Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us . Editorial Careqiving At Its Best F or 100 years, Jewish Home & Aging Services has kept its promise to the community, to care for frail older adults with the highest standards reflecting the art of Jewish caregiving. Known as the Jewish Old Folks Home when founded in 1907 at Brush and Winder in Detroit, the agency evolved into Jewish Home & Aging Services and followed the progression of the Jewish community to the Petoskey Street home in 1937, to Borman Hall in northwest Detroit in 1966 and into the northern suburbs at the "flagship" Fleischman Residence/Blumberg Plaza in West Bloomfield in 1982. It has been a century of great successes as JHAS enhances the quality of life of the elderly in an environment that empha- sizes and respects Jewish values. But the years haven't been free of challenges. JHAS Executive Director Carol Rosenberg points out that "we've probably had at least one big crisis a year for 100 years, but it's nothing we couldn't overcome' The Jewish community is rightly proud of the work of JHAS. Almost 700 people gath- ered at the Detroit Opera House on a Sunday night (Sept. 30) to pay tribute to JHAS and to Rosenberg for her 27 years of service and stewardship. The 100th anniversary celebra- tion raised more than $600,000 for the Acts of Loving Kindness Gimelut Chasadim pro- gram to help support the frail elderly who need financial assistance. It's just the latest success for JHAS. Other JHAS shining stars include the Dorothy & Peter D. Brown Memory Care Pavilion and Brown Jewish Community Adult Day Care Program; the Marvin & Betty Danto Family Health Care Center; Medilodge of Southfield (formerly Menorah House); the Club in the Plaza, which is a daytime program for older adults; Respite Care, which is temporary lodging for those who need only a short stay; Jewish Community Chaplaincy, a program that provides religious programs and services to people in non-Jewish health care facilities; the Merle & Shirley Harris Guardianship Program, providing legal representation to vulnerable older adults; and a program for Holocaust survivors and their families. JHAS assists about 2,500 people with the aid of the JHAS Auxiliary, volunteers and benefactors. Fleischman alone conducts 250 programs a month, including music, games, lectures and trips into the community. But Rosenberg and her 150 employees also know the challenges. People are living longer and require new gerontology techniques and specific skilled care with modern technology "More transi- tions have occurred in the past 25 years than in the previous 75:' says Rosenberg. "We now take care of retired doctors, lawyers, engineers, who need books and computers and want to learn more. But their love for the Jewish religion remains constant:" JHAS is confident that productive ideas will continue to emerge — from a holistic approach to wellness for people older than 55 to partnering with other agencies and hospitals to create integrated care. With the announcement by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit that older adult services will be restructured and intensified, JHAS won't serve another 100 years in its present form. A new paradigm for such services is being created, as it should. New opportunities will be a highly anticipated result of this new vision and direction. But that doesn't mean we won't continue to tap into the knowledge, expertise and leadership of JHAS or whatever part of it blends into the new "Eldercare Central" for Jewish Detroit. II Forever Cheim by Michael Gilbert ITHINKTHAT (.11-14-1UH, THAT'S WWII. THIS ONE G.JA OF PASSAGE IN THE INTERPRETING re-)er Is SA9ING IT . 15 THAT ITS 0.K. TO STEAL UND6R CERTAIN • CoIJDITIONS - HOWEVER, IT M AM NOT BE QUITE WHAT THE SAGES HAP NV MINI? WHEN THE. CHOSE TO INCLUDE THIS ASS/AGE --QO THIS TEXT Reality Check Get On The Bus T he bus ride was my cousins' idea. Kathy and Glenn asked if I would draw up an itinerary to take us to all the houses their dad had lived in when he was growing up in Detroit. It seemed like an interesting way to observe my Uncle Seymour's 86th birth- day, and by "interesting" I really mean odd. I had never known my dad's younger brother to wax nostalgic and a bus ride of this nature was once described to me in Yiddish as a fershlepteh krank — a long, drawn-out illness. Nonetheless, I aim to please and drew up a route for this surprise voyage. To my sur- prise, everyone who boarded the bus, about 25 in all, was enthusiastic. Then we turned onto Vinewood Street and suddenly the trip took on a deeper level of meaning. The house on Vinewood had long ago entered the realm of legend in our family. Among my dad and his siblings, this was their land of lost content; the wonderful house they had lived in when they were young in the 1920s and 30s. 24 October 11 . 2007 There weren't many other Jews on Vinewood, and his face the paneled living room. Here was the in this neighborhood, which is brightened just to see it again. upstairs bedroom where he slept. There now part of the Hubbard Farms When the bus stopped, Glenn was the slope from the porch down to the Historic District. But my grand- jumped off and, to our shock, street where they all sledded on winter father ran clothing and shoe ran up to the front door. He afternoons. stores in nearby Delray and this explained the situation to the I have been in larger houses with more was a convenient location. It was two elderly women who own elaborate decor and detailing. Maybe to a fine house, befitting a prosper- it now. They looked out at someone else it would have appeared ous businessman and part-time our bus with understandable fairly ordinary. But to those of us who had George Cantor chazzan. apprehension, but decided heard all the stories, it was a trip back to a Columnist Then it all came crashing the story sounded good and past we never knew. The trip continued to down. A heart attack, the Great so why not. other houses on Highland and Snowden, Depression, mortgage payments that never About a dozen of us, led by my uncle, and we stopped and took pictures. But were made; and by 1933 or so they had went inside. I know several people who have neither had the same impact. to leave. I think my dad and his siblings, returned to the homes they knew in the 50s At the end we understood that we had in one way or another, were trying to get and 60s and re-entered. But I wish I could been on much more than a bus ride. We back there the rest of their lives. describe more adequately the thrill that had reconnected as a family to some part We all have dreams about the homes we went through all of us as we entered this of us that had been lost. knew as a child. For me, it was a one-bed- living room. We all knew the stories. I had When we got back home, I told Kathy room apartment on LaSalle Boulevard in seen the house from the outside a few times. and Glenn that it was a wonderful idea a building that was torn down years ago. Occasionally, my dad would drive down here and I had always thought so. That was a But in my dream it is rebuilt, better than it on his birthday and show it to us. lie, but who's going to tell them? I was, safe and happy. But for my uncle actually to walk inside My uncle is the last surviving mem- for the first time in more than 70 years George Cantor's e-mail address is ber of the family who knew that house ... well, this was rather special. Here was gcantor614@aoLcorn.