A Home for Seniors Where All Is Kosher : County’s Jewish Elderly Officially Open Their Own Special Place in Mission Viejo

Sun deck, heated pool and spa, individually controlled heating and air conditioning, fully equipped kitchen, wall-to-wall carpeting--Irv Burg points out each amenity with the eager excitement of a new homeowner.

“And look at this!” He grabs a long chain, attached to the bedroom wall, one of two such chains in the apartment. “Every room has its own alarm system. If a person has a problem they can pull the chain, and it immediately notifies the front desk.”

He looks out the window at the spacious gardens and walkways. “They thought of everything when they built this place. It’s perfect!”

Burg and fellow volunteer members of the Heritage Pointe board of directors grinned, hugged and shed a few tears last month as they celebrated the official opening of Orange County’s first Jewish Home for the Aging.

Guests of Heritage Point in Mission Viejo witnessed Rabbi Stephen Einstein of Congregation B’nai-Tzedek affix a mezuza to the building’s entryway. The mezuza is a 2,000-year-old tradition. It is a sacred object that contains a piece of parchment inscribed with words from the Bible, and it is placed on the doorposts of Jewish homes. But this mezuza didn’t just designate the building as a Jewish home, it also represented the culmination of six years of extensive grass-roots effort to establish this Jewish retirement community.

There are amenities here that seniors can’t find in other local retirement homes: a dining area that serves “gourmet kosher cuisine”; a synagogue for Sabbath services, and the observance of Sabbath rules.

“This is retirement living in the Jewish tradition. People here will celebrate the holidays, such as Hanukkah and Passover, as they would in their own homes,” said Loretta Modelevsky, another volunteer member of the board of directors and vice president in charge of community reach-out.

Of Orange County’s 360-plus, privately owned residential-care facilities for senior citizens, Heritage Pointe is one of the few that is nonprofit, according to reports from the Orange County Area Agency on Aging.

At least one-third of all residents will receive financial help for the fees that range from $1,500 to $2,350 a month for the 179 studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments. Aid will range from partial assistance to complete rental coverage, depending on an individual’s need.

For Modelevsky and some of the other 1,000 volunteers, this financial assistance has special meaning. “My mother suffered from a stroke and couldn’t really afford the care she needed--the Jewish home in St. Paul, Minn., took care of her,” Modelevsky related. “I will never forget the kindness she was shown. That’s really what has motivated me to help start the home here in Orange County.”

Octogenarian Sophia Hoffman moved into her apartment in late May before the kitchen was operational. Responsible for starting Heritage Pointe’s first chapter in Laguna Hills and honorary life vice president of the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, Hoffman wanted to be the first resident so she could help other seniors adjust. “I want to make people welcome here,” she said.

Meals are served daily in the community dining room. The meals are kosher--”a must,” said Victor Klein, president of Heritage Pointe’s board of directors. “Our mission says we are going to take care of the Jewish elderly of Orange County and Long Beach. If we did not have a kosher kitchen, and there were one or two Jewish people who had to be turned away because they wouldn’t eat non-kosher food, we would not be fulfilling that.”

All the cookware, preparation surfaces, sinks and other utensils are color-coded red, blue and yellow, respectively, to separate meat, milk products and pareve (neutral foods such as fish, fruits, vegetables and eggs).

“Here, you have to think about the utensil you pick up and then think, ‘Where am I going to put it down?’ Let alone, ‘What am I going to do with it?’ ” explained Robert Lindsay, director of food services.

The kitchen received the “OU” designation, the first-ever given to any retirement facility, on June 19, according to Lindsay. The “OU” designation signifies endorsement by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the same group that grants the kosher “U” rating to commercial products.

There are numerous considerations in a kosher kitchen, Lindsay said. “Under the guidance of OU, even I cannot have the keys to the meat freezer. Irvino Levine, the mashgiach (the rabbinical supervisor of the kitchen), has it at all times. If the mashgiach is not here, we do not serve a meat meal.”

Heritage Pointe has been a major goal for Orange County and Long Beach Jewish residents since 1984. It was then that a committee of the Jewish Federation of Orange County decided a Jewish home for the aging was needed.

There are an estimated 100,000 Jews in Orange County and Long Beach, according to an market assessment and demographic study conducted for Heritage Pointe. Of those residents, 62% have a relative or friend in a home for the aging. (There are more than 100 Jewish homes for the aging in the United States.)

Heritage Pointe’s volunteer board of directors, chaired by Meryl Schrimmer, was formed in 1987, and legal status for Heritage Pointe as a nonprofit organization was obtained. From this grass-roots group, the number of chapters involved in fund-raising activities grew to its present nine. Now, the 36-member board oversees Heritage Pointe operations and the coordination of more than 1,000 volunteers.

In 1989, the Heritage Pointe board of directors purchased for $10.5 million a recently completed facility constructed by Retirement Inns of America, a subsidiary of Avon Corp. The 5.7-acre hillside site is appraised at $17 million, Klein said.

A fund-raising campaign began last fall to raise the $6.5 million needed to cover the escrow payment and the 30% financial assistance for seniors. The group closed escrow in mid-December with just over $4 million. The remaining $2.5 million was provided through bridge loans to Heritage Pointe guaranteed by a small group of Jewish community leaders, according to Burg, chairman of the fund-raising committee.

The work at Heritage Pointe is just beginning. Raising more capital is needed to pay off the bridge loan and open the assisted-living wing in the fall, as well as to consider future needs of the residents.

“A Jewish nursing home,” mused Ellie Burg, a member of the board of directors and Irv Burg’s wife. “That’s our next job. Of course, we still have a lot of years between now and then. But when we’re all old ladies, we’ll be sitting around here at Heritage Pointe remembering this day when it all started.”