Temple Beth Am brings Hanukkah to Mercy Medical Center

Rabbi Ronald Brown of Temple Beth Am in Merrick stood with members of his congregation around Stanley Bralower, a patient at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre. Bralower smiled as Brown placed a menorah by his bedside and a series of get-well cards, crafted by the third and fourth-grade students at the temple’s Hebrew school, in his hand.

The group comprised Reanna Valente, Joseph Drossman and Ellie Gallo, who are all members of the temple’s confirmation class, as well as Matt Lax, who was confirmed last year, Brown’s wife, Tsipora Brown, Temple Beth Am Principal and Rabbi Mickey Baum and Cantor Dan Rosenfeld. They visited 10 more Jewish patients at the hospital where they said a Hanukkah prayer for healing and offered menorahs and get-well cards. When asked about their charitable act, Brown told a story that has struck a chord with him for the past 43 years.

When he was 23, Brown was at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, studying to be ordained as a rabbi. He had just met his wife, Tsipora Brown. “When the war broke out, everything went on-hold,” said Brown, referring to the 1973 conflict between an alliance of Egyptian-Syrian states and Israel that started on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Hebrew people. Brown said that he wanted to contribute, and started volunteering at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. There he helped treat injured soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces. As Hanukkah began, he noticed that the soldiers had to celebrate alone and weren’t given menorahs. After making a call to Temple Beth Am, where his father served as a rabbi, he was able to have menorahs shipped overseas so he could observe Hanukkah with the soldiers.

The experience inspired Brown to do the same for Jewish patients at Mercy Medical Center. He submitted a proposal to the National Jewish Outreach Program’s most recent endeavor, Chanukah Across America. Similar to Shabbat Across America, the goal of this campaign is to encourage Jewish organizations and synagogues to share their Hanukkah celebration with as many Jewish people as possible on Dec. 28. The proposals will be judged according to their outreach potential and educational themes. The winner, still to be decided, will receive a $1,000 grant.

Brown said that his plan is to expand Temple Beth Am’s role in Chanukah Across America and to include more hospitals across Long Island. He intends to reach out to the other synagogues in the area to encourage their congregation’s involvement.

As the group made their way around the hospital, Director of Volunteers Kathleen Fee checked on the patients before Brown and his group entered. She left one room apprehensively, saying that the man inside was unresponsive and could use the prayer. As the confirmation students walked into the room, they quietly chanted the Mi Shebeirach, a Hebrew healing blessing.

The man breathed heavily and gave little reaction, but after the group left the room, Brown told the students, “Your presence made a difference in his life.” He encouraged them to go home and reflect on the experience, just as he still thinks about his efforts at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.