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program first began 20 years ago when the
Jewish community discovered the need for
services for older adults, particularly those
with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s.
Only a few decades ago, older adults
experiencing cognitive decline were given
extraordinarily poor care, with little to no
focus placed on improving their interior
lives. With the help of Dorothy and Peter
Brown and other members of the Jewish
community and the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, the Brown program
was established as a then-revolutionary
program allowing adults in the area with
cognitive decline to experience a variety
of social, musical, artistic and cognitive
enhancement engagements.
“What the Brown Center means to
Southeastern Michigan is really important
to families; as opposed to a loved one sitting
at home, this program gives them purpose,
gives them life,” Famie says.
The program is open to people of all
faiths and beliefs, though Jewish older
adults have the unique opportunity to
remain connected to their Jewish heri-
tage through the program. The program
maintains a kosher kitchen, celebrates
Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and has
even developed a dementia-friendly Kol
Nidre Yom Kippur service that later won
the Association of Jewish Aging Services’
“Program of the Year” award.
Famie also highlights some of the
groundbreaking medical work being done
to prevent and reverse cognitive decline,

including research at the Technion Institute
of Technology in Israel, where researchers
work at the forefront of new discoveries on
the immune system and the brain and how
the two intersect.

JEWISH CAREGIVERS
The film also features several prominent
members of the Jewish community with a
loved one experiencing cognitive decline.
Cathy Deutchman, who has cared for her
mother, and Annette Stone, who has cared
for her husband, are two such individuals.
Deutchman, a former educator, is glad she
and Famie were able to use the film to edu-
cate people about the often misunderstood
and stigmatized topic of cognitive decline.
“I hope that people who view this film
begin to see beyond fear, stigma and avoid-
ance and instead take action,” Deutchman
says.
Stone, also praising the documentary’s
ability to educate, believes it’s her Jewish
roots that helped her be a caregiver for her
husband.
“The main lesson Judaism teaches is take
care of your people,” she says.
Famie says, “Cathy and Annette both
really allowed us to step into their lives at a
difficult time. Because of these two women,
everyone who sees this film will have a new
knowledge of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Those who experienced it firsthand will
praise Annette and Cathy for their bravery
to step in front of the camera during such a
difficult time.”

TOP: Filming at the Dorothy and Peter Brown
Community Adult Day Program.
RIGHT: Cathy Deutchman of Franklin helps her
mother fix her hair; crew members were filming the
interaction.

Famie has no plans to slow down his
production of award-winning documentary
films, with his next film similarly featuring
Those on the Front Lines of Cancer. •

Underwriting the film were the D. Dan and Betty
Kahn, Artichoke Garlic and the Marvin and Betty
Danto Family foundations. Executive producers were
Jack and Annette Stone, Jim and Cathy Deutchman,
Russel J. Ebeid family, John and Carole Kulhavi, Tom
and Sue Rau, Anthony and Mary Scimizzi, Robert
Stone and Larry and Andi Wolfe.

Bat Mitzvah Year!

The Kaluzny
family: Ryan and
Jennifer and
children Asher
and Bayla.

Rabbi marks a milestone at Temple Israel.

ROB STREIT JN INTERN

R

abbi Jennifer Kaluzny is used
to being there for other people
during life’s many landmarks.
Through births, deaths and all occa-
sions in between, she has seen her con-
gregants and the greater community
through many milestones.
Now, members and clergy of Temple
Israel are putting the focus on her as she
celebrates her 13th year at the synagogue.
“It’s kind of overwhelming because
even though I’m used to being in front of
people all the time, I’m almost never the
focus,” Kaluzny says. “I feel very lucky.”
The rabbi’s relationship with Temple
Israel has deep roots. She attended the
temple as a child. Her parents, Yolanda
and David Tisdale, are the former presi-
dent and current chief executive officer
of the temple.
“Temple was just as much part of life as
school and other activities,” Kaluzny says.
It appeared to Kaluzny that her rabbis
loved what they did — making a differ-
ence in people’s lives.
When she was 19, her aunt passed away
in hospice care in Chicago. Kaluzny was in
awe of the rabbi who came to tend to her
and the family.

22

June 21 • 2018

jn

“The rabbi sat and said a prayer for her,
and he was so respectful. She was not
really conscious anymore, but he spoke
directly to her,” Kaluzny says. “That left
such an impression on me that I knew I
wanted to be a rabbi; and I promised that
if I became a rabbi, I would dedicate my
rabbinate to doing that kind of work.”
While still in rabbinical school,
Kaluzny went to the Jewish Hospice and
Chaplaincy Network in 2001. CEO and
founding director Rabbi E.B. “Bunny”
Freedman became her mentor.
“It was her conviction to do this
from the very beginning of her rabbini-
cal career, which is pretty remarkable,”
Freedman says. “We haven’t had another
person come to us so young and stay with
us with such persistence.”
Kaluzny took a clinical pastoral
course at Beaumont Hospital and
immersed herself in the work. Seventeen
years later, she still works with Jewish
Hospice. Often with a patient load of 35
to 40, Kaluzny meets those she cares for
no matter where they are.
“She is at their bedside,” Freedman says.
“She’s there for the patients, there for the
families, to help guide and advocate and

bring wisdom.”
At Temple Israel, Kaluzny works with
eighth-graders in their post bar and bat
mitzvah year. She works with the teens,
builds on their mitzvah projects and tries
to get them to think about issues like
adults.
“It’s kind of a liminal, tenuous time,”
Kaluzny says. “We’ve created a program
that empowers them to take what they
learn and put it into action.”
Kaluzny says she always leaves time
in her busy schedule to be there for her
husband, Ryan, and their children, Bayla
and Asher (Asher’s twin Sage sadly
passed away shortly after her birth).
When possible, Kaluzny tries to join her
family for dinner.

“There are some days when my hus-
band and I are finally sitting down at
the end of the night, and I’ll say, ‘I was
a good rabbi today.’ For me, that means
I did what I set out to do every single
day, which is do no harm and do some
good,” Kaluzny says. “There are just some
days more than others when I feel I was
a good rabbi. I guess it’s the days when I
feel I made an impact.”
A special Shabbat service and din-
ner are planned in Kaluzny’s honor on
Friday, June 22, at Temple Israel. David
Tisdale says the temple expects more
than 500 congregants for the dinner
and possibly 1,000 attendees for the 7:30
p.m. service, which is open to the public
without an RSVP. •