Dear Friend,

In the early part of last month we hosted a reunion event at the Home. It was wonderful to welcome these old friends – past trustees of our board and Auxiliary – back “home.”

As we chatted during the reception hour, I was reminded of how extremely fortunate we are to have the ongoing interest and dedicated support of leaders in our community who have served the Home. For instance, our past trustees play an integral role by giving of their time, sharing their experience, thought leadership, and philanthropic support. In concert with our current board of trustees, these leaders continue to identify, cultivate, and solicit potential donors whenever possible. And they always act as advocates and ambassadors in the community for the values and best interests of our Home and our residents.

For more than 50 years, lay leaders from our Auxiliary served a significant function by augmenting our fundraising endeavors. In fact, this volunteer corps of dedicated individuals was the first Development team who raised funds for the Home.

During dinner, Michael Adler, current chair of the Home’s board, shared some areas of interest and focus with our guests. We all once again took pride in hearing about the Jewish Home’s Seal of Excellence, awarded by Independent Charities of America, that attests to the Home meeting the highest standards of public accountability, program and cost effectiveness; the fact that Jewish Home & Senior Living Foundation is a seal holder in The GuideStar Exchange (GuideStar is a registry that recognizes best practices in transparency and public accountability); and the Home’s five-star rating by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Mention was also made of the initiative currently underway to raise $2.5 million to increase the size of the Home’s rehabilitation center by 3,500 feet. The center needs to modernize in order to fully support the entire spectrum of rehabilitation needs of our residents and our expanding number of patients served by our STARS (short-term and rehabilitation services) program.

Continuing along the lines of expansion at the Home, Michael reminded us of our other campaign – $5 million to expand our research center, so as to provide space to do the important work of improving the care and health of older persons; promote support for the science of the research center and ongoing partnerships with academic researchers; and make possible endowed positions for researchers. On the subject of endowed positions, we are excited that the Jewish Home/University of California, San Francisco partnership is moving toward the completion of a search for the position of the Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor for Clinical Translational Research in Aging, to be based at the Jewish Home.

We listened to updates on our site master plan – strategic and wide-ranging decisions that will allow the Jewish Home’s Silver Avenue campus to realign its national reputation for quality and innovation into modern centers of excellence, that will ensure our ability to sustain ourselves financially, and fit community needs. Serving community needs runs the gamut from our long-term care residents to our short-stay programs, namely rehabilitation services and our newly remodeled acute geriatric psychiatry hospital, the only such hospital in the city.

These reunion events are a special way of bringing people together, for us to inspire and engage one another, to reaffirm our vested interest in the Home today and in the future. Staying connected – when I have the pleasure of your actual company or when this is not possible, through vehicles such as this e-communication – means a great deal to me.

Daniel Ruth
President & Chief Executive Officer

A recent study conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles suggests that massage not only relaxes the body but also boosts the immune system and prompts beneficial hormonal changes. Half the study’s subjects received 45 minutes of deep-tissue Swedish massage, the rest got light-touch massage for the same period. Just a single massage session induced marked physiological changes. The Swedish massage group registered lower levels of cortisol, a hormone elevated by stress, and arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can elevate cortisol. They also showed a rise in lymphocytes, white blood cells that aid the immune response. The light massage recipients showed a greater increase in oxytocin, the hormone that evokes feelings of contentment and calmness and reductions in anxiety, and a greater drop in a different hormone that prompts the release of cortisol.

The benefits of massage are not news to staff and residents of the Jewish Home. Started over 20 years ago, the Home’s massage therapy program offers residents weekly sessions by a certified massage therapist on a fee-for-service basis. According to Jim Weslow, the Home's director of Rehabilitation Services, “Massage therapy reduces stress, tension, and pain. It provides both physical and emotional relief. It benefits residents who have chronic pain (which means they can reduce their pain medication), as well as those who are receiving end-of-life care. Massage therapy may improve sleep patterns, and enhance mobility and focus. And because it provides both the experience of touch and pleasure, it leads to improved personal interactions.”

Simchat means rejoice, and we are rejoicing in the fact that our talented residents are once again taking the stage for the Home’s annual Chanukah show. This year’s concert-style production offers a spin on Glee, the popular television show that focuses on the members of a high school’s glee club.

Community is invited to enjoy this entertainment event on Sunday, December 5, 2:00 p.m. in the Jewish Home’s Lynne & Roy Frank Family Lounge. As the lounge has limited seating, two additional performances, on December 6 and 7, are specifically for Jewish Home residents.

For more information about Simchat, visit our website’s Chanukah show page, www.jhsf.org/chanukah. To get even more of a story about the show and our troupe, read the story in the November 12 senior supplement of J., the Jewish news weekly of Northern California.

Thursday, December 23 through Sunday, December 26, 2010
New Asia Restaurant, 772 Pacific Ave., Chinatown, San Francisco

Thurs., Dec. 23 and Sun., Dec. 26 (Early Bird):
Dinner show at 5:00 p.m.; Cocktail show at 8:30 p.m.

Fri., Dec. 24 and Sat., Dec. 25:
Dinner show at 6:00 p.m.; Cocktail show at 9:30 p.m.

This year’s headliner is Wendy Liebman, pictured here (The Tonight Show; Late Show with David Letterman); Joe Nguyen (Vietnamese Jewish comic); Nathan Habib (college student; began stand-up at 14); and Lisa Geduldig (Kung Pao creator, producer, and host).

In keeping with the Jewish tradition of tzedakah (charitable giving), each year Kung Pao donates partial proceeds to worthy organizations and causes. This year's recipients are the bimonthly Esther Weintraub Comedy Clinic at the Jewish Home and Jewish Family and Children’s Services.

Buy tickets online at http://www.koshercomedy.com or by phone: 925.275.9005.

It seems that love may indeed conquer all, including some forms of pain. Researchers found that when students in love were exposed to a handheld heat probe, they felt less pain when they looked at pictures of their sweetheart than they did when viewing images of a platonic friend. Brain scans showed that the analgesic effect was triggered by emotional regions in the brain, as opposed to traditional painkilling mechanisms.

New research with a group of nearly 300 elderly people suggests that vitamin B12 may help lower homocysteine, a compound linked to memory loss and stroke, and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, as well.

“The Jewish Home keeps us connected to our community, and to the social, cultural and spiritual values that are so important to us,” says resident Rebekah Finer. “These connections keep me going. They feed my soul.” [Read more]