From Antarctic fjords, to lumbering in Maine to wildebeest migration in Tanzania, Elderhostel offers a multitude of adventures and educational opportunities across the globe.
But as the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center noticed, sometimes seniors want intellectual stimulation closer to home.
Determined to cut lodging and travel costs for neighboring retirees, the JCC in Walnut Creek developed an Elderhostel program for commuters, designing a Jewish based-curriculum.
From Monday, Aug. 18 to Thursday, Aug. 21, participants will visit the Chagall exhibit at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, analyze the need for Zionism, look at Jews in American literature and discuss the impact of 2,000 years of war on Judaism. Lunch is included, too.
The Elderhostel-JCC connection began in 2002 with a program in Benicia.
“This is a new frontier for them,” says Shoshana Eliahu, the JCC’s senior adult services director, discussing Elderhostel.
This past spring, the JCC/Elderhostel classes were moved to Walnut Creek. Summer sessions will be held at the Holiday Inn, located “practically in our backyard,” says Eliahu.
A major incentive for the move was Rossmoor, Walnut Creek’s “city within a city” of retired citizens next to the JCC.
“They have their own synagogue,” says Eliahu, estimating that 35 percent of the 9,000 residents are Jewish. “We thought it would be a tribute to them…[They] don’t even have to cross the bridge.”
Rosalind Zittell, a Rossmoor resident, recently began attending JCC/Elderhostel events and was impressed by the caliber of the offerings. The sessions run by Eliahu “were so interesting and enjoyable…The people were so friendly. Shoshana arranged wonderful lunches…If Shoshana does it, it’s the best. I go.”
Three lecturers are lined up for the August session. Ken Cohen, president of Lehrhaus Judaica, is teaching the “War and Judaism” course, and comments that, “although we think of Moses as the law giver and profit, he was also the commander in chief of the Israeli army. The leadership of the Jewish people in antiquity was shaped by the fact that there were all these wars going on.”
Shifting forward a few thousand years, Edwin Cohen, professor emeritus at University of San Francisco, notes that in American literature, and later in television, “the Jew has been pictured… as a nebbish, very bright but not capable of doing things.” Investigating such stereotypes, he will be teaching “From Portnoy to Asher Lev: The Jew in Mainstream American Literature.”
Riva Gambert, director of community programming at the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, will talk about the history of Zionism, exploring various modern and contemporary views of the movement. “I frame courses so that people can be engaged, “she says, “even if [they] aren’t keeping up with homework.”
Whether or not they do the reading, Elderhostel participants are usually star pupils, say all three instructors,
“Everybody’s there because they really want to be there,” says Ken Cohen. “They love the topic. The elders bring such a wealth and diversity of life experience…They’ll be able to jump in and add to the discussion…It’s a fabulous self-selected group that is really out for mental stimulation. It’s my favorite.”