metro
Planning For The Future
Jewish Hospice receives second $1 million challenge gift.
JTh EvvisH6/
e * spi c E
& CHA PLAINCY
NETWORK'
- Thank you
for joining us this evening.
JHCN President David Techner announc-
es a $5 million challenge grant to fund
the agency's endowment, with the Lewis
family committing its second $1 million
gift in matching funds.
A full house gathered May 5 to preview filmmaker Keith Famie's The Embrace of Dying, How we deal with the end of life, at the
Berman, and to honor Dove Award recipient Susan Brown Lewis.
I
Barbara Lewis
Contributing Writer
S
usan Brown Lewis and her hus-
band, Bart, are modest people.
They have just given a second
$1 million challenge gift to the Jewish
Hospice and Chaplaincy Network (JHCN),
but they want the focus to be on the orga-
nization and its services, not on them.
David Techner, JHCN president,
announced the Lewis' gift May 5 at the
end of a program at the Berman Center
hosted by the Grand Circle of Women,
a JHCN support group. Andi Wolfe of
Bloomfield Hills is the group's founder.
Dana Burnstein of West Bloomfield is the
Grand Circle of Women chair.
Several hundred people attended the
program, which included a preview show-
ing of The Embrace of Dying: How we
deal with the end of life, the final film in a
documentary series about aging by Detroit
filmmaker Keith Famie. The film will air
on Detroit Public Television in the fall.
The film shows the work of the Jewish
Hospice and Chaplaincy Network, with
Rabbi Jennifer Kaluzny of Temple Israel,
one of JHCN's chaplains, in a prominent
role.
Susan Lewis of Bloomfield Hills received
the 2015 Dove Award in recognition of her
ongoing support for Jewish Hospice and
Chaplaincy Network.
"We don't do it for the attention:' she
said about the couple's philanthropy. "We
do it because it's what we need to do, to
carry on what our parents starter
Lewis is the daughter of Dorothy
and Peter Brown, whose philanthropy
enabled the creation of Jewish Senior Life's
Dorothy and Peter Brown Adult Day Care
Program and Dorothy and Peter Brown
Memory Care Pavilion, two well-known
programs serving the Jewish elderly in
Detroit.
Her parents were strong activists for
the elderly, said Lewis, feeling that they
were among the most vulnerable people
in the community. Lewis and her husband
continue to endow the adult day care pro-
gram, and she sits on its board.
Lewis said her two daughters, Lainie
Lipschutz and Julie Winkelman, both of
Bloomfield Hills, are also strong support-
ers of the Brown programs. She hopes her
five grandchildren, ages 9 to 21, will con-
tinue the legacy.
Lewis said she and her husband, an
attorney and real estate developer, learned
about Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy
Network when her parents faced their
final illnesses.
About two days before her father, Peter
Brown, died in 2000 at age 89, she met
Jewish Hospice's founder and executive
director Rabbi E.B. "Bunny" Freedman at
William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
"He treated us with such kindness and
care Lewis said. "Even though my dad
was unconscious by then, I knew he would
have liked him. Bunny was just so helpful:'
Seven years later, Dorothy Brown fell ill
but didn't meet the criteria for hospice.
"I called Bunny and told him I didn't
know what to do. He said don't worry. He
took over and made sure we had the best
care Lewis said. "His wife, Shaindy, even
came to the house with baked goods."
Five years ago, the Lewises offered
a challenge to Jewish Hospice and
Gail Danto, JHCN board member and
chair of the evening's event, welcomes
350 supporters to the Berman.
Chaplaincy Network, which had just
embarked on an endowment campaign:
for every million dollars the organiza-
tion raised, the Lewises would donate
$250,000, up to $1 million.
Jewish Hospice completed the challenge
last September, raising a total of $5 mil-
lion.
Now, as part of its strategic plan, JHCN
aims to increase its endowment to $10
Planning on page 10
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May 21 • 2015