Balancing a large tray on her shoulders, Nahide Kafri dashed from table to table serving dinner to patients with Alzheimer\’s disease at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA).
NORCs have cropped up around the country, with an estimated 5,000 now dotting the U.S. As the population grays — an estimated 75 million Americans will be over 55 in 2010 — the number of NORCs is expected to jump, said Andrew Kochera, senior policy advisor at AARP in Washington.
This is the second of two articles examining the status of Holocaust restitution and reparations as The Journal observes the 64th anniversary of Kristallnacht (Nov. 9).
We need more stamps," a little boy yells. "How many cards do we have left?" asked a dark-haired woman. "I have more envelopes!" shouts a girl in a skirt.
With the number of Jewish elderly expected to soar over the coming decade, leaders at the national and local levels realize they must move beyond traditional methods of caring for the elderly to develop new plans and policies.
Imagine you are 90 years old and the world you once knew, even your own home, feels like a frightening and unfamiliar place. Sometimes you find it hard to recognize even your closest family members. You don\’t understand why people get angry when you wander away or when you cannot finish a sentence. You may be fit physically, but psychologically you are at a loss — and so are your family and friends. Imagine you move to a small, lovely village. There are strangers there, but they are gentle and caring. There are places to walk, and no one gets angry if you get a little lost. They just calmly lead you back to where you need to be. When you are in the mood, there is plenty to do, but no one gets angry when you just want to sit. Best of all, your family doesn\’t seem so worried anymore. This scenario is the aim of the new Goldenberg-Ziman Special Care Center located at the Jewish Home for the Aging\’s Eisenberg Campus in Tarzana.
Residents and staff of the Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA) gathered March 26 at Eisenberg Village on Victory Boulevard to celebrate the institution\’s 90th anniversary. About two dozen residents participated in blowing out the 10 candles (one for each decade and one for good luck) on the massive birthday cake.
The decorous moment was not without humor. As one bright-eyed resident in her 80s hovered nearby, a staff member asked if she wanted to move closer to watch her friends blow out the candles.
\”Oh, yes,\” she replied. \”I want to make sure they don\’t spit on the cake!\”
Sitting in her seat at the Max Factor Family Foundation Recreation Center of the Jewish Home for the Aging (JHA), 103-year-old Sylvia Harmatz cannot recall the first state to give women the right to vote. But, she remembers very clearly the first day she voted, in 1936. \”I wasn\’t a citizen until I married my husband, and so I used his papers and got a ballot so I could vote for [Franklin D.] Roosevelt,\” she said. \”I was very active in politics from that time on.\”
The Passover holiday contains countless traditions. There\’s the matzah and the sweet wine, the charoset and haggadot, the gefilte fish and the good fortune we celebrate. But perhaps most importantly, there is the gathering together of family and friends — the people who make the singing, reading and eating around the seder table meaningful and special.
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