This valuable resource highlights the issues faced by older adults and the friends and relatives who help care for them. The magazine covers topics ranging from the Jewish perspective on aging to how to assist the seniors in finding “encore careers.” It also provides a comprehensive listing of agencies in THE ASSOCIATED system that meets the needs of seniors in our community.

There is a Biblical phrase, “Mipnei Seiva takum v’hadarta pnei zakein” [Rise in the presence of an older person and honor the presence of an elder].  For thousands of years, it has been a Jewish obligation to care for and respect our elderly, and to learn from their wisdom and life experiences. In Jewish Baltimore, this message recently was re-examined with the results of the 2010 Greater Baltimore Jewish Community Study. According to the study, Baltimore has a growing senior population, with nearly 20 percent of people over the age of 65; the number of seniors over the age of 85 has tripled in the last 10 years. A large portion of area seniors are living alone, with family members outside the area.

THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and its network of agencies provide a safety net and services to help our seniors age – often in place – and with dignity. This year’s Guide was produced in conjunction with an ASSOCIATED-led conference, The Baltimore Senior Life Leadership Summit, held on Wednesday, November 9, 2011. At that event,  a team of 14 non-profit organization planners and more than 200 senior service providers came together to re-envision the way area non-profits view aging and to discuss the value and possibility of strategic public-private partnerships. Leaders in the field led roundtable discussions on transportation, service coordination, civic engagement and economic stability, among other topics, to see what our community could do as a team to change the senior services landscape of Metropolitan Baltimore.

The sponsors listed below supported both this publication and the Senior Summit. We hope that as you read the Guide and learn more about the work THE ASSOCIATED does on behalf of the elderly, you will see that this Summit was a natural outgrowth of the way our organization does business. THE ASSOCIATED does not take the Community Study data just for numbers, but for a map that is helping to chart our future courses of action. With the study, coupled with the inspiration of our Torah’s messages, THE ASSOCIATED is poised to move innovatively into the next generation of aging services and ensure that those who built Jewish Baltimore will continue to be nurtured and supported.

Read the 2010 Guide to Jewish Senior Living>>