The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
www.jewishlehighvalley.org
| Issue No. 469 | October 2023 | Tishrei/Cheshvan 5784 AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION EST. 1977
Look for coverage and photos of Rosh Hashanah events throughout this issue.
What’s happening with older adults in the Valley? Find out on our special Your Time pages. p18-21
FROM THE DESK OF JERI ZIMMERMAN p3 WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY p4 LVJF TRIBUTES p9 JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER p14-15 JEWISH DAY SCHOOL p16 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE p17 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p23
Student to Student: Preventing antisemitism from the start By Aaron Gorodzinsky Director of Campaign and Security Planning
What if we could prevent antisemitism before it even begins? That’s the goal of Student to Student, a program empowering high school students to share their experiences of Judaism with non-Jewish high school students. During the Summit to Combat Antisemitism in March of this year, our community learned about an initiative called Student to Student. Student to Student is a program of Be the Narrative, a national nonprofit organization that develops interactive educational programs connect-
ing Jewish and non-Jewish peers to learn about Judaism and dispel stereotypes. After several conversations with the organization, our community is about to launch its own chapter of Student to Student. Naomi Schachter, our lay leader for the initiative, and I anticipate assembling a team of 12 local Jewish students to be trained and begin presentations next spring. How does the program work? The 12 students will be chosen to create a diverse group representing a mix of different movements, including Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. The
intention is to have a variety of voices in the room, each presenting their own perspective of Judaism. These students will form into three groups of four students each to participate in a training session led by Rabbi Andrew Terkel and Fawn Chapel from Be the Narrative. They will then visit predominantly nonJewish schools to present Judaism to students, sharing what their personal Judaism looks like, with the goal of preventing antisemitism before it takes root. The idea is that the more you get to know someone, the less likely you are to harbor misguided notions about them. The Jewish
teens will also have the opportunity to learn about various Jewish practices from one another, gaining knowledge just as the non-Jewish teens will. Student to Student began 30 years ago as a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. Starting in 2015, with the assistance of a grant from the Natan Fund, the
program expanded to four other communities. It soon outgrew its structure within the St. Louis JCRC, and the spinoff organization Be the Narrative continued the work of bringing Student to Student to additional Student to Student continues on page 5
Older Adult Task Force: How did it begin? Where is it headed?
By Rabbi Allen Juda Chair of the Older Adult Task Force
The New York Times printed the article “A Home for Aged Notes 100th Year” in its May 3, 1970, issue. “One hundred years ago this month,” the article stated, “with thanks to the many ‘benevolent and charitable ladies of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, under the leadership of Mrs. Henry Leo,’ the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews first opened its doors on West 17th Street….” There are those who think this was the first Jewish nursing home facility in the United States. How times have changed! In the past few years, Jewish
skilled nursing and older adult facilities operated for decades by the Jewish communities in the Philadelphia area, in Harrisburg and in Pittsburgh have been sold. The combination of inadequate reimbursement by Medicaid and the increasing challenge of staffing, especially during the Covid years, made the operation of these facilities financially impossible. The current realities highlight the wisdom of our Jewish community in the days of Beth Tikvah. A joint project of the Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Service, Beth Tikvah was a Jewish wing in a forprofit nursing home. Our only capital expense was to pay for Non-Profit Organization
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kitchen equipment for one of the two kosher kitchens. When Beth Tikvah closed, we simply walked away from the building with no debt. Following a major demographic study of the Lehigh Valley Jewish community in 2007-08 and a subsequent strategic plan, the Federation recognized that the future for older adults was to “age in place.” Working cooperatively with JFS, the Federation continues to develop concrete services that will make it easier, safer and more comfortable for our Jewish older adults to remain in their homes as long as possible. For several years, JFS has been delivering Mazel Meals to older adults who can no longer prepare meals for themselves and may be alone for holidays and Shabbat. The Mazel Meal program provides touch points including reminder phone calls and interactions with volunteer drivers. The JFS Case Management program connects older adults to other resources such as transportation and guidance about residential options, and to other programs and services in the community. For older
adults seeking counseling, our licensed clinical social worker accepts Medicare. Expanding all these efforts and providing new services is a hope for the future. But as with all programs, we will need to turn to the community for additional financial support. The joint Jewish Federation-Jewish Family Service Older Adult Task Force has already established a minor home repair referral service and a leaf raking project for this November. And in early October, a random sampling of Jewish older adults across the Lehigh Valley will be receiving a very brief email survey that will help determine the future direction of the task force. If you are randomly selected, please take a couple of
JFS @ H ME
minutes to fill out and return the email survey. As a Jewish community, we strive to keep in the forefront of our planning the mandate of our tradition to respect and take care of our older members. The Torah (Leviticus 19:32) teaches us, “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old….” Commenting on this verse, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote, “What we owe the old is reverence, but all they ask for is consideration, attention, not to be discarded and forgotten.” We in the Lehigh Valley Jewish community are committed to remembering and revering our older adults.