Gala, Film Premier, Yom Kippur, Life Stories and Sukkah Building

Dear friends,

Is there a better way for us to begin a week than with the annual Jewish Home Gala? Sunday evening was an absolutely beautiful one in every respect. We were privileged to honor Leon Sokol, a long time board member and community leader and we were joined by more than 325 people to celebrate Leon and to support the Jewish Home Family. As always, the Rockleigh Country Club was a picture perfect setting and the evening passed all too quickly. (click for more photos)

In lieu of a guest speaker this year we produced a film featuring a number of elders who live at, or attend programs at, the Jewish Home. In fact, my blog this week focused on the film and you can connect with both the blog and the film link here: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-star-is-born/. We hope you’ll share the film with others and, as always, we welcome your feedback. (Facebook link, YouTube link)

We joined together as a family on Wednesday for Yom Kippur with services on both campuses both Tuesday evening and Wednesday. I had the joy of attending services at Jewish Home Assisted Living, something I look forward to every year, and it is wonderful to begin the new year with our elders, staff and many family members who come to join us. We had some multi-generational families with us as well and it is heartwarming to see families spending these important holidays together.

The Gallen Day Center’s week began with a table of happy participants at the Gala. Everyone looked great and everyone had a wonderful evening. Monday’s highlights included a meeting of the Men’s Club, a piano concert and a new program called Sun Tao, which brought together exercise for minds and bodies. Tuesday included some fun carnival games and a new form of edible art made with pudding! We also had a session of Delay the Disease which focused on individuals with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. On Wednesday our participants who chose to attend services joined the Jewish Home at Rockleigh Yom Kippur observance. Later in the day, we had some crafts as well as a program on John Lennon in honor of his birthday. Thursday found us dancing at the monthly birthday bash and in the afternoon we had fun with vintage car and tool trivia. We wrapped up the week on Friday with a program called “Life Story.” We asked participants and their families to gather old pictures, memorabilia and other items that are important to their personal histories and participants talked about what they had brought and what it meant to them.

At Jewish Home Assisted Living, Sunday’s events included current events and a sing-a-long. A number of our residents also attended the Gala ball and everyone was dressed up and wreathed in smiles! On Monday we had fun with “Moving to the Music” as well as an interactive debate with our friend Ralph Coen. We had an outing of ladies to Coco Nails, a favorite destination and we took a group of elders to Wooddale Park in Woodcliff Lake for a traditional Tachlich service. Memory Lane elders chose a program on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall which included both discussion and watching some film clips. On Tuesday we got moving with Patrick and a full body exercise program. We followed that with our monthly interactive tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The docent led us through a tour of artists who specialize in landscapes and we enjoyed works from American, Japanese and German artists. Rabbi Korenblit also held an interesting discussion on “Yom Kippur as the Happiest Day in the Jewish Calendar.” On Wednesday we gathered for Yom Kippur services and on Thursday we began the day with “Moving to the Music” exercise. Rabbi Korenblit held a lively program entitled “Why All these Holidays?” We also had Tai Chi in Memory Lane and some great games on our It’s Never 2 Late unit. Friday began with our friend and volunteer Beth Shiffman providing her weekly news update session. We had a morning stretching program with Paula focusing on the muscles and joints in our hands, wrists, ankles and feet. We also made some lovely fall decorations for our sukkah and rounded out the week with Professor Ian Drake discussing “Japan: Our Most Important Ally in Asia.”

We had a busy start to the week at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh. We had a wonderful Afternoon of Music on Sunday featuring Lois and Joe who took everyone on a “Sentimental Journey.” Then a number of our elders enjoyed taking the short ride to the Rockleigh Country Club for our Gala, which they thoroughly enjoyed. On Monday, we had Steady Boxing as well as live music on the Rubin unit and rhythm band on Seiden In the afternoon we also had a program on Jewish traditions, a meeting of the Women’s Club and a lively session of “You be the Judge.” Tuesday began with “table topics” on the Kaplen 2 unit, Tai Chi on the Rubin unit and a drum circle for Seiden elders. In the afternoon we enjoyed the monthly birthday party featuring chocolate cream pie with vanilla ice cream. Yum! On Wednesday many of our elders joined Rabbi Feld for services in the synagogue and a number of family members were also in attendance. Thursday featured another in our Cultural Diversity Month celebrations, this week featuring Haiti. We had food, music and some wonderful stories from some of our staff who are Haitian. In the afternoon we enjoyed music from an ensemble called DNA who brought us a lively concert of Haitian music. Friday included music, games, exercise, sukkah decorating, trivia, Bingo and a Men’s Club outing to the Kosher Nosh Deli.

Our Safely@Home program was also busy this week. A number of volunteers from Goldman Sachs, who do a project with us every year, had a great day as we partnered to help Habitat with Humanity on one of their home sites. We also had volunteers help us erect sukkahs for elders in our community who are no longer able to do that themselves. This year we put up 16 sukkahs to the delight of those elders!

All the best,

Carol Silver Elliott
President/CEO
The Jewish Home Family