Los Angeles Jewish Home

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

By: Ellis Simon, 88, Los Angeles Jewish Home resident 
Originally published in the Chai Journal Summer 2012 issue.

Miriam Rothstein, 91, is a lovely, gentle lady who survived the Holocaust. There is not one shred of bitterness in her demeanor. Born to an observant, educated, and well-to-do family that owned a supermarket in Romania, Miriam was the ninth of eleven children. When she was four, her family moved to a village in the Carpathian Mountains to be with her mother’s family. After Hungary annexed Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Miriam’s prep school studies ended and the family supermarket closed. In August 1941, Jews lacking Hungarian citizenship were apprehended. By March 1944, Germans controlling their town rounded up all able-bodied Jews. Miriam and her older sister, Rachel, who looked more like her younger sister, since Miriam was taller and stronger, boarded a train for Uzhorod, then part of Hungary, where her older sister Margaret and her brother Baruch lived. In April, the Jews in Uzhorod had to report to the ghetto there, and Miriam and Rachel hid in a shed for three days. Miriam changed into a two-piece red silk dress, attaching her mother’s diamond ring to an inside button before the sisters entered the overcrowded and unsanitary ghetto.

At the end of May, they were squeezed into cattle cars headed to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her red dress was tossed into a huge pile and her hair was shaved. Everyone slept on the floor and people were brought to the crematorium. With the Russian army approaching in 1945, two kind SS guards gathered up food and escaped with the girls and eventually left after rescuing them. In the bitter cold, they finally came to a farm where they slept in the barn until Russian soldiers liberated them. Eventually, Miriam and Rachel returned to Uzhorod where they learned their parents, sister Margaret, and youngest brother Yehuda had been poisoned.

While living in Czechoslovakia, Miriam met Herman Rothstein, a guard for the Czech president. In 1946, they married and he, too, owned a supermarket. Their daughter Vera was born in 1947. In 1949, they immigrated to Israel where their son, David, was born in 1953. A year later, Miriam had tuberculosis, prompting a move to Chicago where Herman had relatives. Their youngest daughter, Mindy, was born there in 1957. Vera and Mindy currently live in LA, and David, a university professor, now lives in Israel. Miriam and Herman retired and moved to Los Angeles in 1992.

Herman died in 2000, and Miriam lived on her own, assisted 4 hours a day by helpers who cleaned and took her shopping and on excursions. Her children eventually convinced her it would be wiser to move into a retirement community. In 2008, after checking out three other communities, Miriam chose the Jewish Home. She wanted to live in a warm, friendly Jewish setting with a built in social life and clinic. We are so pleased to have her as a part of our community. Miriam enjoys playing bingo, our entertainment and many special events, Rabbi Rita’s services and classes, and the Talking Yiddish Group with Murray. Miriam wishes she knew the names of the kind SS officers. Her three children, seven grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren give her great pride.

When I asked Miriam how she survived such harrowing experiences, she said it was hard work (which included building trenches and laying cable), eating little (mostly bread with a little jam and margarine snuck to her by a kind cook), and living one day at a time. But mostly, it was her belief that she would survive that kept her going. Miriam’s story is truly a profile in courage.

Miriam’s story was also featured in an article by Jane Ulman in The Jewish Journal. Photo credit: David Miller

Labels: Biography, Chai Journal, Courage, History, Holocaust survivors, Jewish Home Residents, Miriam Rothstein, Remarkable Residents, Seniors, Simon

From the Summer 2011 edition of the Chai Journal


By Helen Bragar, 84
Los Angeles Jewish Home resident

I sit on the veranda and marvel at the breathtaking beauty of the orange rosebush as it soaks up, and seemingly reflects, the dazzling sunlight.

Blossoming trees and stately birds of paradise plants circle the perimeter of the patio just beyond. Birds are chirping, butterflies are flitting from bush to bush, and the flibbertigibbet hummingbird has dipped its wings into the cool water of the brimming fountain.

Spiky blue flowers line the walkway, and hordes of honey bees are gorging themselves on the sweet nectar. I wonder where they are going to take this bounty to turn it into delicious honey. The only things missing that could make this garden more heavenly are an apple tree, a man with a missing rib, a seductive maiden and a snake.

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to be satisfied with what we've got.

Labels: Bragar, Chai Journal, Flowers, Fountain, Garden, Residents, Trees

From the Spring 2011 version of The Chai Journal


By Jewish Home Resident Helen Bragar, 84


You can start perking up the doldrums by attending the exercise class with Shelly, the T'ai Chi class with Greg, or the Chair Yoga class with Rosemary (my favorite). Norm and I have been at the Jewish Home for about four months, and we're enjoying ourselves immensely. After thirty or more years of not knitting, under Arts & Crafts Director Radka Falk's care and supervision, I've already made two baby blankets for two great-grandchildren. We knitters and crocheters have a great time joking, laughing, and/or gossiping any day of the week — except Shabbas, of course. If you don't have plans to make something for your family, fabulous Radka will find something for you to do. Her favorite words, "Keep knitting," are heard at least five times a day. Norman has returned to painting after twenty-three years. Now it's hard to keep him away from his easel. He has completed two paintings and has three others in the works.

The volunteers who work in the Arts & Crafts room are amazing. For knitting on Monday there are Sandy E., Sue Madeline, Bernice, Laura, and Marlene. For the artists on Tuesday, there is Beverly, who teaches, plus Sylvia, Iris, and Lucille. For knitters on Wednesday there is Sandy K., who teaches, plus Minnie Mollie, Shirley, Esther, Joanne, Leigh, and Nan (who brings luscious desserts for the class). For the Thursday Ceramics class there are Charo, Rose, Joan, and Elsie. And on Friday mornings, there is Radka for baking delicious mandel broit that is sold in the dining room.

Activity Director Caryl Geiger heads our Drama Group, our Choir, wonderful memory classes, and is in charge of lunch, movie, theater, and museum outings, as well as obtaining wonderful entertainers for Sunday afternoons. She also arranges get-togethers with school children. It's always refreshing to see and be with smart young people. Different types of fun word, vocabulary, and trivia games are led by our other Activity Director, Jacqui Lewinter. She is in charge of theater and concert outings on Sundays and heads our Chai Journal Committee. Jacqui's in-depth knowledge, coupled with her sense of humor, makes her "Hooray for Hollywood" classes a real crowd pleaser. She also heads the Movie Committee, and most recently added the Library Committee to her schedule.

Then there's the Men's Group, now headed by resident David Glicker, which offers monthly discussion meetings as well as lunch outings and other outside activities such as recently attending a taping of "Wheel of Fortune."

You are missing a wonderful experience if you don't spend Thursday mornings with Joel Lish. Joel, a former music teacher, is an accomplished viola player who has unlimited knowledge about composers, the history of music, and performers. he spends close to an hour playing and then showing either a movie or an opera on the screen. Sometimes he invites other musicians to perform with him and has performed with his orchestra on Sunday afternoons.

Not to be missed are the informative lecture/discussion sessions led by Rabbi Sheldon Pennes and Rabbi Rita Hertzberg. There is a Yiddish Group led by volunteer Murray Kaplan, and, of course, there's Bingo several times a week hosted by residents Ira Durlester and Jeanette Schlesinger, or Ellis Simon, or sponsored by outside organizations.

If none of the above can get you involved, you can always scrounge up players for mah jongg, bridge, Rummikub, gin rummy, Scrabble, or backgammon on your own. There are probably some activities which I am unaware of and left out, or try a new one that you've never tried before. Please get yourself out and do something. Socializing has been proven beneficial to us senior citizens.

Helen & Norman Bragar

The Chai Journal is a quarterly publication written entirely by residents at the Los Angeles Jewish Home.

Labels: Activities, Arts and Crafts, Bingo, Bragar, Caryl Geiger, Chai Journal, Choir, crochet, Cross Post, Drama, Jacqui Lewinter, knitting, Men's Group, painting, Socializing, T'ai Chi, Volunteer, Yoga

From the Spring 2011 edition of The Chai Journal


By Esther Berlin

The best part of the week for me is Friday evening at the Jewish Home. I shall never forget my first Sabbath here, six and a half years ago. I walked in for dinner and was unprepared for such a change in the dining room. It was obvious that something special was about to happen. Tables were set with white linens and each place had a glass of wine, a small challah, and flowers. Seeing this beautiful sight, tears of joy ran down my face. I realized how much I had missed celebrating Shabbos. It had been a long time since I made the same preparations at my home on Fridays. Once my two children went off to school and I was alone, I stopped our family's tradition of reciting the prayers and lighting the Shabbos candles.

Now, each Friday that I am able, I go to the Synagogue to say a special prayer for my friends and family who are ill. The Mi Sheberakh seeks physical cures as well as spiritual healing, asking for blessing for all human beings. Celebrating Shabbos with Rabbi Rita Hertzberg is very special for me. Her soft, lovely voice is very soothing and I find myself relaxed, peaceful, and calm. I particularly enjoy singing the Kiddush Motzi when everyone joins in. It seems that all who participate are filled with joy. In the dining room, Rabbit Rita always provides a helpful explanation about the various Sabbath rituals. And then to top it all off, we have that wonderful big bowl of delicious matzah ball and chicken noodle soup! I feel so blessed to be living at the Jewish Home where we observe the traditions of our faith each week.

Labels: Activities, Around the Home, Berlin, Chai Journal, Cross Post, Friday, Hertzberg, Judaism, Kiddush, matzah ball soup, Mi Sheberach, Mi Sheberakh, Prayer, Sabbath, Shabbat, Shabbos, traditions

From the Winter 2011 edition of The Chai Journal.


By Ellis Simon


We see many of our residents walking around holding hands. We have many married couples and residents that have met and taken a shine to each other. This is the story of one of those couples. Their names: Irving Mandel and Genia Burman. Genia is a 90 year young lady, and Irving is a 92 year young gentleman. Both of them came here from Poland. Genia's mother's name was Freima, her father was Israel. Irving's mother was Sara, his father was Leiser. They both came into the Jewish Home sometime in 2004. They did not know each other at the time.


Both Genia and Irving were given rooms in the Weinberg Building. As Irving was walking down the hall one day, he passed by Genia's room. He saw the door was open, and since he had noticed Genia before, he walked into her room and they started to talk. As they say, "Irving was smitten." They started to see each other every day, and after about a year, Irving popped the question. (Genia made sure to tell me that he did not get down on one knee.) They then started to make arrangements to get married here at the Home. The big day arrived, and with the synagogue packed with family and residents, they said their "I Dos" under the chuppah. The wedding reception was held in their favorite place, the Arts & Crafts room. Both Irving and Genia spent many hours in this room, so it was an appropriate place for the festivities. 


They have five children between them, and five grandchildren. Irving's children live in California, and Genia's daughter and grand-daughter live in Arizona, and her two sons live in Northern California. Before coming to the Home, Genia was a dressmaker, and Irving worked for the government in the ballistic missile field. I really believe this couple was made for each other, but it took them a long time to find it out. They are a lovely couple.

Labels: Around the Home, Burman, Chai Journal, Couples, Cross Post, Eisenberg Village, Love, Mandel, Marriage, Residents, Romance, Simon, Staff

From the Winter 2011 edition of The Chai Journal


By Nettie Freeman


In 1986, I sold my art gallery and picture framing business. My first inclination was what meaningful volunteer task would I wish to venture into. Without hesitation I found myself at the Jewish Home volunteer office. My first assignment was visiting the residents who did not have any friends or family nearby. I spent many hours enjoying the company of so many itneresting people, sharing their life experience and family histories.


After some time, I was to become the buyer of apparel for the gift shop. Because of my personal contacts at the California Mart downtown, I was very happy to be helpful in that capactiy. After three years of volunteering in these very fulfilling tasks, I took on a new volunteering hat at my temple, Valley Beth Shalom. I became a counselor at our counseling office. I spent 20 years in that capacity, and must admit it was a most gratifying experience, helping my clients in their troubled situations.


Now let's fast forward to September 2009. Due to medical challenges, I had to relinquish my driving privileges. My first consideration was applying to the Jewish Home, my familiar landmark. So here I am, back at the Home, in a neighborhood home at Eisenberg Village with three fabulous roommates...and I couldn't be happier. What a great journey I have had with my wonderful experiences at the Home, and yes, I am volunteering again and a new member of the Chai Journal committee.

Labels: Admission, Aging, Around the Home, Chai Journal, Eisenberg Village, Freeman, Jewish Home Services, Neighborhood Home, Residents, Senior Living, Staff, Volunteer