PHOTO: Cantor Linda Shivers, seated, and Patti Magid-Volk in the storage space at Congregation Neveh Shalom that houses their medical equipment lending program, Avraham's Closet. (Rockne Roll/The Jewish Review)

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Nestled downstairs under the Stampfer Chapel at Congregation Neveh Shalom, in a room dominated by heating and ventilation equipment, is a collection of items that fills one of the areas greatest and least known needs: durable medical equipment, readily accessible and available to use without the need for lengthy insurance processing, Medicare sign-off, or cash. 
The room, and the service that gets that equipment into the hands of those who need it, is known as Avraham’s Closet. 
Named for co-manager Cantor Linda Shivers’ husband Albert Shivers, who’s Hebrew name is Avraham, the program started shortly after its namesake was coming home after a stay at the Robison Home at Cedar Sinai Park following a fall. 
“He couldn’t go home unless he had certain equipment,” Cantor Shivers explained. “So, I had to go find the equipment, and it was a big pain.”
Cantor Shivers had seen churches with lending libraries for medical equipment but didn’t know of such a service within the Jewish community. So, with the aid of Neveh Shalom’s Chesed Committee, she started one, putting out the call for donations of equipment. 
In addition to the equipment, she needed someone who knew what to do with it. 
“[Donors] started to give me things that I didn’t know what they were,” Cantor Shivers said. “I might know how to mechanically adjust it, but I didn’t know how to properly fit it.”
She combed the Neveh Shalom member directory for physical therapists and found Patti Magid-Volk, a PT who has specialized in geriatric home health throughout her career and who enthusiastically joined the project.
The inventory list is comprehensive these days. 
“We have wheelchairs. We have tub transfer benches, shower chairs, raised toilet seats, commodes, front-wheel walkers, four-wheel walkers, knee scooters,” Magid-Volk explained, as well as a variety of canes, crutches, and a couple sets of bed rails. All of it has been donated. 
Those in need often find Avraham’s closet online – Magid-Volk and Cantor Shivers both said one of their most common sources of referrals is a piece then-Jewish Review Editor Deborah Moon wrote on the program. (See “Borrow rehab essentials, “Dec. 8, 2021, pg. 8) From there, they call Neveh Shalom and are put in touch with Magid-Volk or Cantor Shivers, who will set an appointment – usually very quickly.
“It’s rare that I make an appointment a week out,” Cantor Shivers said.
Names, phone numbers and email addresses are recorded, and each piece of equipment bears a tag with the synagogue’s contact information. Often, not always, the equipment is returned after the recipient is done using it. 
“A lot of people return the items,” Magid-Volk said, “and they return even more than what they borrowed.”
Avraham’s Closet will serve anyone – one need not be impoverished or even Jewish. And while the challenge of acquiring medical equipment through insurance or Medicare means that even those in good financial situations need help to get these items in a timely fashion, the biggest impact is often for those with the least ability to pay.
“We’ve delivered a wheelchair to a tent,” Cantor Shivers said. “That woman came back. She’s in a home now. She’s not in a tent anymore.”
“I’ve delivered a walker to a van that somebody was sleeping in; he was moving around quite a lot,” Magid-Volk said. “He was so happy to get it.”
It’s an impressive impact for a program that essentially has no operating budget; Magid-Volk, Cantor Shivers and other volunteers that help deliver equipment to outlying areas donate their time, the equipment itself is all donated, and Neveh Shalom fields the phone calls and provides the equipment tags, photocopies of promotional flyers, the pad which records the contact information of recipients and, or course, the space in the HVAC closet under the Stampfer Chapel. 
“It’s a labor of love,” Magid-Volk explained.
Those in need of durable medical equipment like that described, or who are interested in donating such equipment, can email cantor.shivers@gmail.com or call Congregation Neveh Shalom at 503-246-8831.