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The Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley held its 15th annual fundraising dinner April 25 at the Pines Manor, Edison, honoring the volunteers that make Bikur Cholim's outreach possible.

Bikur Cholim, Hebrew for "visiting the sick," is a staple for Jewish patients in area hospitals for kosher food, religious items, and spiritual guidance. With a presence at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick; St. Peter's University Hospital, New Brunswick; and John F. Kennedy Medical Center, Edison; patients and their visitors are able to access a variety of items to help make Shabbat and kashrut observance easier while staying in the hospital.

"There's a synergy that's established when you have the strength of many that comes together in order to be able to perform a project," Rabbi Reuven Drucker of Agudath Israel, Highland Park, told the dinner's attendees. "This is our Bikur Cholim."

Bikur Cholim is currently led by Tammy Nussbaum and Suzanne Zaret, who have run the nonprofit since 2009.

"This is the one and only fundraiser for this organization," Nussbaum said. "There are different levels of sponsorship and it allows us also to recognize the efforts of all the different volunteers."

At the dinner, Bikur Cholim honored past president Suri Graneck, who passed away in August 2009 from cancer.

"Suri was involved in Bikur Cholim from the beginning," Fran Leitman, past president who served on this year's dinner committee, told The Jewish State. "In the beginning, she was the food chairperson, which means she stocked the freezers; if there were people in the community who were sick, she would call the families and find out what their needs were, and then call around for people to cook fresh food for them. It was just very important to her that everybody's needs be met and that people don't have any difficulties to think about while they're going through that difficult time."

One of the food lockers at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital will be named in memory of Graneck.

"We felt that this was an appropriate thing to do for her, particularly with her involvement with the food," Leitman said.

The keynote speaker at Sunday's dinner was Dr. Ben Corn, who made aliyah to Ramot, Israel, with his family from Cherry Hill nine years ago. In Ramot he founded an organization called "Life's Door," which serves to help the chronically and seriously ill cope with their illnesses.

"We have this classic medical model of cure and we know that that medical model consists of the intricate relationship between the physicians, the nurses, and the handlers," Corn told The Jewish State April 25. "But we also have this model of caring, of which we address the patient himself or herself, and those that surround the patient -- the family members and the caregivers."

Corn seeks a way to unite the two groups in order to provide the patient with as much support as possible during his time of need.

"We seem to always have these two systems at odds with each other -- the cure part and the care part -- and I believe that there's a way to combine them and create a better model for the patient himself," Corn said.

Corn called Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley the "spark that can cause the two sides of the aisle to get together," to start a similar initiative to Life's Door in New Jersey.

"I think it's the volunteers that are part of the Bikur Cholim society who can really set the tone for all of us -- both the professionals and the lay people -- to say, wait a second, who are we doing this for?" Corn said. "Who's really the center of our orbit? It's the patient. How can we swallow our pride and give ourselves to the individual? That's what these individuals do."

Reverend Dr. John deVelder, director of pastoral care at Robert Wood Johnson, told The Jewish State that the Bikur Cholim's work is invaluable to Jewish patients who are seeking help from those of their faith.

"It's so important for our patients that the Bikur Cholim people come to represent the faith community of the patient," deVelder said. "I can represent the generic faith community, but when it's your own home group, it means so much."

DeVelder said that while volunteers may be unsure of how they are received by patients, he said that patients are truly appreciative of the efforts that Bikur Cholim makes to assist them.

"I think we don't understand how valuable the Bikur Cholim is," deVelder said. "Sometimes, you talk to those patients, and they're crying because somebody cared and somebody from their own faith group came in and it's emotionally touching to them when somebody cares when they are a patient. It really helps, because medicine helps, but the spiritual and emotional help of the faith person is so important... somehow, we have that idea that God is working with them to encourage them."