Jerusalem Conference Offers Insights into Care for Jewish Elderly Worldwide

The five-day conference organized by JDC-ESHEL and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute addressed a broad variety of topics including old age and Judaism, comprehensive care of holocaust survivors, Jewish medical ethics and family responsibility in caring for the elderly. Discussions did not shy away from controversial issues as professionals also confronted the matter of coping with growing life expectancies amid decreasing available resources for the elderly – a common predicament for Jewish communities across the globe.

As the conference's chair Dr. Yitzhak Brick, Executive Director of JDC-ESHEL (the Association for Planning and Development of Services for the Elderly in Israel), and President of the International Federation on Aging noted, "this is a special opportunity for Jewish and non-Jewish experts from around the world to be updated, share information, present innovative and original programs, and propose general policy directions as well as strategies for facing the challenges which old age presents to social services within the Jewish world."

One delegate, Dr. Fabien Triskier, Director of JDC social welfare programs in Argentina, expressed his appreciation for the conference's common denominator. He explained, "There may be different infrastructures from country to country, but we all share a common theme of renewing Jewish life for the elderly. For example, isolation is a widespread problem among all elderly but as Jews we need to consider isolation from Jewish life as well."

Fabien is well versed in this concern as he is involved in his community's efforts to assist its elderly constituents, particularly the some 10,000 Argentinean Jewish elderly currently living on welfare. A new multifunctional complex for the elderly is being built in Buenos Aires which will incorporate a nursing home, day care and home services. Given the large size of the city, the complex's location within the Jewish neighborhood was deemed essential, due to exactly this consideration. The conference, which was initiated by JDC-ESHEL, in collaboration with the Claims Conference, the Myers-JDC Brookdale Institute, JDC-Israel, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Israel Association of Gerontology, was first held in Jerusalem five years ago.

This year's conference attracted some of the world's leading figures in the social services field including: Professor Howard Bergman, a renowned expert in geriatrics at McGill University in Montreal; Professor Robert Cane, a specialist in quality care of the elderly from the University of Minnesota; Mr. Stephen Jacobson, an international expert on successful aging in industrialized countries, Professor Fernando Torres Gil from the University of California, an expert on elderly immigration and the role of senior citizens in determining social welfare policy, as well as Hebrew University's Professor Shalom Rosenberg who addressed the conference on the topic of old age and Judaism.

In addition to lectures, the conference also offered delegates hands-on learning opportunities through site visits to elderly care service models in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

For Rosalba Galatà, a social work consultant working in the Jewish communities of Romania and Poland, the chance to hear experts speak on topics relevant to her everyday work proved invaluable. "There are a lot of misconceptions about the quality of care. In Romania we say we need more staff but we don’t have the funds. We've been struggling with this for several years so when Professor Kane spoke on this point it was inspiring. I'm returning to Romania with much to think about. "