Metro

47,

Jewish Senior Life

New agency brings together local senior services.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

I

t's a very good day today," proclaimed
outgoing Jewish Home & Aging
Services (JHAS) President Mark
Kowalsky, and about 250 leaders in the
Jewish community agreed with him.
They attended a June 17 meeting, instal-
lation of officers and dinner in a festive set-
ting at the Norma Jean and Edward Meer
Jewish Apartments to celebrate the "official
joining together" of the JHAS, Jewish
Apartments & Services and other local
Jewish organizations into the new Jewish
Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit (JSL).
The boards of directors of the two groups
approved the merger at a combined meet-
ing last year; several committees spent the
past year working out the details.
Coming under the new JSL umbrella are
some functions of the Jewish Community
Center, JVS and Jewish Family Service.
"Jewish Senior Life will help all of us bet-
ter assess community needs:' said Barbara
Nurenberg, president and CEO of JVS. "It
will help with fundraising, social planning
and the development of the cultural aspect
of the community"
JHAS Executive Carol Rosenberg called
the merger — which she prefers to refer to
as a "restructuring" — the "building of a
new bridge" in the Jewish community, ust
like Moses parting the Red Sea." She said
elderly Jewish adults will see "an enhanced
level of benefits and opportunities beyond
what could have been accomplished by
separate agencies."
JAS Executive Director Marsha
Goldsmith Kamin described the merger
as a "coming together of two legacy orga-
nizations, creating a synergy to serve as a
model for the continuum of eldercare, a
venture that will make all of us proud."
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit President Nancy Grosfeld hailed the
event as a "historic moment in Federation
history;' pointing out it will provide "better
access by the elderly to services they need

JSL Composition

Seven residences and nine major ser-
vices come under the umbrella of the
new Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan
Detroit.
The residences are: Margo and
Warren Coville Assisted Living

A14

July 2 • 2009

Mark Schlussel, Bloomfield Hills, past president JAS; Fred Blechman, Bloomfield,
Hills, JSL president; Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, Huntington Woods, executive
director, JSL; Larry Tisdale, West Bloomfield, past president, JAS, board member,
JSL; Carol Rosenberg, Troy, executive director, JSL; Neil Gorosh, West Bloomfield,
past president, JAS, member-at-large,JSL

Larry Machlis, West Bloomfield, administrator, Prentis Apartments, Oak Park;
Pete Wurdock, Royal Oak, director of communications & marketing, JSL; Barb and
Douglass Bloom, Birmingham, JSL supporters

in the community!'
Federation CEO Robert Aronson brought
the audience back to reality by calling for
$50 million from the Jewish community,
which would fund not only the agencies
involved in the merger, but also provide
assistance for all elderly people in the corn-

munity."It's not easy to make changes like
this, but the merger was definitely needed:'
Aronson said. "Now we must mobilize the
community in a fundraising effort. The first
priority in our Jewish community is to take
care of the elderly"
Aronson confirmed later he would like to

Apartments; Edward I. and Freda
Fleischman Residence/Louis C. and
Edith B. Blumberg Plaza; Dorothy and
Peter D. Brown Memory Care Pavilion;
Lillian and Samuel Hechtman Jewish
Apartments; Norman Jean and Edward
Meer Jewish Apartments; Anna and

Meyer Prentis Jewish Apartments,
and Harriett and Ben Teitel Jewish
Apartments.
The services are: the Club in the
Plaza; Dorothy and Peter D. Brown
Jewish Community Adult Day
Care Program; Jewish Community

raise an additional $50 million, in the same
manner, for Jewish education in the com-
munity, thus providing $100 million for the
community's two pillar foundations.
The good news is that about $13.5 million
of the money for JSL and about $15 million
of the funds for Jewish education already
have been accumulated, from existing
budgets and through trust and endowment
principal and interest amounts from philan-
thropists. The Detroit Jewish community's
Jewish Fund, which began years ago with
$63 million from sale of the former Sinai
Hospital — Detroit's "Jewish Hospital"
— also contributed to the new amount.
"But we still have a long way to go as we
grow these funds," said Dan Greenberg, the
Federation's senior endowment develop-
ment manager, who keeps track of the
intricacies in the myriad of philanthropic
funds coming into the Federation. "And it
will be a tough battle in view of today's dire
economic times. But the $50 million for JSL
is not meant for residents of JHAS and JAS
residences only, but for all Jewish adults
living in their own residences. The money
would help provide for their transportation
needs, exercise regimens, nutritional needs
and many other programs."
JSL begins operating with a budget of
close to $18 million. The 102-year-old
JHAS took in $5.2 million in revenue last
year, including almost $310,000 from the
Federation, to help assist about 1,800 elder-
ly people. The 42-year-old JAS garnered
$12.7 million in revenue, including almost
$226,000 from the Federation, to help about
800 residents.
Under the new organization, JSL will
handle seven residences and nine major
services. Rosenberg and Goldsmith Kamin
will remain executive directors of JHAS
and JAS, respectively, with a total personnel
count of 230, plus about 600 volunteers.
"And there will be no reduction in services
to the elderly,' they emphasized.
Fred Blechman, the JSEs first president
who was installed at the meeting, stressed
that the new organization "is meant to

Chaplaincy/Outreach Program; Jcare;
Merle and Shirley Harris Guardianship
Program; LeVine Institute on Aging;
the Art of Jewish Caregiving; Program
for Holocaust Survivors and Families,
and Danto Family Health Care Center,
Preferred Provider.

