Hamilton’s city welfare board will pay $200 a month in support of an 80-year-old Jewish woman who must live in a Toronto nursing home because no such home in Hamilton has a kosher kitchen. The woman, who has lived here for 40 years, is without means and her children cannot afford private care for her. The application for welfare outside of Hamilton was made by William Morris, president of the Council of Jewish Organizations. Placing her in a home where no kosher food was available, he said, “would be like signing her death warrant.” The woman, he said, rather than eat the non-kosher food at a Hamilton nursing home “would wither away completely.”
A city official suggested a meeting between Mr. Morris and William Stern, director of the Jewish Community Center, to establish a kosher wing in a local nursing home. Mr. Stern said there were few local indigent cases and maintaining a kosher kitchen would be expensive. Hamilton’s mayor, Vic Copps, said he would explore existing Provincial assistance for people “who can’t be looked after here.” Mr. Morris and Mr. Stern expressed hope that in the future a small nursing home with a kosher kitchen might be established. The woman will stay in Toronto’s Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care which costs $570 per month. The City of Hamilton will pay $200 of that sum and the remainder will be met by the woman’s old age pension and Council of Jewish Organizations’ assistance.
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.
