Bubbe and Zayde’s Place and Bonnie Curkin Announce
Marcia Schwartz Hospice Residential Care Facility for the Elderly
After years of working on many committees, Bubbe and Zayde’s Place is the first residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) in the state of California to have been granted licensing for an entire home to be utilized for hospice care.
“We are very proud of this accomplishment because it encompasses years of caring, love, and dignity and the ethical treatment of our elders and their families,” said Bonnie Curkin, owner of Bubbe & Zayde’s Place. “I am so proud of Bubbe & Zayde’s Place and everyone who has helped throughout the years, because this can now set a trend across the country where people can live and die in the dignity our tradition teaches us.”
During its 15 years of being in the community, Bubbe & Zayde’s Place provides care with assisted living, respite care, dementia and hospice residents.
Please call Bonnie Curkin, owner of Bubbe & Zayde’s Place at (714)928-5030 with any questions or to schedule a tour of our facility.
Program Asks: Are You an Ethical Person?
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) will present Living with Integrity: Navigating Everyday Ethical Dilemmas, the institute’s new six-session winter 2013 course that will begin on January 31.
Rabbi Aron David Berkowitz of Chabad of West Orange County will conduct the six course sessions at 9:00 a.m., and again at 7:30 p.m., beginning on Wednesday, January 31 at Chabad, 5052 Warner Ave. in Huntington Beach.
“There’s a lot of talk about ethics for government and big corporations, but almost every day we confront complex ethical decisions in our own relationships,” said Rabbi Zalman Abraham of JLI’s headquarters in Brooklyn. “From Nanny cams to our responsibilities to our parents, Living with Integrity will provide a framework for making balanced decisions for ourselves and for the people we care about.”
Packed with real-life scenarios, Living with Integrity challenges students to articulate their own opinions, while providing practical Talmudic wisdom to help them navigate through life’s inevitable ethical challenges. This course will not only provide the tools to make appropriate decisions; it will also enhance people’s interaction with family and friends.
Living with Integrity is designed to appeal to people at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple or other house of worship.
JLI, the adult education branch of Chabad Lubavitch, offers programs in more than 350 U.S. cities and in numerous other locations, including Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. More than 260,000 students have attended JLI classes since the organization was founded in 1998.
Interested students may call (714) 846-2285 or visit www.myJLI.com for registration and other course-related information.
Israeli Documentary Takes U.S. Film Prize
The Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers was named the best nonfiction film of 2012 by the National Society of Film Critics in the United States. The film, which features interviews with six former directors of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, received the award on Saturday, January 5.
The film critics’ society is made up of 60 newspaper critics from across the country. Directed by Dror Moreh, The Gatekeepers also was named to the short list for the Academy Award’s best documentary category. A second Israeli documentary, 5 Broken Cameras, directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, also is on the Oscars’ short list.
Foundation for Jewish Camp Conducts Special Needs Research
Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is the recipient of a research grant to map current services available to children with special needs and physical disabilities at nonprofit Jewish overnight camps across North America. This will be the first ever research of its kind in the Jewish community and will drive the ultimate goal of making the unparalleled experience of Jewish camp available to all children.
According to Jeremy Fingerman, CEO, FJC, “The immersive, joyous environment of Jewish overnight camp builds Jewish identity, strengthens the Jewish community and fosters Jewish leadership. Unfortunately, many Jewish children with special needs and physical disabilities are unable to benefit from this unparalleled experience due to limited resources and programs.”
Thanks to a generous $60,000 grant from Dr. Allan and Nan Lipton of Hershey, PA, FJC is working with Laszlo Strategies, a firm specializing in helping nonprofit groups champion the causes of medical science and people with physical and developmental disabilities, to survey the field beginning in January 2013. This research will provide a thorough understanding of the options Jewish camps offer to children with special needs and provide a baseline for expanding services. The research will be followed by a convening of the field — both Jewish camp professionals and special needs experts – to allow FJC to locate the gaps, establish where and how the needs can be filled, and develop a set of guidelines for camps to use as a resource.
A bus tour in July 2012 launched the Foundation’s formal exploration of the issue. Done in conjunction with the Jewish Funders Network, the three-day tour took staff, board members and potential funders to eight camps in the Northeast to see first-hand the types of programs nonprofit and for-profit camps offer, speak with experts in the field, and discuss options and ideas for next steps.
Many Jewish camps are leaders in accommodating special needs children with inclusive or parallel programs, and several camps are able to assess and enroll children with special needs on a case-by-case basis. Even so, although Jewish overnight camps serve nearly 75,000 children each camping season, they are able to accommodate fewer than 1,000 special needs campers every summer; the need is far greater with growing wait lists for many Jewish camps that serve children with disabilities.
This initial research will be the catalyst to exploring the range and types of activities camps could be utilizing to integrate campers with special needs. The project will catalog the language and philosophies used by the field concerning special needs, examine legal issues, determine what steps need to be taken to improve the range of services and expertise of camp staff, and more.
“FJC aspires to enable all children to experience the magic of Jewish camp,” explained Fingerman. “We are committed to exploring and implementing the best and most comprehensive ways of doing so to ensure that we are meeting our vision of ensuring a vibrant Jewish future.”
“We are proud and excited to be working on this project,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of Laszlo Strategies. “FJC is a data-driven organization that has already proved the importance of Jewish camp to the Jewish community and individuals alike. We aim to help make it possible for every Jewish child to have the opportunity to experience the life-changing impact of a positive Jewish summer camp experience.”
Orthodox Sleepaway Camp Starts
After nearly 20 years without an Orthodox sleepaway camp in Southern California, Bnei Akiva delivers Moshava Malibu. Through a partnership with the Shalom Institute, a non-denominational Jewish organization with 61 years of experience in camping, the Orthodox community has planned a two-week pilot program at the end of August at a pristine Malibu campus.
Open to boys and girls in grades 2 through 9, Moshava Malibu will offer a traditional Orthodox camp with a strong Zionist message, instilling a love for the state of Israel, Torah and the Jewish people. The organization has secured funding from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s One Happy Camper Fund, the Israeli Leadership Counsel and more than a dozen families. The oversight and programming are being put together by the Bnei Akiva national office and the Shalom Institute. This collaborative approach is new and innovative and almost certainly ensures the long-term success of this program, organizers said.
Moshava Malibu is partnering with The Foundation for Jewish Camp’s One Happy Camper program, which now offers a $700 financial incentive to first-time campers. Two weeks of the sleepaway summer program will now only cost $1,100 for qualifying campers. One Happy Camper discounts are limited – over half of these funds have already been allocated.
For details, contact www.MoshavaMalibu.org or (855) MOSHAVA.
AIPAC Holds Annual Dinner
Orange County’s pro-Israel community will gather together to display its support for the U.S. Israel relationship. The 2013 AIPAC Orange County Annual Dinner will be on Sunday, February 10, at 5:30 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, 17900 Jamboree Boulevard, Irvine.
The annual event will feature an insider’s look into Israel’s Iron Dome with Gideon Weiss of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The Iron Dome Missile Defense System has helped keep the people of Israel safe and secure from the constant threat of rocket fire.
AIPAC lobbies and educates Congress to ensure that Israel has the funding necessary to build programs like Iron Dome.
The cost of the dinner is $125 per person. Dietary laws will be observed.
To register, please visit www.aipac.org/OrangeCounty2013 or contact the AIPAC office at (323) 937-1184.
