For 90-year-old Molly Crave, the frailty of old age prevents her from attending synagogue or participating in the Jewish community like she did in her younger days. But that hasn’t stopped her from observing Shabbat.
Fortunately, Jewish Family and Children’s Services brings Shabbat to her and others, once a month in her Redwood City senior residence.
Because the senior home Crave lives in is nondenominational, it provides no Jewish programming of its own. So the Shabbat service put on by JFCS volunteers is often the only chance that Jewish seniors like Crave have to connect to their faith.
“Because it’s such a large, non-Jewish building, many of the Jewish residents don’t know each other. So it’s very nice to come together for Shabbat and meet each other,” she says.
Crave enjoys the Shabbat ritual not just for the religious value, but also for the community it fosters and the connection she forms with other Jewish residents.
Bobbi Bornstein, a volunteer coordinator for JFCS, began her affiliation with the nonprofit as a Shabbat senior program volunteer four years ago. She was trained at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center to lead Shabbats.
At the Palo Alto and Redwood City senior facilities still visits, Bornstein performs the traditional rituals of candlelighting and blessing the wine and challah, but adds a twist by also teaching about Jewish meditation and the Torah portion. Other Shabbat activities include singing traditional Jewish songs and discussing memories from Shabbats past.
Bornstein loves listening to the seniors, many of whom are from Eastern Europe or the Middle East, tell their life stories.
“We sometimes cry because the stories are so sweet, and the seniors come alive from recalling the happy memories,” she says.
Anywhere from five to 20 residents show up for the monthly Shabbat services in the facilities JFCS volunteers visit in Redwood City, Palo Alto and Sonoma County. Many volunteers say they do it because of how thankful and appreciative the seniors are to be offered an opportunity for Jewish expression and connection.
And the volunteers let the seniors know that the Jewish community has not forgotten them.
Judith Helman is a former religious-school teacher, stay-at-home mom and devoted volunteer who brings Shabbat to seniors at two Petaluma residential facilities. Her favorite aspect of her visits with one group involves the discussions they have about liberal politics and the situation in Israel.
“I’m in awe of these people — they are over 90 and still concerned with their commitment to Judaism and current affairs,” she says.
With her other group, made up of younger seniors, Helman indulges her love of singing Jewish songs. This group rarely talks politics, but are quick to share stories from their personal history. It’s the tradition of listening to Jewish oral history that appeals to volunteers like Helman.
Though it’s sometimes tough to find Shabbat volunteers, JFCS still manages to draw families with children.
Not only do the seniors love seeing the young, but parents view it as a great opportunity to teach their kids the mitzvah of visiting the elderly and infirm.
To JFCS Sonoma volunteer coordinator Jeri Philips, the Shabbat program is worthwhile even if only a few residents attend. She sometimes sends volunteers to places with only three participants.
“For many people this is their only connection to their faith, and if we touch the life of one person, we will continue doing this,” she says.
Philips adds that this is a great volunteer opportunity for busy people because it’s only a one-hour-a-month commitment, yet that monthly visit really makes a difference.
Teenager Ben Lilly has been a Shabbat volunteer at a Palo Alto senior facility for two years. Though it began as a community service project for his bar mitzvah that he was only required to do until his 13th birthday, Lilly has stayed on as a volunteer because he finds the experience so gratifying.
“Some of the residents have told me that they didn’t do anything Jewish before I started leading the Shabbats there,” Lilly says.
“Jews in their facility, like in the rest of the world, are a minority, so they are especially happy and thankful to see me and have Shabbat.”
For information about Shabbat volunteers on the Peninsula, call Bobbi Bornstein at (650) 688-3090; for Sonoma County, call Jeri Philips at (707) 571-8131. On the Web, visit jfcs.org.