Vaccinated, Inaugurated, Chocolate Bombs and Bread Baking

Dear friends,

It has been a big week for vaccinations across the Jewish Home Family. We are profoundly grateful for the opportunity to vaccinate our elders and our staff against COVID-19. We are working with CVS as our pharmacy partner and we are halfway through the total of six vaccination clinics that will happen between our two campuses. On Saturday we held our first clinic at Jewish Home Assisted Living. All of the elders who were eligible to receive the vaccine were vaccinated and more than 65% of our staff received this first injection as well. Our second clinic at Assisted Living will be held on February 6 and at that time elders and staff will receive second doses and any new elders and additional staff will receive first doses. We’ll finish the clinics on February 27 with second doses for those who received their first injections on the 6th. At the Jewish Home at Rockleigh this past Monday, 400 doses of vaccine were administered between elders and staff. We have now vaccinated 75% of our staff, with many receiving their second dose this week. More than 98% of our elders have also been vaccinated. Our final clinic at Rockleigh will be held on Monday, February 8.

All of our vaccine clinics have really been celebrations. At Assisted Living last week, we had elders lining up for their vaccinations almost two hours before the start time of the clinic! Also at Assisted Living, Rabbi Korenblit helped us mark the start of the clinic by reading a special prayer. It was an emotional moment for elders and staff alike. During the clinics, people have been all smiles, with many giving us a beaming “thumbs up” as they received their shot. We’ve had balloons and festive music and lots of snacks to really create a party atmosphere. Our staff who receive their second vaccine get a special T-shirt that they are wearing with great pride. And, as we intended it to do, other staff are asking “how do I get a shirt?” The answer, of course, is to take both doses of vaccine. It was a joy to see people’s faces light up after they received their vaccine, some of our staff were even dancing down the hallway in joy. While we know this is not the end of the line with this virus, there is a real sense of relief and hope.

Here are some of the questions we’ve been asked that you might be wondering as well: Does vaccine mean that we no longer wear masks or other PPE? The answer is a resounding no. We will still maintain all precautions and will still remind our team to wear facemasks and practice social distancing in their personal lives as well. Will there be other clinics at the Jewish Home? We don’t know but we don’t believe so. What about new staff and new elders? We hope that there will be more community opportunities for vaccination and that new staff will have received vaccine elsewhere. We do, by the way, ask staff to provide documentation if they were vaccinated in another setting. Will this allow us to reopen visiting? We certainly hope so but the restrictions on visiting have been set on both a State and federal level and we must await their direction. If you have other questions, let us know.

While the vaccine clinic was the biggest event on the Rockleigh campus on Monday, there were lots of other highlights this week. We noted Benjamin Franklin’s birthday on Sunday and talked about the interested life of this multi-talented man. Our Afternoon of Music featured Name that Tune and the Sunday night film, by request, was “South Pacific.” Monday was Martin Luther King Day and there were many discussions about Dr. King, his accomplishments and his legacy. Keeping with that theme, our movie matinee was “Selma.” Tuesday was a celebration of humor with our Comedy Central program. We discussed comedy teams that the elders enjoyed including the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello. As with many in the community, Wednesday’s focus was on the inauguration. Our units were decorated in red, white and blue and patriotic music was playing everywhere. We had discussion groups on the presidency and then watched the inauguration. Later in the day we had art, music and the Concierge Cart made the rounds. Traveling bakery was a highlight of Thursday along with Chair One Fitness, Brain Busters and individual recreation is the elder’s rooms. We wrapped up the week with music, fitness, inspirational visits, poetry circle and more.

At Jewish Home Assisted Living we led off Sunday morning with an interesting program on Confucius followed by the article of the week. Our afternoon opera was “The Mikado” and Rabbi Korenblit led a discussion entitled “The Legacy of a Dreamer: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Monday began with “Current Events with Beth,” followed by a documentary on how Martin Luther King changed the world. We had trivia themed around Dr. King and then a wonderful virtual concert “Soul to Soul,” celebrating the music and shared experiences of the African American and Jewish communities. A documentary on “Heinz: The Ketchup Kings” led off Tuesday followed by challah baking with Avi, games using our In2L (It’s Never 2 Late) system and then yoga. Inauguration Day found our elders glued to the events all day. There was lots of excitement watching President Biden and Vice President Harris take office. As you can imagine, current events on Thursday was focused on the inaugural events of the previous day and there were many requests to learn more about poet Amanda Gorman, who captured everyone’s interest. Patrick led us in Zoom exercise and we later enjoyed a “hot cocoa bomb social” while we watched “The Queen’s Gambit.” Rabbi Korenblit’s topic was “Cancel Culture vs. the Passover Haggadah” and Professor Ian Drake’s lecture topic was “How Should the United States Prepare for the Pandemic?”

This was a Times of Israel blog week for me and here is the link: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/feeling-safer/ As always, your feedback is welcome.

Be well,

Carol Silver Elliott
President/CEO
The Jewish Home Family