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April 9, 1999/23 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 28
Northeast Valley seniors await new JCC campus
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Members of the growing population of Jews in the Northeast Valley say they are ready and waiting for a new seniors' center to open at the Jewish Community Campus planned at 40th Street and Shea Boulevard.
"There is nothing for Jewish seniors in this community," says Rabbi Emeritus Albert Plotkin of Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale. "(Arizona) is a Mecca for retirees, and the Northeast Valley now has a Jewish senior population that must be recognized. A lot of seniors are very unhappy over the fact that there is nowhere for them to go."
Plotkin, a senior himself at age 78, says the proposed new JCC senior center - which is expected to serve the entire population of seniors in the Northeast Valley - is going to attract older adults who have relocated from the West Valley in recent years. Most of them, he says, used to attend the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center's Seniors' Center at Maryland and 17th avenues (now at 1805 W. Montebello Ave. in Phoenix, near Chris Town Mall), but feel it's too far away now, especially if they don't drive.
"The seniors' center at Chris Town is of no value to people in the Northeast," Plotkin explains. "That (center) is not meeting our needs because the Jewish population has moved (to the Northeast)."
Temple Beth Israel itself moved last year from 10th Avenue and Osborn Road to its current location at 56th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.
"The temple had to move because 80 percent of our members lived in the Northeast," Plotkin says. "Our religious school at the old location dropped from 400 children to 140. (Jewish) people were totally gone. And now since we've been here, the religious school went back up to 400 children. There has been a lack of understanding regarding seniors' programs because the reality is that the number of Jews who are living in the Chris Town area is very small (compared to) the number in the Northeast."
Currently, the Chris Town JCC Seniors' Center, which caters to people over age 60, sees a maximum of 75 people on its busiest days, according to Sandy Reichsfeld, its director. Its small following of Jewish seniors will most likely remain unchanged after the new seniors' center is built across town. The existing center will remain there "for at least five more years," according to Reichsfeld.
Reichsfeld says seniors who attend the Chris Town facility live in the West Valley and would run into the same obstacles as Northeast residents, in that many of them don't drive, if they wanted to switch to the new center. Aside from transportation obstacles, Reichsfeld says the current seniors' center offers so many programs that she sees no reason why anyone would consider switching over to the newer facility.
"To these people, this is their home away from home," Reichsfeld says.
Faye Lener, a Scotts-dale senior citizen, looks forward to the day she can enjoy a home away from home, too. Five years ago, when she moved to Arizona with her husband, Edward, she participated in programs at the JCC Seniors' Center's former location, but she later lost interest because it was too far from her home, she says. Although she feels the prospective location of the new center is still not ideal for people who live in North Scottsdale or Fountain Hills, she is optimistic.
"I will go to (the new center)," she says. "There is absolutely nothing else out here, and all the senior citizens I have spoken with are looking forward to having a center nearby; but they, too, wish it could be further north."
Plotkin agrees, adding that it is mainly areas such as North Scottsdale, Northeast Phoenix and Fountain Hills that are seeing the biggest influx of older Jews. But any seniors' center closer than the one at Chris Town is a definite step forward, he notes.
Although a ground-breaking date for the campus is still pending, several programs for the new seniors' center are already in the planning stages, according to Mark Shore, executive director of the Valley of the Sun JCC. Seniors can look forward to classes in physical education, informal counseling with trained professionals, and a benefits assistance program of the Area Agency on Aging that will address issues such as Medicare, Social Security and insurance, says Shore.
The new seniors' center also plans to "work with any existing senior groups that operate out of local synagogues, and do a lot of combined activities with them," Shore says. "The beauty of the JCC is that we're fluid. We develop programs on a continuing basis, based on the changing needs of the population. ... We are going to help (seniors) enrich their retiring years. We also want to keep them very active and involved in the community. And we want to provide a place for them to come every day."
"I think it's going to be a great place," notes Plotkin, "because not having anything here is awful."
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