Ray (93) Meets Jerri (88): A Valentine's Day Love Story From The Los Angeles Jewish Home

Today is Valentine's Day. Yes, we know, we know, it's not supposed to be a Jewish holiday. But when we researched the subject a couple of years ago, we discovered that celebrating love can be very Jewish. 

The Los Angeles Jewish Home has been providing a fertile environment for love to grow for many years. As long as they keep reporting on love matches at their facility, we'll keep sharing them with you, especially on Valentine's Day.

Today's love story is about Ray, 93 years old and a resident of The Jewish Home, meeting Jerri, another 88-year-old resident, and how they went through the phases of (these are the words of The Jewish Home, not ours) Courtship, Intimacy, Shacking Up, Meeting the Children, and Happily Ever After.

Our readership has doubled since we last visited the Los Angeles Jewish Home on Valentine's Day. So for the benefit of our newer readers, here is what we found then with regard to Jewish observance of this day.

There always have been mixed feelings in the Jewish world about celebrating this day which originally was named in honor of Valentine, a Christian saint. And today, you can find opinions from rabbis of all Jewish denominations that approve and disapprove of its observance.

We did some searching and found that despite some views that the holiday is foreign to Judaism and should be avoided, there are a growing number of opinions, even in the Orthodox world, that not only should the holiday be observed, but that it should be embraced.

As Rabbi Benjamin Blech, professsor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, has written about Valentine's Day on the aish.com website, 

As Jews, we may not be sure whether it's proper for us to join the party. After all, for the longest time the full name of this holiday was “St. Valentine's Day” because of its legendary link with the apocryphal story of one of the earliest Christian saints. Yet academics aren't the only ones who have recognized the dubious historical basis of this connection. Vatican II, the landmark set of reforms adopted by the Catholic Church in 1969, removed Valentine's Day from the Catholic church's calendar, asserting that "though the memorial of St. Valentine is ancient… apart from his name nothing is known… except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on 14 February."

What's left for this day, as proponents of its universal celebration declare, is something that people of all faiths may in good conscience observe: A day in which to acknowledge the power of love to make us fully human.

When I am asked as a rabbi if I think it's a good idea for Jews to celebrate Valentine's Day, my standard answer is, "Yes, we should celebrate love… every day of the year."

Enjoy!

 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

 
(This is a Jewish Humor Central encore post, first published on February 13, 2014.)

 

Jewish Home Residents Celebrate 100 Years With New Version of Hinei Ma Tov

New Jersey's Jewish Home Family, now including The Jewish Home at Rockleigh, Jewish Home Assisted Living at River Vale, and Jewish Home at Home, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary of providing care to the community.

The organization, created in 1915 to take care of poor Jewish children whose families were stretched so thin that they relinquished them to an orphanage, the Hebrew Home in Jersey City, quickly became a refuge for the elderly as well.

To celebrate this achievement, the residents and staff of The Jewish Home facilities participated in a music video.

The song is a new version of the classic Hinei Ma Tov, (Behold, how good it is to be together) composed by Marc Rossio and produced by Uri Westrich.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Jewish Home at Rockleigh Residents Perform Songs From Tony Award Winning Musicals

The Tony awards for Broadway shows will be presented on June 7. The residents of The Jewish Home at Rockleigh are already in the mood, having just performed a concert titled A Century of Song.


The concert took place last Thursday, May 14, and included many songs from award-winning musicals from 42nd Street to Les Miserables.

Many decades were represented in excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees, The King and I, Annie, Man of La Mancha, Cats, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. 

The Jewish Home at Rockleigh, Russ Berrie Home for Jewish Living, is a state-of-the-art, kosher, skilled nursing facility. Situated on a breathtaking 16 acre park-like setting, the 180 resident facility offers exceptional care to its long-term care residents, those suffering from dementia, and those in need of respite care, hospice care, sub-acute care, speech, physical and occupational inpatient/outpatient rehabilitation.

Below is a video clip from the concert, with the residents singing Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King. Here is a link to the playlist if you would like to hear all of the songs.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)