It doesn’t often happen that a request from non-Jews inspires creativity within the Jewish community. But it recently has in Milwaukee, leading to an effort that could be unique in the country.
Last year, a number of hospice administrators approached Rabbi Leonard Lewy, director of Milwaukee’s Jewish Chaplaincy Program, and Judy Strauss, vice president of programs for Jewish Family Services.
The administrators said a growing number of Jewish patients are entering local hospices; and the administrators wanted somebody to educate themselves and their staffs about what special things they may need to know to provide care for Jews.
Their idea was to have Lewy or other local rabbis provide this training. But Lewy said he was overextended with work as it is; plus, as he told The Chronicle in a recent telephone interview, “I also feel it’s important to train spiritually sensitive Jewish volunteers to be a presence in hospices, nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities.”
As a result, a committee has recently been formed to create a curriculum, then seek and train local Jewish community volunteers to teach local non-Jewish health care workers the things they need to know to help them care for Jewish patients.
The idea of providing training to such a clientele is not unique. Dianne Spector, co-director of volunteer services at JFS, is currently drafting the curriculum — with the help of volunteers Audrey Bernstein, Phyllis Brenowitz and Karen Lieberman. Spector told The Chronicle that she is consulting training manuals developed in other communities, like Baltimore, Montreal, Philadelphia and Rochester, N.Y.
What is unique is that Milwaukee is the only community so far that will be using volunteers to do the training, said Spector. In the other communities, Jewish professionals have been doing it.
Milwaukee’s curriculum will also differ from the others in its focus. “The other manuals present the information in predictable ways [starting with] Jewish history or the holidays,” said Spector. “I will start with what aspects are directly relevant to health care workers.”
This includes what questions to ask patients and their families, like, “Do you belong to a synagogue? Do you want Sabbath candles or a book of Psalms?” — and generally teaching them “to be good listeners,” she said.
Milwaukee’s curriculum and its committee to create and approve it may also be unique in their interdenominational cooperation, said Spector. Rabbis on Milwaukee’s committee include not only Lewy (Conservative), but also Jeffrey Orkin, Benzion Twerski and Mendal Shmotkin (Orthodox) and Ronald Shapiro (Reform). The seven lay members also span the religious spectrum, said Spector.
“I think everyone agreed that different Jews practice in different ways,” said Spector. “It will be a challenge to communicate that to someone who is not Jewish…. We have to figure out how to word what we say to be inclusive.”
Spector said the plan calls for the committee to approve the final draft of the curriculum. “People I’ve told this to say, ‘Lots of luck!’ or ‘I don’t believe it,’” said Spector. “I’m telling you, it’s going to happen…. Ultimately, it will benefit patients in Milwaukee’s Jewish community no matter what their levels of observance.”
Spector added that some of the communities with whom she consulted were also interested to hear about the inter-movement cooperation in Milwaukee’s effort.
Spector said she hopes a draft curriculum will be finished, then edited and approved by the committee this summer. Then she, Lewy, Bernstein and Brenowitz will try it out in the early autumn.
By mid-autumn, she said, JFS would then start recruiting and training volunteers. Spector said this program will borrow an idea from the Coalition for Jewish Learning’s Holocaust Education and Resource Center; it will send two volunteers to present the curriculum, “to affirm and support each other” and “to be each other’s resources, too.”
In addition, this program will become the gateway to an additional program. Some participants will be able to obtain additional training and become volunteer “para-chaplains,” said Spector.
This idea fits in with Lewy’s vision for the program. Because hospital stays are shorter these days, “my staff and I can’t reach every Jewish person who comes into a hospital. They are in and out in a blink,” said Lewy. “If we have volunteers who can help us, we can do a better job.”
Lewy also said he wants to make the mitzvah of visiting the sick “user friendly” so more people in the community will participate in it.
“Every Jew and person is different. Some have skills as talkers, others as listeners,” Lewy said. “That’s the difference between the two roles, the volunteer educator and the para-chaplain; the former is more of a teacher and talker; the second is more of a listening role.”
Although volunteers aren’t needed until autumn, Spector said interested people can call her now at 289-0133 or 390-5800.
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