So once a month on a Friday afternoon, seven to 10 seniors gather around a table at Redwood Villa in Mountain View to welcome the Sabbath. They share songs, stories and a nosh before dinner. For Sunny Landsman, who leads the group in Yiddish songs, one of the joys is sharing Shabbat. It is a time for reverie, kept as a holy day. Marlene Levenson of the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children's Services helped organize the monthly Shabbat program about a year ago, along with Aviva Snow, a volunteer who is working on her master's in gerontology.
Snow usually brings along baked goods.
The Shabbat gatherings are an extension of Levenson's work organizing Jewish holiday events at the facility over the past eight or nine years. As the JFCS coordinator of senior services and senior outreach on the Peninsula, Levenson says her goal is to build a strong Jewish connection at the senior home, which has about 95 residents. I want them to know that they're not forgotten. During the service, Levenson includes prayers and readings, some compiled in a booklet she has handed out. Frank adds her own meditation and thoughts about healing.