Shalom Providence is a program to ensure that everyone identifying himself or herself as Jewish feels welcome in the hospital and that individual ethnic, cultural, spiritual and social
needs are met as well as possible. Rabbi Hershel Klainberg, the program’s ritual director, makes sure patients staying at the hospital over the Sabbath or Jewish holidays have their needs met with items like prayer books, candles and other items necessary for celebrations. Rabbi Joseph Hirsch, Rabbi David Nelson and Rabbi Jennifer Tisdale visit patients at Providence four days a week. Patients and associates may contact Michael Walch, Program Director, 248-849-3300, and leave questions on voicemail, which will be answered within 24 hours. In addition, the program’s e-mail address is shalom.providence@stjohn.org.
Kosher food service was incorporated into the At Your Request Room Service Dining ® program at Providence. There is also a dedicated snack rack in the cafeteria for kosher snacks, and visitors can ask servers in the cafeteria for a kosher meal.
The Southfield/Oak Park/Huntington Woods eruv has been expanded to include Providence. Eruv is a symbolic boundary that allows Orthodox Jews to carry certain items outside of their homes that would otherwise be forbidden during Shabbat.
