Los Angeles Jewish Home

There are moments when I see something so simple, so everyday – but yet so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes. Like noticing a nursing assistant gently combing a resident’s hair; or an activities person stroking an anxious resident’s arm; or a physical therapist walking with someone who is uncertain of her steps, gently encouraging her, while chatting away to keep her calm. At our regular memorial services for residents who have passed away, one of the staff may talk of a resident we have lost with such tenderness that her voice breaks.

And then there are those times when residents express wholehearted appreciation for staff, like when someone at a residents’ council meeting says that, say, Housekeeping or Maintenance or Activities are “wonderful” – and lots of other people agree. Around Thanksgiving, I asked in various groups what residents were thankful for. Top of the list for so many people was the Jewish Home!

It’s interesting to think what this means. We could look at the Home as distinct groups of people, each with their own separate role: those who live here (or receive the Home’s services in other ways); and those who are employed here; those who volunteer their time and energy and skills, and those who donate financially. Yes that’s one way of looking at the Home, but in fact it is much richer than that.

I have been asking myself the question: what makes a community? I believe it is much more than, say, a group of people who live in the same place; or a group of people who work in the same place. A community (just like a family) is held together by invisible bonds – they may be bonds of love and caring; or, just as important, bonds of obligation.

Then we may look at the common purpose that brings a group of people together. The purpose of the Home is to bring the highest standards of care to seniors, in keeping with Jewish values. All efforts are aimed at giving the best to residents and to others who receive the Home’s services. In this way, the Jewish Home is an organization with a purpose. It meets that purpose to a pretty high standard – which is a prime reason residents are so thankful for it.

But the Home is not just an organization; it is also a community. Certainly it is there for the residents, but it also plays an important role in the lives of staff and volunteers and donors (and let’s include those who give their time to serve on the Home’s governing bodies).

All have the potential to give to others, and all have the potential to have their lives enriched by the web of relationships, the obligations and the caring, the warmth and the friendship, the sense of belonging that membership of a community like this can bring.

Some of the employees have been with the Home for 20 or 30 or more years. Some stay in the same jobs over the years, while others take advantage of the opportunity the Home offers to move up to more satisfying or senior roles. Those who work here enjoy their relationships with each other and with the residents; and many experience a fulfillment that comes from being able to contribute to the life and wellbeing of others. And I know how much most of our residents enjoy their connections with the staff and appreciate what they do.

I have just had the privilege of participating in events that gave me a new sense of this Jewish Home family. On the days before Thanksgiving, Rabbi Rita and I co-hosted interfaith services on both campuses for employees of the Home, alongside a Catholic Priest and a Protestant Pastor. I found this coming together of staff members and clergy from different backgrounds very moving.

Here at the Home, people fill different roles – residents, nurses, dietary or maintenance staff, administrators, and many more – and come from many backgrounds and traditions. What I have come to see more clearly than ever before, is that there is so much more that unites us than divides us. Together, we are a community, and I am thankful to be part of it.

Labels: Community, Elman, Jewish Home, Letter from the Rabbi

By Ellis Simon, 88
Jewish Home resident

During the summer months until the end of September, a lot of us residents looked forward to our Saturday Night Socials in Bagno Park hosted by the gracious Bea and Jack Kriger. The entertainment was great as was the camaraderie. Among the many diversified acts they provided were violinist Ellona Geller, vocalist Bernie Fisher, clarinetist Sam Glenn, comedian/singer Shalom Sherman, entertainers Larry & Brenda Shaw, and chanteuse Laurie Kamiel. The music ran the gamut from classical, semi-classical, popular, and show tunes. As one looked around, you saw many residents tapping their feet with big smiles on their faces as well as getting up and dancing. The weather was generally beautiful and warm, and everyone was sociable and having a great time. It’s one of the reasons we love the Jewish Home. We all owe a big THANKS to Bea and Jack, and look forward to their Saturday Night Socials next summer.

Labels: Activities, Bagno Park, Bea Kriger, For the Spirit, Jack Kriger, Jewish Home, Jewish Home Residents, Simon

The act of becoming a bar mitzvah, a public acknowledgment of a young man’s obligation to fulfill the commandments, is a traditional part of Judaism. In today’s society, the spiritual commitment of young women is often celebrated as well. For most of the Jewish Home’s female residents, becoming a bat mitzvah was unheard of when they were twelve or thirteen.

This was true for Jewish Home resident Marilyn Matty. As a young girl, she and her sister attended Sunday school, but not Hebrew school. As a married woman, she learned to keep a kosher home. Marilyn became involved in a Conservative synagogue and, as a pianist, worked with the choir. As life brought its share of challenges, her connection with Judaism was loosened. One day, about three years ago, she realized she wanted to go back to her community and began attending synagogue again. “That was the beginning of my feelings of getting back to Judaism,” Marilyn recalls.
After moving to the Jewish Home in February 2010, the feeling became even stronger, leading her to become a bat mitzvah on November 5, 2011, at age 85. View photos of Marilyn here.

Rabbi Anthony Elman, the Jewish Home’s Director of Spiritual Life, worked closely with Marilyn for 1 ½ years in preparation for her bat mitzvah. He regards this as a valuable part of the overall work of the Home’s rabbis in enhancing the spiritual life of residents and of the Home itself. “We try to respond to the desire of individual residents to develop further in their spiritual tradition,” said Rabbi Elman. “We also provide learning opportunities to a range of resident groups and meaningful prayer services. Our goal is to create a climate for the whole community where the spiritual dimension of life is valued and respected.” In Rabbi Elman’s view, the Home’s rabbis are here not just to allow observant Jews to continue their religious practice, but to give an opportunity for all residents to live spiritually rich lives.

When he addressed Marilyn after she had read from the Torah, he said: “You, Marilyn, are truly worthy of being called to the Torah as bat mitzvah. You achieved the necessary learning and read from the Torah beautifully. Kol hakavod for that – all honor to you. But becoming a bat mitzvah is much more than learning and reading. In my eyes, it is who you are as a whole person who merits this honor today. Walking in the footsteps of our father Abraham, you exhibit the principle of chesed – loving kindness. It is a giving from the heart – not just on a whim, but in a solid, robust, long-lasting kind of way. I have been truly moved by how you have gone out of your way to help and support others, and to practice bikur cholim – visiting the sick.”

Here, in her own words, is Marilyn’s story of accomplishing this great spiritual achievement.

This week’s parsha, Lech Lecha, is the story of Abraham and Sarah. It tells the story of leaving your present home and going toward the unknown. God told Abraham to leave his land, his birthplace, and go to a place God will show him, and he will become a great nation. Abraham took his wife, Sarah, and started on a journey to a new, and unknown, life.

Leaving your familiar home to go to the unknown is scary and uncertain. Like Abraham, I believe a message from God gave me the choice to stay in my home or search for another place to live, with no guarantee of a great nation. With the able assistance and guidance of my daughter, Tina, we found the Jewish Home, Grancell Village. This was the unknown to me, a new place, new room, and new faces, and maybe not a great nation, but a lot of love. Abraham headed west to Canaan and I headed east to Reseda.

After Abraham and Sarah lived in Canaan for 10 years, we are told that Sarah was barren, she had no children. Commentators have suggested that this repetition means she physically had no children, but spiritually she had so many as she inspired so many people.

I in turn find this inspiring. I will talk later about a woman at the Home who inspired me so much, and changed my life.

Sarah decided that the best way for Abraham (and perhaps her) to start a family was for Abraham to take Sarah’s servant, Hagar, as a concubine, with Sarah’s blessing. I see this as a great act of giving, of generosity. I think it was a mitzvah from Sarah’s heart.

Like Sarah, doing something for someone else is very important to me: visiting residents who are ill, seeing new residents or seeing someone who needs company. I have made reaching out to others a part of my life at the Home, and it gives me great pleasure. But if we go back to the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, we see that there might sometimes be a downside to giving.

When Hagar became pregnant with Abraham’s child, she scorned Sarah, and this was very painful for Sarah, who perhaps had hoped that her relationship with her servant Hagar wouldn’t change.

Sarah told Abraham how badly Hagar was treating her, and he said she should do whatever she wished. Sarah was horrible to Hagar and made her life miserable.

Hagar ran away from her mistress, and, in the desert, she met a stranger in her path. Unknown to Hagar, this was an angel, a messenger from God. He asked her what she was doing and Hagar said that her mistress was unkind and she ran away. The angel of God told Hagar to return back to Sarah and that she, Hagar, would be granted many descendants, so many descendants that they would be uncountable. So Hagar returned home and had a son whom they named Ishmael – “God heard” – that is, God heard Hagar’s pain.

Why did Sarah do such a generous thing as give her servant to her husband for them to have a child? She hoped this would be like a child to Abraham and herself (so that Sarah would bring up the child), and fulfill God’s promise that Abraham would become father of a great nation. Sarah gave, but then it seems she regretted giving; she became filled with bitterness. This makes me question: can giving sometimes go too far?

A true mitzvah is one of giving unconditionally. But I also know that too much giving can deplete one’s resources. As well as giving, I’ve learned the importance of balance in my life. I personally find pleasure particularly in playing blackjack, bridge, reading, and allowing time for hair, nails and chit chat – things that are about fun rather than suffering. These allow me to go on being a person who can be with others in distress.

As we get older, we have to make choices and changes, especially when we are no longer able to be independent. It’s a big adjustment for everyone, but I believe God had pointed the way for me. The Jewish Home has given me a place and I’m finding communal living both beautiful and challenging. My choice to come to the Jewish Home’s Grancell Village was not at first an easy one, but it soon filled by heart and soul with joy. I adjusted, met a lot of people, and satisfied myself with love from the new feeling of community.

Being part of the Jewish Home community brought me back to Judaism, which had become misplaced from my life. I became aware of my hunger, so I started studying Hebrew and Torah, which led on to this exciting moment in my life.

When I first arrived at the Jewish Home, I met a woman who changed my life. She was a young 96 years and always eager to learn. We started reading the Torah weekly and asked questions of the Rabbi. Spending regular time with May Blank inspired me to fully understand and appreciate life. Like Sarah was to countless others, May was an inspiration to me. We developed a great friendship, so that at the end of her life she called me her “sister.” Memories of May will me daily and help carry me through to my Bat Mitzvah. May her soul rest in peace.

There was another woman who became important to me – a wonderful, brave person, Miriam, was part of a “learning threesome” with May and myself, and we became known as “The Three Ms.” Miriam was blind, and had lost a leg, but was active with us, learning and contributing her knowledge and wisdom, until her end.

There are so many wonderful people here at the Jewish Home, that my life is blessed with friendship and love.

I would like to thank Rabbi Elman for being my teacher and guide, helping me to take my place more fully as a Jewish woman. The story does not end here: I plan to continue studying Torah so as to learn and deepen my understanding of our beautiful Jewish heritage. I would also like to thank Rabbi Wendy for her support.

As I look out to the congregation and see my loving family, which include my devoted children and their spouses, grandchildren (and their spouses), sister, two nieces and a nephew, I feel such love for you all. Thank you all for being here with me today as witnesses – and my special gratitude to those of you who are participating in this service this morning. I am intensely proud of my family.

I know that my mother is giving me her blessing because this is the anniversary of her death. Rest in peace, Mom.

Finally, I wish to thank my entire Jewish Home family for their love, and for making this a wonderful Jewish community in which to live.

Once again, I am THIRTEEN!

Labels: Abraham, Around the Home, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Bible, Elman, Feature Articles, Jewish Home, Jewish Home Residents, Judaism, Marilyn Matty, Remarkable Residents, Sarah, Staff, Thirteen, Torah

Each year, the Los Angeles Jewish Home organizes a golf "marathon" fundraiser called the Longest Day of Golf. Participants golf as many holes as they can in an entire day, raising money for the Jewish Home's various life-enhancing programs along the way. This blog recounts the Longest Day of Golf 2011, held on July 11. Special thanks to El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, CA for allowing the Jewish Home to use its entire course without charge, and to Someone's in the Kitchen for donating the meals for our golfers!


By Jason Weiss

Well, I did it!

It took 12 grueling hours, ten bottles of water, six golf balls, four protein bars, three bottles of Gatorade, and a  partridge in a pear tree.

In total, it took me 463 strokes to get around El Caballero Country Club six times. That number was assisted by both Mother Nature deciding to take it easy on me, and a four-foot gimme radius for the first three rounds.

I present to you a running diary of thoughts, highlights, and achievements throughout the marathon. Note: all times are approximate.

5:35am: BEEP BEEP BEEP. As my alarm goes off, I can only think to quote Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman: "I immediately regret this decision."

6:37am: I start on the third hole (don't worry, I went back to finish the first two holes before lunch) with a monster tee shot down the left side of the fairway. I hit a wedge to the middle of the green and two putt for a par. One down, 107 to go. "Oy vey," I thought. After all, we are playing for the Los Angeles Jewish Home.

7:50am: It is every golfer's instinct to drive from the 18th green into the clubhouse, where an ice cold adult beverage is usually ripe to be consumed. Not only this day. An immediate right turn and back to the first tee. First round statistics: I shot 73 (remember the four foot gimme radius) with three birdies (No gimmes on birdie putts) and played one hour and twenty minutes.

9:20am: Round two is in the books. This was probably my least favorite round. The light at the end of the tunnel was too far in the distance, and the excitement of what I signed up for was in the rear view mirror. I made no birdies, shot a respectable 79, and was just happy to get it out of the way in 90 minutes. Thought for the second round: "I've just played 36 holes at El Cab in the time that it takes most members to play 12 holes. This is how El Cab should be played!"

9:40-9:55am: My best three-hold stretch of the day. On holes 39-41, I went birdie-birdie, birdie, including a 130 yard bunker shot to eight inches. I could hear my dad saying "I hate you" after the third tap in. I shot 75 in round three. Halfway home.

11:55am: Here's a question that I had never thought about before Monday: How many consecutive holes must one play in the same golf cart before the batter light turns on? Answer: I first noticed it on hole 60. At 63, I changed carts. Time for lunch.

12:00pm: Lunch. A turkey sandwich, fruit salad, pasta salad, chips, and a slice of apple pie were accompanied by a nice speech from Jewish Home CEO-President Molly Forrest. I don't really remember what she said. All I remember thinking was "Ahhhh, air conditioning."

1:05pm: I made a friend at lunch, and we decided to play our last two rounds together. His name was Jason as well, and was the second youngest participant, at 42. He was a really nice guy, but not such a great golfer. I tried to give him a bunker lesson. It didn't work. My lesson to him for the rest of the day: "Jason, when you hit in the bunker, just pick it up. We don't have time for you to hit four shots in each bunker." He agreed. Round four: 77.

2:40pm: Second wall. Hole 80. I don't know what you know about a golf swing, but a golf swing is more body than arms. The two have to work together for the ball to be hit far and straight. My arms and body are no longer working together. If my golf swing was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston circa 2005 before lunch, it is most certainly Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston circa 2011 now. The honeymoon is over...this is no longer fun. Round five: a really surprising 78.

3:15pm: Hold 86. "Another $200 for the Jewish Home" was the mantra that Jason and I kept repeating after every hole as we played in the heat of the day. "Keep grinding."

4:15pm: As I stick my tee into the tee box on the first hole for the SIXTH and final time, I realize that I've made it. Ninety holes down. Only one more round to go. If my body wasn't shaking, I would've leaped for joy.

6:45pm: SHANK!

6:55pm: Victory! As my four foot par putt hit the bottom of the 18th hole, my day was over. I had done it. One hundred and eight holes of golf in one day. I raised my arms as best I could and triumphantly high fived my playing partner for the afternoon. Round six: 81. Four Hundred and Sixty Three total strokes.

As I type this with my bruised hands, while sitting on my sore rear end, which is still not as sore as my legs and feet, I am overcome with a sense of pride and humbled by the generosity of everyone who supported me throughout this challenge.

When I decided that I was going to raise money on behalf of the Home for this event, I would have never anticipated that I could raise over $10,000. I am truly touched by this feat.

I would like to thank you personally for all of your support. I look forward to playing in this event for years to come, and your support is greatly appreciated.

If you'd like to talk about this event, ask any other question about the event or the Home, please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks again!!!

Labels: El Caballero Country Club, Fund Development, Fundraising, Golf, Jason Weiss, Jewish Home, Longest Day of Golf, Los Angeles Jewish Home, Marathon, Philanthropy, Putt, Seniors, Staff, Stroke, Swing

The quote in the title line was said by Jewish Home resident Ellis Simon. Now 87, he's been living here for around 11 years! Granted, he's been saying that for quite some time now, but we finally caught it on tape.

Labels: Donate, Freedom, Gift, Jewish Home, Online Donation, Philanthropy, Residents, Simon, Social Media, Staff, Support, Video, Volunteer, Why We Give, YouTube

The Los Angeles Jewish Home is celebrating a very special birthday today! Shirley Strozenberg, our oldest resident, just turned 108. Yes, she is older than the Home itself.


Originally from Poland, Shirley is a long-time resident of Los Angeles, and recently moved into the Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Medical Center. 


Over the last 99 years, the Jewish Home has become world renowned for its quality of senior care. Our residents' average age is 90, and we're home to 31 centenarians. This is a testament to the Home's philosophy of caring for the whole person—body, mind, and spirit.

Labels: Aging, Around the Home, Birthday, Centenarian, Healthy Aging, Jewish Home, Oldest Resident, Poland, Remarkable Residents, Senior Care, Senior Living, Seniors, Staff, Strozenberg, Super Elderly

By Ellis Simon, 87...a ten year resident


The Jewish Home is my home and yours
So pick up the phone & arrange the tours
All the residents have a smile on their face
We're the luckiest people in the whole human race


The activities here, and there are quite a few
With over 300 a month, you'll find lots to do
The food's delicious, and plenty of it
You'll like it so much, you'll eat every bit


The doctors here are really the best
And our medical department will pass any test
The nurses, you'll love them, they are really great
And the best part, there's rarely a wait


The friends that you make, will forever be true
You'll love them, and they'll love you
Whether you're seventy, or maybe ninety seven
This is the closest that you'll ever get to Heaven


So give us a call, and get all the news
Then make your move, and then no more blues
To make you happy is the war we are waging
So come on in to the Jewish Home for the Aging

Labels: Activities, Aging, Around the Home, doctors, food, Friends, Friendship, Jewish Home, medical staff, nurses, Poems, Poetry, Residents, Simon, tours