Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, one of the world’s largest military facilities, has served American soldiers and their dependents for more than half a century, many of them Jewish servicemen and women, Chaplain (Col.) Arthur L. Fine, 53, said proudly.
Chaplain Fine, rabbi of Congregation Zera Israel in nearby Denver, is Jewish Staff Chaplain of a proud chaplaincy service at Fitzsimons Hospital. Fine is one of America’s Rabbis Among Young Warriors.
“We deal with military service patients at their most vulnerable times of life,” explains Chaplain Fine. “They are often far from home and far from their extended families.
“This requires special insight and compassion from any chaplain, especially those of us who are Jewish, since our faith group is a small minority, stressing quality rather than quantity”
In fact, Fitzsimons can “expand overnight almost” from its normal 461 beds to almost 1,000 beds and, in an emergency, to 4,000 beds,” according to Captain Charles Ferris, 38, our special briefing officer, a research physiologist and clinical investigator.
Fitzsimons conducts joint research projects with the civilian National Jewish Hospital at Denver, where kosher food is available. Beth Israel Hospital is kosher and Rose Medical Center has TV-kosher dinners available.
Chaplain Fine, an Orthodox rabbi, notes that all Jewish chaplains must find ways to conduct their diverse congregations in “military-type Jewish services,” making allowances for varied religious backgrounds. “We are here to attract all of our Jewish servicemen and women, we do not ever want to lose any.”
Sgt. Gerry Schlesinger, 30, of Harrisburg, whose main duty is student training advisor at Fitzsimons, doubles as the volunteer “huzzan” at Chaplain Fine’s religious services.
“My observant background helps me to find ways to make the service meaningful as well as musical to all other backgrounds. Someday, I hope to be a huzzan in civilian life,” Schlesinger, an 11 1/2 year Army veteran, remarks.
Under a new program, Chaplain Fine is an IMA (Individual Mobilization Assignee), so that in event of military emergency he would assume full-time, uniformed chaplaincy duties on the spot at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. Normally he is on inactive duty, but spends one day weekly on duty and is always “on call.”
Lt. Col. Peter Blue, 43, of Columbus, Ohio, chief of nuclear medicine at Fitzsimons, is the JWB Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy-certified Jewish Lay Leader at Fitzsimons. Both Chaplain Fine and Colonel Blue include nearby Lowry Air Force Base as part of their official religious assignment.
Lay leaders are all volunteers under the JWB-CJC lay leader program. Since full-time chaplains are scarce, especially for far-flung and small Jewish military communities, the JWB-CJC development of the Lay Leader concept and program enables Jewish servicemen and women to be covered anywhere in the world where U.S. forces are on duty.
Recently honored by JWB-CJC, Colonel Blue said, “Honors are nice but Jewish duty is nicer.”
Chaplain Fine is “on the alert at any time of day or night” in the event Jewish personnel are in need of a chaplain.
“Often, our military retirees surface with a family problem difficult of solution” Chaplain Fine Says. “Sometimes there is a mixed marriage, the surviving spouse is not Jewish and is bewildered as to what to do. There is no synagogue affiliation oftentimes.
“Nearby Fort Logan, called the ‘Arlington (National Cemetery) of the West”, may not be sought as a last resting place by the family that feels a loved one should rest in a Jewish cemetery. Further, the family may be beset by financial straits.
“In such cases, the rabbis, civilian and military, have worked out a special agreement with a Denver mortician who will handle all arrangements, accepting the standard minimum government-specified fee for service-connected burials.” This is a little discussed private, human assistance program to avoid any family embarrassment, Chaplain Fine explains. But it is a heart-rending chaplain’s duty that the civilian society rarely hears, or knows, about.
Today Fitzsimons is a major asset among Denver’s great modern medical centers, strategic to the vast Rocky Mountain West.
The demands of a hospital chaplain’s ministry and a troop chaplain’s ministry are among the most intensive and draining assignments one can have. Something new and different is always confronting you.” the chaplain says.
We had just rounded a corner in one of the hospital corridors and came upon Private Isadore Slavsky of New York, who had retired in November, 1984. He was quite ill now, but brightened up when he found he had the Jewish chaplain visiting with a mixed faith-group team as well as a roving editor representing JWB-CJC.
“I’m not feeling well these days, but I am prepared, and I appreciate this,” he said with a smile. The chaplain put a brotherly arm around Slavsky, and the rest of us retreated a discreet distance to let them talk privately.
Compassionate medical care is a hallmark of Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons has treated a wide variety of patients: gas-attack victims of World War; I; tuberculosis patients; Pearl Harbor victims; enemy Prisoners of War; Vietnamese orphans rescued by the Americans in “Operation Babylift” in early 1975; and the mass release of POWs from Vietnam in “Operation Homecoming.”
Today, Fitzsimons is a hospital of enormous proportions with 288 buildings and a whole spectrum of responsibilities. In addition, there is a whole array of research including a dual laser, fluorescent-activated cell sorter and ophthalmology’s Argon ion laser to treat the eye in retinal disease. A well-trained, large surgical staff can perform a full spectrum of surgical procedures, with the exception of organ transplants.
Chaplain Fine says, “So vast is this hospital and its support facilities for patient care, training, and education that I continually learn new things about what is going on as I seek out Jewish patients and staff personnel to keep Jewish contact alive and well.” Services, especially on the Jewish holidays, draw anywhere from 25 to 100. A sweet table and special Jewish foods afterwards will often bring a whole spectrum of faith-groups and friends.
When I dined alone with Chaplain Fine in the Fitzsimons officers’ club, the chef arranged for us a full kosher table with new plastic table settings and kosher TV dinners, kept on hand for such occasion, at the request of the Staff Chaplains, whose courtesies, consideration, and thoughtfulness know no bounds. That makes patient care all the more special at Fitzsimons. Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Fletcher D. Wideman is the Fitzsimons Hospital Chaplain.
“Our job as chaplains is to say in some way to each patient, I care about you as a person”, he says. “We try to help patients so that they do not become prisoners of their disease, their sick bed, or to their other relationships. Our job is to give hope to enable them in some way to cope with their ailment.”
In terminal cases, the ability and strength to face death is necessary. “In America, too often, we run away, avoid the thought or idea of death,” noted Colonel Wideman.
The chaplain observed how appropriate is the Jewish custom of “tearing Kriah,” ripping a piece of one’s clothing, or cutting a black ribbon, worn by the mourners to show sad loss but then going on to work through the grief process of “Shiva” for seven days, and slowly adjust and begin anew while holding memories dear.
Chaplain (Col.) Norman G. Walker, Jr., Chief of the Department of Pastoral Care of Fitzsimons, was recently honored by JWB-CJC for his special efforts in interfaith integration among chaplains, making their very difficult jobs less stressful.
“We all offer pastoral care to our patients, their families, and to the hospital staff. We have to minister to the whole person, not only to his body, but to him or her, first, as a human being,” he says. Chaplain Fine nodded vigorously.
Maimonides, the great 12th-century rabbi, savant, and physician, would heartily approve of that sentiment, too.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
