Los Angeles Jewish Home

It is official – Skirball Hospice is on the exclusive list of the Top 25 places to work in the greater Los Angeles Area! In a special supplement of the Los Angeles Daily News (and their newsgroup newspapers) published on Sunday, Skirball Hospice is ranked #6 in small companies (under 200 employees) for “making their workers feel appreciated and inspired, or helping them grow as professionals.”

This recognition is powerful since it is based on our staff's opinions of what it is like to work at Skirball Hospice – day in and day out – and the confidence this expresses in how we are functioning together for the benefit of our patients and families.

Labels: Best Places to Work, Los Angeles News Group, Skirball Hospice, Top Work Places

Have you ever been hurt or damaged by what someone has done to you? Do you remember how it felt – and perhaps how the memory still upsets you? Were you treated brutally? Or taken advantage of financially? Were you teased or hurt by cruel things said to you? Were you damaged because someone was prejudiced against your people? Were you ignored or laughed at in conversation?

I think most of us can recall all sorts of ways we've been hurt, in our feelings, our body or our pocketbook. What do we do with these hurts? For some, what comes naturally is to take them out on others – to damage others like we've been damaged. Others may see the best thing to do is put aside our hurts (if not quite forgive and forget), and get on with our lives.

Because of a Torah reading this month that contains that powerful principle, Love your neighbor as yourself (sometimes called the Golden Rule), I have been thinking about a famous variation of it. Some of you may be familiar with the story about Hillel, the great Jewish sage who lived two thousand years ago: a non-Jewish person came before Hillel wanting to be converted, on condition that Hillel would teach him the whole of Torah while the man was standing on one foot. Hillel said to him, "What is hateful to you, do not do to others: that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn it."


What Hillel is doing here is taking the Golden Rule and making it much easier to understand and use. Love your neighbor as yourself is a wonderful principle from which all other moral rules derives, but it is not always easy to know how to apply to our lives. However, if we can hold in our minds the words of Hillel – What is hateful to you, do not do to others – we have a ready guide to behavior. For this principle tells us what to do with our own feelings about how we like, or hate, to be treated, and what to do with all those hurts we have suffered: not to put them aside, not to take them out on others, but instead to use them to guide our life and our actions for the good.

For instance, if I know how horrible it was for me to be teased or subjected to cruel words, I must never do that to others. If I recall the hurt I felt as a child being called a "dirty Jew" (thankfully that was not a frequent happening), then that must guide how I think about other peoples, or religions, or races, or nationalities: not ascribe negative characteristics to those groups, and not treat members of them badly because of those imagined characteristics.

If I have felt ignored when I was in need or distress, or when I had something to say, then I need to be especially careful not to ignore others. If I have found my reputation damaged because people have been gossiping about me, I must guard against gossiping about others. Of course there are many wrongs that I personally haven’t suffered, but I can imagine how much I'd hate the experience, and that should be a warning bell for me not to cause such wrongs to others.

Hillel's demand that we use our own experience and feelings as a guide to action is reflects a teaching found frequently in Torah, about how we should treat the "stranger" – i.e. the immigrant from another land who lives amongst us. The Torah teaches: "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. He shall be to you as one of your citizens: you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." We are to use our own bad experiences as strangers (and slaves) in Egypt – or wherever we have lived as a minority community in a country not our own – to ensure that strangers among us are treated much better.

While this is how Torah tells us to treat the stranger, Hillel's teaching, What is hateful to you, do not do to others, is a powerful reminder about all our actions. Our experiences, bad experiences in particular, are to be central to our moral stance in the world; and we cannot claim to be living ethically if we ignore those experiences in how we treat others.

Labels: Elman, For the Spirit, Hillel, Letter from the Rabbi, Love your neighbor, Torah

Everyone knows the Jewish Home celebrated its Centennial last year. But did you know the Home’s resident newsletter – the Chai Journal – also celebrated a milestone? That’s right…2012 was the 10th anniversary of the Chai Journal, a quarterly newsletter written by residents of the Home’s Eisenberg Village (EV) campus. The Chai Journal also features original art by artist-in-residence, Suzanne May, whose talent often graces the cover.

You’re probably wondering how the newsletter came to be…One day, residents Ellis Simon and Jules Berlinsky (of blessed memory) were enjoying a meal in the EV dining room. Ellis wondered aloud why the Home didn’t have a newsletter to let residents know what was going on. He was surprised when Jules responded that, indeed, there had been one in the past, which had unfortunately fallen by the wayside. The two gentlemen decided to try their luck at getting the newsletter started again. Each wrote a few articles, made 50 copies, and circulated them among the residents. The response was so positive, they took the idea to the Home’s administration. It was decided a committee of interested residents would be formed, and a staff person would participate. The residents would write the articles and the Home would print and distribute. The publication would be called the Chai Journal…and, more than 10 years later, it’s still bringing all the latest news from around the EV campus and the Home straight to the residents’ doors. Covering special events, holidays, and other activities, the Chai Journal also includes profiles of residents and Jewish Home staff, plus there’s a little bit of “did you know” in the Around the Village column.

Facilitated by RCFE activity director Jacqui Lewinter, the Chai Journal currently has 7 writers: Helen Bragar, Nettie Freeman, Alice Kulick, Rhoda Levinson, Jeanette Schlesinger, Ellis Simon and Joy Snyder. According to Jacqui, the Chai Journal is a great activity because it provides residents with a responsibility – and a creative outlet - while at the same time being fun. “Basically acting as reporters, our writers do research, which is mentally stimulating, and get to know people they are interviewing at a deeper, more thoughtful level, which is emotionally stimulating,” she explains.

At a recent meeting of the Chai Journal editorial staff, the group talked about their experiences. Here are just a few of their comments:

• “I enjoy doing interviews…sometimes people tell me more than I ask them for!” ~ Helen Bragar
• “It’s been a great joy working with Jacqui and the group." ~ Nettie Freeman
• “I find it very inspirational to be a part of the Chai Journal." ~ Alice Kulick
• “Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly….I gotta write! Doing interviews gives me an opportunity to ask questions I would never ask in polite society!" ~ Rhoda Levinson
• “It’s a challenge, and it’s good to be challenged as we grow older.” ~ Jeanette Schlesinger
• “I love the Home so much that I want everybody to know what a great place this is.” ~ Ellis Simon
• “Basically it’s a fun thing, and I’m all for fun at this stage of the game!” ~ Joy Snyder

Each issue of the Chai Journal includes articles that run the gamut from heart-warming and touching to entertaining and just plain funny. Many are reprinted on the Jewish Home’s blog or posted on our Facebook page – They’re just too good to keep to ourselves!

For more information about the Chai Journal, please contact Jacqui Lewinter, RCFE activity aide, at (818) 774-3236 or Jacqui.Lewinter@jha.org.

Labels: Around the Home, Around the Village, Chai Journal, Eisenberg Village, Jacqui Lewinter, Journalism, News

On April 2, 2013, six proud individuals received their Nurse Assistant certificates from the Annenberg School of Nursing (ASN). The class, made up of three women and three men, successfully completed the 20-day program, which also includes Restorative Nurse training in the curriculum. With only a few days to enjoy their accomplishments, the group will take the state exam for their CNA and RNA certificates on April 6th.

With the room full of well-wishers, flowers, and balloons, Marie Fagan, ASN director, welcomed everyone and spoke about the graduates with great admiration. Jewish Home chief operating officer Larissa Stepanians wished everyone the best in their upcoming careers, adding they will always be part of the Home’s family.

Graduate Melanie Halstead gave the student welcome and thanked everyone for their support and encouragement. “As we embark on this life-changing milestone and launch a new career, please know we could not have done this without you.”

The graduates received their diplomas and class pin before the enthusiastic crowd. Graduate Debra Jackson shared a poem by Gail Lindsay, entitled Who Can You Be? “To some you’ll be hope, to others, strength…Just who can you be?...You’re a nurse’s aide, you see.”

Closing remarks were given by nurse assistant program instructor Myrna Ragovin, who spoke about how six strangers came together quickly as a group and as friends. “There’s much love here,” she said. The graduates showed their appreciation to the ASN faculty and staff with flowers and a class photo album.

To view the graduation photo album, please click here.
(And be sure to like the Annenberg School of Nursing on Facebook!)

On behalf of the Los Angeles Jewish Home and the Annenberg School of Nursing, we congratulate:


and wish them the best as they embrace the field of nursing.

For information about the nurse assistant or vocational nurse programs at the Annenberg School of Nursing, please contact Cindy Thomas at (818) 757-4431 or asn@jha.org, or visit the ASN website at www.asn.edu.

Labels: Annenberg School of Nursing, CNA, Graduation, NA, Nurse Assistant, RNA