These are the things for which a human being is rewarded in this world and continues in the world to come honoring parents, doing deeds of loving kindness, attending the synagogue, providing hospitality, visiting the sick,assisting the needy bride, attending the dead, discerning the meaning of prayer, bringing peace between one person and another. The study of Torah is greater than all (Talmud Shabbat 127A).
Rabbi Acha, son of Chanina said, “One who visits the sick takes away 1/60th of that person’s pain” (Talmud Nedarim 39B).
It is clear that Jewish tradition mandates bikkur cholim — visiting the sick — an obligation for each individual member of our Jewish community.
It is a shared Jewish communal responsibility because, for many Jews, the default comfortable response might be to ignore or even ostracize those who are ill. Jewish tradition instead commands the kehillah kedosha (sacred Jewish community) to remember and touch those who are sick.
The Milwaukee Jewish community has chosen for almost 50 years to make sure that Jewish patients, residents and families (especially those not connected with a synagogue) were visited by the Jewish Chaplaincy Program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in cooperation with Jewish Family Services.
These trained Jewish chaplains and volunteers are familiar with Jewish tradition as well as the insights of modern psychology, making their visiting the sick all the more helpful.
At first, all visits were conducted at the former Mt. Sinai Hospital and at the Mental Health Complex. Today, those visits occur in hospitals throughout greater Milwaukee, as well as in nursing homes, group homes, hospices, as well as at the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division and through the Jewish Chaplaincy (adult) Special Needs Holiday Program.
There is currently a full-time rabbi director of the program and two part-time staff — Gloria Krasno and Vicki Ganeles. The program also depends on a cadre of volunteers.
At a time in people’s lives when stress and lack of control make life very scary, these JCP visitors step in to listen, touch, sing, pray, advocate, refer and do whatever they can as representatives of our Jewish community to ease the situations of those in great need.
Patients, residents and family members have written many times over the almost 50 years during which several thousand patients, residents, or family members a year were served. Here are some excerpts from their stories:
“Our 55-year old father suffered a massive heart attack. Through the entire trauma, uncertainty and sadness, the Milwaukee Jewish Chaplaincy Program offered endless support for my father and our family.
“Rabbi Lewy took great care to visit my father whenever he could and spent many hours talking with him, providing a spiritual support that my father stated were the most comforting and calming moments during his 6 month stay.…
“Passover was a hard time for our family as we always celebrated together. The Jewish Chaplaincy Program brought wine and matzo to my father’s room and invited my sister and me to seder.
“My sister married during my fathers long hospital stay. The wedding was the one joyous and happy occasion for our family during this hard time. However my father wasn’t able to attend. Rabbi Lewy conducted a prayer for my sister and her new husband at my father’s bedside.”
“I love celebrating every holiday with the friends I have made at the Jewish Chaplaincy Special Needs Holiday Program. It is the only place where there are other people with the same experiences. It is my community.”
“A Russian Jewish woman spoke no English for whom the chaplain sang Hebrew and Yiddish songs. When hearing ‘Oif’n Pripichek,’ the woman’s face lit up. After 20 minutes, the chaplain was ready to leave. Speaking in Yiddish, the patient said, “stay with me a bit longer,” grabbing the chaplain. The chaplain stayed longer.”
The impending elimination of JCP due to the economy means that unaffiliated Jews in hospitals, nursing homes, group homes and hospices will be unlikely to receive this support and that is very sad.
Judaism teaches that Jews are obligated to live only in a community where there is a physician. Living in a community where there are no designated trained bikkur cholim visitors makes the community less strong and less of a healing kehillah kedoshah.
I pray that this community will learn and be led by those who currently serve as Jewish chaplains. People in our community who have been trained to do the bikkur cholim mitzvah can be bright lights as role models and teachers for doing this avodat kodesh (holy work) to maximize continuity for these life-giving visits to our health care institutions and other isolated settings.
I have had the privilege of being the director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Program for the past 10 years. To paraphrase the Jewish teaching about teachers learning from their students: I have learned much from my teachers and colleagues, but my life has been made incredibly richer through visiting with patients and residents and their families.
To quote from Mishnah Brachot 4:2: “Rabbi Nechunyah Ben Hakanah would pray when he entered the house of study and when he exited he would say a short prayer.
His colleagues asked him “What is the nature of this prayer?” and he said to them, “I hope that no sin happened as a result of my teaching” and when he would exit the house of study he would give thanks for his portion.
Now I must to pray Rabbi Ben Hakanah’s prayer on my own behalf. While thanking G-d, I extend my special appreciation to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Services, the health care institutions, my two predecessors — Rabbi Emanuel Lifschutz (may he rest in peace) and Rabbi Tsvi Schur — staff, volunteers, patients, residents, and families for the privilege of serving in this wonderful role.
Rabbi Len Lewy is director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Program. The final Jewish Chaplaincy Special Needs Holiday Program will be held at the Jewish Home and Care Center on June 25 at 11:30 am. For reservations, contact Vicki Ganeles at 414-839-9376. It is anticipated that the JCP Special Needs Program will continue under different auspices.
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