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September 10, 2004/Elul 24 5765, Vol. 57, No. 1
Measuring our maturityEditorialThe news that the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center Senior Center in Central Phoenix soon will close is distressing indeed. While participants in the center's meal and activity programs will be struck most directly, shutting down the program means our Jewish community is failing to meet an obligation as fundamental as the Torah.As Leisah Namm reports in a story on Page 4, following months of exploration, the JCC has now called off plans to move the senior center to make way for light-rail development, as relocation costs appear prohibitive. It will instead encourage participants to utilize nearby senior meal and activity sites, none of which provide kosher meals or Jewish programs, and will try to offer holiday programs. "The prosperity of a (community) depends on its treatment of the aged," the Bratzlaver rebbe advised. One sure measure of our community's maturity and constancy is how we care for our older adults. Several local Jewish agencies do provide senior services, ranging from residential care to counseling; from hot meals to socialization, recreation, education and transportation. What's missing is a central agency that focuses exclusively on identifying, assessing and addressing the wide-ranging needs of the older adults among us. The disturbing turn of events for the JCC senior center is a sure sign that it's time to establish such an agency, with a board and staff wholeheartedly committed to concentrating on the complex challenges of growing old. The turning of the Jewish year offers a particularly fitting time for us to reflect on the needs and agree to change how we function as a community in honoring the words we recite during the High Holiday services: "Do not cast me off in old age; when my strength fails me, do not forsake me!" (Psalm 71:9). If indeed we have the will, courage and power to embark on this important work, let's do so hand-in-hand with the savvy elders among us eager to show us the way. "To tell older adults that they are as bound to mitzvot as any other Jew is to tell them that something is expected of them, that their actions matter," writes Rabbi Dayle Friedman in "The Crown of Glory: Aging in the Jewish Tradition." Shana Tova to our family of readers and our friends. May we go into the year 5765 from strength to strength. |
