Vaccinations, Chinese New Year, Book Club and More!

Dear friends,

Clearly vaccine was the word of the week for the Jewish Home Family. We had a very successful second clinic at Jewish Home Assisted Living on Saturday and vaccinated elders, staff and Essential Caregivers. And we followed that up on Monday with our third and final clinic at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh. We have one last clinic at Assisted Living on February 27. The vaccination clinics have such wonderful, celebratory energy and people are excited about rolling up their sleeves and getting this all important protection. As you know, our clinics have all come through the Pharmacy Partnership program that we were required to participate it and CVS has been a great partner in this effort. One of the open questions for all of us is, of course, what happens with new staff and new elders who have not had the chance to be vaccinated. We don’t know and have had no guidance from either a State or federal level. Our hope is that the retail pharmacy distribution program, soon to roll out, will help address that concern.

At Jewish Home Assisted Living this week, we had fun with Super Bowl. Every elder received a football shaped box with treats that they could enjoy while they watched the game or the evening movie “Selma.” The afternoon ballet was “La Bayadere.” Rabbi Korenblit gave a great talk on “Don’t Yell Fire in a Crowded Theater.” Monday included morning review, a documentary on Larry King and an afternoon matinee of “Lord of the Dance.” We celebrated Chinese New Year on Wednesday (a little early!) with delicious fried wontons and vegetable fried rice in a gorgeous setting. We read horoscopes and fortunes and listened to traditional Chinese music while we ate out of Chinese takeout containers. Such fun! We also enjoyed a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. On Wednesday I had the opportunity to do book club with our elders, and some community members who joined us via Zoom. Our book was “The Lost Letter” by Jillian Cantor and we had fun talking about the many elements of this story. In the afternoon our travelogue took us to Charleston, South Carolina. Zoom exercise with Patrick kicked off the day on Thursday and in later we watched the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Beethoven’s 5th and 6th Symphonies. We also continued our screening of “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix. Friday events included a discussion with Rabbi Korenblit on “A Little Bit of Luck. There were two documentaries offered, one on Charles Darwin and the other on the most beautiful parks in the United States. And our friend, Professor Ian Drake, joined us via Zoom for a fascinating lecture entitled “Do We Have an Imperial Presidency?”

Our Memory Lane unit at Assisted Living is in the process of becoming a Green House home. Our staff of multi-skilled workers, whom we called yedid or yedidim, are focused on incorporating the Green House values of real home, meaningful life and empowered staff into the daily lives of elders. To accomplish that, we work to ensure that everything we do is not just elder-centered but rather elder-directed. This week found many elders enjoying individual activities from puzzles to leafing through magazines. There is a daily news discussion, by elder request, that is often quite lively. This week we also watched a Netflix documentary called “Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb” which detailed the work archaeologists did to try and decipher the history of a tomb that had been found after being untouched for 4400 years.

Jewish Home at Rockleigh elders began Sunday with a variety of activities including Mind and Motion, Sit and Be Fit, music trivia and more. On Sunday evening we had a Super Bowl party on every unit complete with decorations and delicious treats. Small group activities were the highlight of Monday including Wake up to Music, Faith Formation, current events and Cardio Drumming, which is a brand new program and was very well received. Tuesday’s favorite was Chair Yoga, combining soft music and gentle movements to begin our day. We also had active games later in the day as well as Russian Club. By elder request we began rehearsals for our annual musical “The Lion King.” While we are not doing full building rehearsals, we were able to begin to work on the music on the units. Elders were very excited and when they sang together, one of them exclaimed “This is just what we need now!” Wednesday included Steady Boxing as well as a wonderful Young at Art program. We painted and decorated photo frames and then took pictures of our elders, with big smiles, to put into those frames. Culinary Club featured some real favorites—chocolate cookies and hot chocolate—and were a big hit. Other Wednesday events included Rabbi’s Forum, Guitar Strings and Fun and Games. We used our iN2L system (it’s Never 2 Late interactive system designed for elders) to play “Family Feud” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and other games. “Family Feud” was clearly the most popular. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the release of Carole King’s “Tapestry” album we had a biography of Carole King as well as a sing-a-long. In the afternoon Avi Feld brought the Chinese New Year celebration to the Rockleigh campus with delicious food, beautiful decorations and Chinese music. Friday’s fun was a visit from the Girl Scouts of Demarest. They came over to build a snowman in the inner courtyard and there were lots of elders having fun observing the process! WE also enjoyed other small group activities including Poetry Club, Men’s and Women’s Clubs, inspirational visits and Chaplain’s Chat.

This was a LeadingAge blog week for me and here is the link: https://leadingage.org/members/life-and-loss As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Be well,

Carol Silver Elliott
President/CEO
The Jewish Home Family