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April 24, 2009
Looking for a chaplain
Louis Brier begins a new fundraising campaign.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
The Jewish seniors homes in Canada that have established a chaplaincy or pastoral care position find that it is indispensable, said Harry Lipetz, Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation president, in an interview with the Jewish Independent. This is the rationale behind the foundation's Chaplaincy Endowment campaign.
"The rabbis in our community have been extremely supportive over the years but we recognize the demands placed upon the spiritual leaders of our synagogues to deal with their own growing congregations," said Lipetz of the need for a chaplain at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital. "A full-time chaplain will be responsible for the co-ordination and provision of religious and spiritual support to residents, their families and staff. The chaplain will provide ongoing guidance and education, and will arrange celebrations of religious holidays and lead prayer services."
Chaim Kornfeld, who has led services at the Louis Brier's Abrasha Wosk Synagogue with Ralph Rosenberg for decades, said, with humor, "I'm getting to the age that I want, after 35 years, just to come and listen to somebody else."
He noted that he was 82 years old and that Rosenberg had just turned 100 and "we need a person who will take charge of these matters.... We need somebody who will look after the situation which may come if we are not doing the things that we did for the last so many years."
Gary Segal, president of the Louis Brier, acknowledged the contributions of Kornfeld and Rosenberg: "they've been there a long time, making sure that the running of the synagogue and its operations are taken care of and minyans are there ... but nobody goes on forever, so I think that's another area the chaplaincy program will be dealing with, not just end-of-life decision-making or counselling, but also all the Jewish cultural programming needs and practices and synagogue ritual leadership and family counselling – all that is very important."
Lee Simpson – past president of both the Louis Brier and the foundation, and the honoree at this year's Louis Brier gala – noted that Rabbi Lipa Dubrawsky has come to the Brier for many years, "silently, without fanfare, without remuneration, as a volunteer, to do our d'var Torah every Saturday."
But the home needs more than that, she said: "We need an in-house chaplain." The Louis Brier "has to live up to our values and beliefs as a Jewish community and it has to be valued by us," she said. "This is a needed, needed, needed service, so I'm hoping that the community will come together."
While the ultimate goal for the endowment to support the program is $2 million, the initial goal is $1 million, said Lipetz. "Once funds are in place, the home and hospital will conduct a search for a person having the skills and requirements they decide are needed for the job."
He added, "The difficult economic times we are experiencing has affected the ability of many to sustain their charitable giving and we hope that those who are in the position to give recognize the increased need to support charitable works."
Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, who visits the Louis Brier on a regular basis, as do his fellow rabbis and his BI colleagues, told the Independent, "The truth is that the demand of the Louis Brier is so great that there is no way that the congregational rabbis could ever meet that demand. It would be great if there were someone visiting each and every resident at the Louis Brier and Weinberg on a consistent basis."
Infeld stressed that, even when a chaplain is hired, "The congregational rabbis are not going to step back. First of all, there are a lot of people at the Louis Brier who aren't members of a synagogue, so the congregational rabbis are not going to step back and not do as much. It [having a chaplain] just means that people will be getting more of what they need. Even two, three full-time chaplains wouldn't do it, but one chaplain, part-time – full-time, hopefully – will bring the Louis Brier and the Weinberg closer to what they need."
The rabbi noted that Simpson has been BI president twice and that "this project is a testament to her hard work and dedication to the Jewish community of Vancouver."
Simpson, for her part, mentioned a sermon by Infeld when she spoke with the Independent about her reasons for supporting the chaplaincy campaign.
"Rabbi Infeld, yesterday at synagogue – I went for Yizkor – he was talking about the fact that he had lost both of his parents within one year and that, when Yizkor comes, it is a time when we relive, because we relive through the people that we've lost," she said.
"Loss is not the only reason we need a chaplaincy program, but a whole lifespan, no matter if you're 10 or 40 or 39, which I am and, of course, will always be, or, like Mr. Rosenberg, who turned a hundred last Sunday. No matter how old you are, there are periods in your life where you need to connect and think and reminisce and close, find closure.
"Rabbi Infeld talked about [how] we all have baggage and every once in a while, we need to pull that baggage out and re-examine it and pack it back and put it away, but when you're at that stage in your last part of your journey, sometimes you need some help doing that. For sure it's awfully lonely doing it by oneself. That spiritual connection, that hopeful connection of a life fulfilled and a journey well done, no matter what the trauma was or what the joys were, we need a chaplain for that."
Peter Kafka, chief executive officer of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, noted that, "there are actually several responsibilities that tie into being a chaplain." He explained, "The first is the spiritual care side of it.... The second is to serve as a member of our interdisciplinary health team. The third is tied into religious ceremonies, the synagogue, holiday celebrations, and the fourth is education and the fifth, if it works, would be taking some responsibility for being a mashgiach [kashrut supervisor]. Those are the five areas and the chaplain can pick up some or all of those and not necessarily all of them, depending on who gets selected and what we actually find."
The interdisciplinary team brings together all the different health-care providers at the home and "they, at different times, get together and work together to make sure that the quality of life and the care is appropriate for each of our residents, and so that's where a chaplain would come in to be part of that because we look at a holistic perspective for our residents, not just the nursing side and not just the care side, because, although care is absolutely important to them, when it comes to quality of care issues, there are so many other things," said Kafka.
The chaplain is not going to be doing just end-of-life work, he continued, because the Brier focuses on residents "living life while they can here as well. There are many of our residents who now have the time and the interest and they want to do some more Torah study, they want to learn more about their heritage, they want to be educated more. So this really is the time to build on that, so this person [chaplain] is going to be doing education with them."
Kornfeld joked that, "what I guess Louis Brier is looking for is an angel. They should be kind of a rabbi, a Torah reader, leading the services, a mashgiach – I told them there are no angels available, so I don't know what's going to happen, but something's going to happen."
"I think we all recognize the need for finding comfort in our spiritual side and I guess I'd sum it up by saying that nobody wants to feel alone or to be lonely," said Segal. "Everybody wants to feel that someone cares about you and that you matter and I think this program is another way – a very important way – to communicate to our residents that they are still valuable members of our Jewish community and that we care about them."
To Life! Gala Evening, honoring Lee Simpson, in support of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, takes place Sunday, May 24, at the Four Seasons Hotel. For more information, call 604-261-5550 or e-mail [email protected].
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