
important. She didn't know what
was appropriate to say on certain
holidays or what was kashrut.
"I am embarrassed to say that
I knew nothing," Parr said,
Mostly, Parr knew she was not
the only one. When she arrived,
Borman Hall in Detroit was in
the process of closing. Sinai
Hospital of Detroit was in its last

National Audience

Parr and Sheyna Wexelberg-
Clouser, director of outreach ser-
vices for JHAS, presented the
book and their class, The Art of
Jewish Caregiving, to a much
wider audience at the American
Society on Aging and the
National Council on Aging in
New Orleans, March 8-11.