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By Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World, a member of the San Diego Online News AssociationSan Diego Jewish World photo: Temple Emanu-El is the home of the likely soon to be shuttered College Avenue Senior Center
September 19, 2024 (San Diego) -- Jewish Family Service will shut down its College Avenue Senior Center on Friday, Sept. 27. A Resource Fair for the older adults who still use the once-thriving center will be conducted on site on Thursday, Sept. 26, at Temple Emanu-El, 6299 Capri Drive, in the Del Cerro neighborhood of San Diego.
Whereas in its heyday, the College Avenue Senior Center drew between 80 and 120 people for a full day of programming, including lectures, exercise, movies, and an inexpensive kosher lunch, since its resumption after the COVID pandemic, the center’s attendance has averaged only 15 people, and even fewer for the lunch program, according to JFS Chief Operating Officer Dana Toppel (photo, right).Toppel expressed doubt that attendance at the center could have been built back up to previous levels, adding that as a member of the California Commission on Aging, she is aware of more modern initiatives to serve seniors in other parts of the state. Seniors who tire of coming back to the same church or synagogue every day for lunch like to try new places, she said. Some locations in California are “actually doing stipends for people to go out to restaurants together.”
She told San Diego Jewish World that the several JFS employees at the College Avenue Senior Center have accepted other jobs relating to older adults within the Jewish Family Service organization. Toppel said that while JFS no longer will be a rent-paying tenant of Temple Emanu-El, discussions are being held with that Reform congregation to find other ways to collaborate and ease its financial loss.
Seniors who live in such San Diego neighborhoods as College, Del Cerro, San Carlos, Allied Gardens, and Grantville as well as in the nearby cities of El Cajon, La Mesa, and Santee may wish to attend the Sept. 26 Resource Fair “where they will know about our other programs from Foodmobile, to On the Go, to our Friendly Match program (which pairs seniors with volunteers), Toppel said. Arrangements are being made to serve lunches to the seniors at another secular location, which Toppel said will be identified after those arrangements are concluded.
“I think as far as social opportunities go, our On-the-Go program provides transportation to anywhere people want to go,” Toppel said. “We’ve seen growing participation when we do excursions to museums or other places.” Toppel, who will succeed Michael Hopkins as JFS’s chief executive officer on July 1, 2025, said she has been discussing partnerships with Betzy Lynch, the CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC, to better serve the senior community.
Toppel also invited seniors to become volunteers for JFS, which has numerous social service programs, not just for us Jews but for the community at large. Just a few examples are a way-station for migrants who have been admitted to the United States legally while they await decisions on their bids for asylum in the U.S.; food distribution programs for those in certifiable need; safe parking and rest room facilities for homeless people who live in their vehicles; transportation service for seniors and disabled persons; the Balboa Avenue Older Adult Center for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, and personal and group counseling programs.
The closure of the College Avenue Senior Center is another reflection of the Jewish community’s changing living patterns in San Diego County. Whereas in the 1970s, the aforementioned neighborhoods housed a major portion of the Jewish community, many Jewish families gradually moved to La Jolla and to North County Coastal and Inland neighborhoods and to nearby suburban cities such as Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, and Poway. Jewish institutions soon followed. The JCC which had been located on 54th Street in San Diego moved to its current home in La Jolla. The San Diego Hebrew Home, which sat on a hill behind the 54th Street JCC, moved to Encinitas, restyling itself as Seacrest Village Retirement Communities. The San Diego Jewish Academy campus that had been located at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Carlos moved to its present location in Carmel Valley, where the Tifereth Israel Synagogue campus was merged with a sister campus that had operated on the grounds of Congregation Beth El in La Jolla.
As these Jewish institutions departed eastern San Diego, some remaining Jewish residents expressed the feeling that they were being abandoned by the Jewish community. Toppel, a resident herself of Del Cerro, expressed concern about these feelings and said Jewish Family Service at a date to be determined after the High Holy Days will set up listening sessions to hear ideas and concerns from residents of eastern San Diego and the adjoining cities.
She said JFS has been exploring the idea of conceptual Jewish villages throughout San Diego County. At the same time, the Lawrence Family JCC has been developing a similar concept called “Jeighborhoods” to bring JCC programming to communities outside La Jolla. Toppel said she would like to explore partnering with the JCC and with the Jewish Federation of San Diego to flesh out those ideas.
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
A comment in SDJW attributes the troubled attendance due to pre-pandemic programming never making a come-back.
This article originally appeared here.
Comments
why don't you hire someone volunteering in food service locally?
maybe s/he is volunteering and would love an $18-25/hour to start 32 hours/week job + benefits that increases at inflation perhaps the same COLA used to measure raises for Social Security beneficiaries except one or two years behind so budgets can be anticipated further in advance? someone really in it with heart emogi maybe someone who works in fast food currently or aren't there people like retired people who volunteer at a food bank who could rock that out? Maybe (20) Facebook or this guy or his wife: (20) Facebook also contact Melinda Forstey or Paul Downey and ask if there are federal, state and/or county dollars on the table for a portion of your mission? http://www.servingseniors.org/ surely the space won't dissapear if it has to take a one or two month hiatus who knows it's not like the synagouge is closing that leases the space where do the folks who are there still live?
!que lastima!
what a pity! Surely something can be done to stop this; I read in San Diego Jewish World yesterday that someone has 2 billion usd surely they can keep the staff but replace them as they've all been assigned elsewhere maybe the quarter doing the least redundant positions as determined by the people with the money and quarter doing the best jobs as rated by clients at that meeting on Sept. 26 can stay and only half be re-assigned elsewhere yet no one lose their job I suppose that would require a little $; hopefully not too much I suppose only one and a half times their annual budget for 1/2-12 years a little less if you include the rent offset provided by the San Diego Jewish Family Service they have at least offered that to the local congregation idk if that would be deducted from the total gift or not but their job is to find the quarter least redundant positions easiest to shuffle and then the people there at the meeting on Sept. 16 can also rate and find the top quarter liked by the community currently being served as they could judge that better than someone whose position at the location that is on College Ave. but you enter from the street behind sounds like something should be done rather than closing did you see the comments? Make the transfer papers in everyone's file uniform that "only the top quartile stayed but s/he placed within the top half in at least one metric." whether or not it happens to be true for those two I'm sure it is in at least one wo/man's metric so don't worry just say something nice about her or him that also helps them in the job market in case they want a couple months to shop around while they settle into their new role or stay where they were almost let go.