Los Angeles Jewish Health stresses the importance of staying active and healthy. (photo courtesy of Los Angles Jewish Health)

Los Angeles Jewish Health, formerly the Los Angeles Jewish Home, was opened in 1912 by a small group of Jewish men in Boyle Heights who wanted to provide shelter and meals for poor individuals during Passover. 

Four years later, grocer Simon Lewis, who was part of the original group, purchased a residential property and opened the organization’s first permanent housing. It marked the start of what has become a far-reaching network of residential facilities and senior health programs that are today operated by Los Angeles Jewish Health. 

LAJH Board of Directors Chair Michelle Rubin said the organization keeps a keen eye toward its history while focusing on the contemporary needs of seniors and implementing the latest technology and care methodologies. Rubin is a fifth generation member of the LAJH family and is closely involved with the nonprofit. 

“I am fifth generation, which sounds like a long time, because it is. My great grandmother (Anna Spellman) and her brother (H. Lew Zuckerman) were a founding family,” Rubin said. “It started because of the poor Jews in Boyle Heights, especially poor men who had no place to go for Passover, so a group of people – seven families – decided to invite them and make a seder for them. They cooked and they provided a place for them to shelter and have meals. Then they realized as people got older, they needed a place where our moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, or bubbes and zaydes, can go when they get old. They are not going to be able to live at home, so it morphed into a home for the aged.” 

The founding families created a model for elder care in Los Angeles that grew as the population expanded. As demographics changed and segments of Los Angeles’ Jewish population moved to the San Fernando Valley, the Eisenberg Village Campus opened in 1976 and Grancell Village campus in 1979 in Reseda. More than 1,000 people currently live at the senior campuses in the Valley and more than 3,000 people in the Los Angeles community receive comprehensive care through LAJH programs. Rubin carries on her family’s legacy of involvement and support today.  

One of the most famous supporters was Monty Hall, a radio and television host most notably known for hosting the game show “Let’s Make a Deal” from 1963-1986.  

“My parents have been involved since the ‘80s, philanthropically,” she added. “My parents helped start the Monty Hall Statesman’s Society, which was named after Monty years later, but they started a statesman society that was for bigger donors and my mom was on the board for many years. My father was a Guardian, which is a support group of the home, and my brother was one of the founding members of the Young Guardians, he started the young men’s division. I became involved in the home when I moved from back East in the late ‘90s and I’ve been involved ever since.” 

Among LAJH’s most advanced contemporary programs is the Brandman Centers for Senior Care at 9800 W. Pico Blvd., which provides the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE. The unique program enables older adults to remain in their homes for as long as possible, providing comprehensive care and importantly, socialization for seniors, Rubin added. LAJH also operates the program in Reseda, and provides training for student nurses from the Annenberg School of Nursing at the advanced facilities.  

“How can we reach more people to benefit from our services? How do we get our quality of care out into the community to help those people live good lives in their later years?” Rubin said LAJH leadership asked. “What PACE provides is not only quality health care, it provides community, to get them out of their home to talk and see people and have activities. To eat a good meal or two and exercise, and to also have their medical care taken care of. And then they can go home and sleep at night and be with their family.” 

Rubin said providing comprehensive care for seniors provides a connection to the organization’s founders and their desire to ensure older adults had somewhere to go among family and friends, LAJH continues to look for ways to provide even better care for seniors, as the older adult population in the United States is expected to increase by 28% by 2040 per the National Council on Aging. 

“We have the best in resident care, and now we have some of the best community care. And that is what we are trying to do – expand our reach,” she added. “We have short-term rehab, we have psychiatric care, which we are one of the few to have, we just got approved by the American Heart Association for a specialized heart program. I say sometimes, it’s the best-kept secret in town.”