People are living longer, and seniors want more choices for living active, fulfilling lives. Abundant opportunities for stimulating educational and social programs are available, along with a wide variety of in-home, independent and assisted living options. The increase in in-home care providers and ways to increase accessibility and mobility enables seniors to stay in their…
Annette Gerard has always volunteered, which meant juggling board memberships, synagogue activities and raising children. So, when she moved cross-country to Rose Schnitzer Manor four years ago, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Annette is instrumental to the success of Purls of Wisdom, the manor’s knitting group that has donated hundreds of…
They say you can’t tell a book by its cover, blah blah blah. But in the case of Portland resident Jay Papish, you think you’ve grabbed a title in the fitness section … then you flip it open, and you find you’re actually in the philosophy aisle. Yes, of course, Jay is a bodybuilder. (Look…
“The Point of the Lesson is to Liberate our Internal Editors” is displayed in large letters across a projection screen. The Rose Schnitzer Manor’s upstairs activity room is dimly lit so residents can read easily. Elderly students, some in wheelchairs, gather around a large wooden table for the weekly writing class led by veteran artist…
Herb Crane calls himself a creature of habit. Doing the same thing every day is how he likes to live. So, it’s no surprise that the Mittleman Jewish Community Center’s January Member of the Month has been working out for 35 years. His recent switch from another athletic club is one change Herb recommends. Of…
My father is 82. When he told me about the Thursday poker game at the Elsie Stuhr Senior Center in Beaverton, it sounded like a great idea. I’d learn to play cards and see my dad, who always attended the Thursday dance in the large ballroom down the hall. When I sat down for the…
Serge D’Rovencourt’s yellow Nazi star has the word “Juif ” written in black. Forced to wear this as a child in France, he’s kept it along with meticulous records of how his life evolved. We met him at his “office away from home,” the Starbucks in the Pearl at NW 11th Avenue and Lovejoy. He’d…
In recognition of its 25th anniversary, the Annenberg Foundation has honored its top 25 Visionary Leaders. The list includes local Holocaust survivor Rachella Meekcoms Kryszek, z”l. Chella, as she is known to thousands of Oregon students and teachers, was one of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center’s most prolific public speakers. Over the past three decades,…
Malka Osserman is the religious school administrator at Beit Haverim in Portland, and last summer she found herself in a situation she never could have imagined. With two master’s degrees, 25 years as a geriatric social worker in Florida and a job she enjoyed, she was struggling to make rent every month. Malka had moved…
A new era in Jewish life began on the 5th of Iyar in the Hebrew year 5708 – May 14, 1948. On that day, for the first time in nearly 2,000 years, there was an independent Jewish nation in the birthplace of Judaism, and Oregon Jews joined others around the world in celebration. “I broke…
