Kosher pantry launched at St Vincent’s

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and Health Secretary Susan Pearce have used the opening of a kosher pantry at St Vincent’s Hospital to send a message to Jewish patients that they are seen, supported and safe in the state’s health system.

Park said the pantry, launched in a ceremony last Tuesday, was “more than just a cupboard”.

“This is a signal, and it sends very clearly a message that we support Jewish people as they come into our hospital, often on the worst day of their life,” he said.

“We support their faith, we support them as part of our community, and importantly, we see them. We want them to identify as Jewish. We want them to feel comfortable in our hospitals to do that.”

Pearce said the health system had a duty to use its voice. “Everywhere I go at the moment, at every opportunity, I talk about the responsibility that we have as a health system to do what is right, and what is right is to remind society that we are here for everyone,” she said.

Pearce said the health system’s push to do better had often been spurred by difficult events, including the incident at Bankstown Hospital last year in which two nurses were filmed making threats against Israeli patients. “We know that it’s not perfect … but we have to continue to strive for what is better.”

The pantry provides Jewish patients, families and visitors with 24-hour access to kosher food, prayer books and religious items. It was established through a partnership between Jewish House and Abrahams Tent, with seed funding from the St Vincent’s Curran Foundation’s Endowment Grants Program.

St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney chief executive Anna McFadgen said the pantry represented “what can be achieved when community, faith and healthcare come together in service of others”.

She acknowledged that she recognised many in the room who had been at the hospital on the night of the Bondi attack.

Rabbi Mendel Kastel, CEO of Jewish House and a chaplain at St Vincent’s for more than 35 years, said the pantry contained prayer books, reading material, and items to celebrate Shabbat including battery candles, grape juice and snacks. But it carried a meaning far beyond its contents, he said, recalling the night of the Bondi attack.

“On December 14, I was here at the hospital with probably over 100 people in the foyer downstairs,” Kastel said. “It was just a little message to say, you know what, the hospital’s really with you, the hospital’s really thinking of you … it may look like symbolism, but it’s not.”

Kastel said the initiative was part of a 10-point plan he developed after the Bankstown video, which includes reviewing the code of conduct, developing virtual chaplaincy so patients can access spiritual support anywhere in the state, and creating an online multi-faith resource hub for healthcare workers.

“How do we become more curious and more interested in each other?” he said.

St Vincent’s Emergency Department “ED Angel” Tresna Karras, who is Jewish, told The AJN she wears her Magen David and chai necklaces every day without incident.

“Jewish patients need not be concerned at St Vincent’s. It is safe, welcoming and the ethos of the original Sisters of Charity is very much evident today,” she said.

Rabbi Aycee Abrahams, who co-founded Abrahams Tent with his wife Sorella and will stock and maintain the pantry, said it had become “a genuine source of comfort and support for Jewish patients and families during some of the most difficult moments of their lives”.

“Abrahams Tent proudly initiated the 24/7 Kosher Pantry Program less than two years ago … with a simple goal: that no Jewish patient should ever face hospitalisation without the comfort of community,” he said.

There are now kosher pantries across four hospitals, with more planned.