WHAT THEY DO
Each Thursday, the 
volunteers begin by checking 
in with the hospital’s 
Spiritual Care office. The 
chaplain prepares a list of 
room numbers for all the 
Jewish patients who had 
registered as Jewish or 
contacted Spiritual Care. 
(It’s suspected that there are 
many more Jewish patients 
who did not register, and the 
hope is that this article might 
bring awareness of at least 
one benefit in doing so!) 
 The volunteers — either 
in pairs or alone — head to 
those rooms to see if those 
patients are up for a visit. 
Tzippy Ashin became a 
certified volunteer about one 
year ago. On her first day, 
she and a fellow volunteer 
knocked on the door to a 
private room and the male 
patient was ecstatic; he said, 
“I’ve been praying to God 

and here you are! Come, sit 
on my bed!” 
When they respectfully 
declined, he said, “Well, 
come in and close my door!”
“We weren’t about to do 
that either, and there were 
no chairs in his room,” said 
Ashin. “We obviously have 
to be very careful. It turned 
out he was very lonely and 
needed practical life supports 
so we helped him get in 
touch with the hospital social 
worker and gave him the 
number for Jewish Family 
Service.”
The volunteers follow the 
patient’s lead. Many times, 
the patients are sleeping 
so the volunteers leave a 
card. Other times, patients 
worry that the visitors are 
proselytizing.
“Some people say, ‘Oh, 
I’m not observant,’ but that 
makes no difference to us. 
We come just so the patients 

will see a friendly Jewish 
face,” Pichette explained. 
Some patients don’t feel 
well and turn them away, but 
most are delighted with what 
is often their only visitor and 
invite them in to sit down 
and talk. 
“Sometimes we’ll play a 
round of Jewish geography,” 
Pichette said. “Whatever they 
want. For a few minutes, 
they’ll forget their sickness 
and if that helps them, that’s 
great.”

She said many patients 
are eager to share their life 
stories.
“You would never know 
these stories unless you sit 
down and listen … I feel 
like I get more out of these 
visits than I give,” Pichette 
continued. “It helps put my 
own life into perspective.”
Ashin shared how patients 
visibly brightened when she 
visited on Thanksgiving. 
“People’s faces lit up; 
everyone was so happy to 

MARCH 14 • 2024 | 13

Bikur Cholim of Detroit also maintains “kosher cabinets” 
that contain supplies such as free shelf-stable food and 
many religious items. These cabinets can currently be 
found in four area hospitals, and they’re working hard 
to add more cabinets to additional hospitals in the near 
future. 
At Ascension Novi, the pantry can be found outside 
the chapel, near the hospital entrance. 
At Ascension Southfield, it’s in the foyer outside the 
chapel on the first floor, close to the Nine Mile entrance. 
At Trinity Health Oakland Hospital, it’s inside the 
Spiritual Care office on the first floor.
Beaumont Royal Oak has three cabinets: in the Family 
Pantry in Area B of the Emergency Center, as well as 
smaller cabinets inside the family pantry of the Family 
Birthing Center in 3C, and inside of Pantry B in the 
Pediatric Unit on 5S. (The smaller cabinets are only 
accessible to family and patients in those departments.) 
If you need assistance finding these cabinets, seek out 
patient representatives or the chaplains at Spiritual Care; 
they will be more than happy to help. 

Kosher Cabinets

continued on page 14

One of the 
kosher cabinets 
at Providence 
Southfield hospital

