Passover Surprise

It was shaping up to be a pretty glum Passover last week for Irving Kaufman and other Jewish patients who were cooped up in Southampton Hospital. Place mats and napkins with Passover themes would be no substitute for attending a seder or enjoying a bowl of matzoh ball soup, Mr. Kaufman told a dietitian, Regan Kiembock.

He was surprised, then, later that day when he received a call from the hospital kitchen asking him when he would like to be served.

In a letter to The Star this week, Mr. Kaufman marvels about the quality of the soup, calling it "one of the best I ever had the pleasure of tasting: light, succulent matzoh balls and a deep golden chicken soup rivaling Mom's!" Mr. Kaufman said his pleasure was heightened when he learned the soup had been prepared by Dr. John J. Ferry Jr., the hospital president.

Dr. Ferry confessed on Tuesday that the story was, indeed, true. "I guess I've launched a new tradition," he said.

The doctor, whose wife, Karen Fifer Ferry, is Jewish, and his family were sitting down to their own seder when he wondered how many Jewish patients were in the hospital. A call to admissions told him there were three, so the family decided to share their meal.

Although hospital regulations require that food served to patients be prepared on the premises, Dr. Ferry said he "applied a Talmudic solution" to the problem. Since the Ferrys' house is on hospital property, "I figured that qualifies as 'on the premises,' " he said.

Although Dr. Ferry said he "is the cook of the family," he was quick to share the credit with his mother-in-law, Therese Fifer, who prepared most of their traditional seder meal and made the matzoh balls Mr. Kaufman raved about. Dr. Ferry did, however, provide the stock, using a 24-quart pot, a good-sized chicken, and hours of simmering.