Broomall, Pa. — Kosher food makes a Jewish home. That has been the thinking for the past 29 years at Martins Run, a Jewish retirement community outside Philadelphia where every meal served in the white-tablecloth dining rooms has been certified kosher.
But the thinking about what makes a Jewish home is changing. During the past year, Martins Run, along with a number of other Jewish senior assisted-living facilities, has begun moving away from strictly kosher offerings — in some cases, doing away with kosher food altogether. At Martins Run, the board voted to convert one of the two dining halls to start serving non-kosher food, a move that was made after occupancy rates began to drop and prospective Jewish clients said that they were turned off by the kosher-only meal plan.
“Let’s face it, it’s a big business, and you have to keep ahead of it in order to stay alive,” said the head of the Martins Run residents food committee, Vivian Feltzer, 90, who is excited about the opportunity to eat bacon and shrimp. “We may be older, but I know we have to stay with the times.”
This sort of thinking has affected Jewish nursing homes and assisted-living facilities over the past year in places as far removed as Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Atlanta. The shift has two sources. One is the intense financial pressure and competition in the business of caring for the elderly, which has led administrators to scour their budgets for cost-cutting possibilities. But the decision to do away with kosher food has also been championed frequently by elderly Jewish residents themselves, who want to eat whatever they want in their old age.
It’s not a surprising turn of events, given that only a small minority of American Jews keep kosher in their homes. But the changes at nursing homes — the only homes many elderly Jews know — represent a move away from long-held communal norms, and they leave some wondering what the kosher-keeping Jews of today will do when they are older.
“What’s going to be there for the people my age?” said 60-year old Alan Zaitchek, whose father, an Orthodox rabbi, lives in an assisted-living facility near Boston that recently announced it would be closing its kosher kitchen because of economic considerations.
“There are no institutions that are going to be around when we need them,” Zaitchek said.
At Chestnut Park at Cleveland Circle, where Zaitchek’s father lives, the administration is looking at bringing in fresh-cooked meals from another kosher facility nearby — at an additional charge to the residents who want it. Chestnut Park’s decision follows closely that of a nursing home nearby to cut its kosher service. In Philadelphia, the Glendale Uptown Home recently did away with its kosher kitchen and started serving cheeseburgers. There are still Yiddish chat sessions and visits from Chabad rabbis at Glendale Uptown, but the residents who want kosher food are left to eat frozen microwaveable meals.
There are, to be sure, still many nursing homes around the country with kosher kitchens. The head of the Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America, Harvey Tillipman, said that a majority of the 115 members of his organization — all of them not-for-profits — still serve kosher food.
“There’s a lot of pull in the Jewish community with people wanting to maintain this kosher tradition,” Tillipman said. But, he added, “when each of the member facilities is trying to find ways to reduce costs, one of the things that comes up repeatedly is kosher food,” which generally costs more.
The facilities that have done away with kosher food altogether have largely been for-profit facilities, like Chestnut Park and Glendale Uptown, which are answerable to shareholders rather than to the Jewish community. Some Jewish facilities were started as not-for-profits by communal organizations and were later bought out by big for-profit conglomerates.
Even among the remaining Jewish not-for-profit facilities, though, the financial pressures have been mounting as the federal programs on which they rely — such as Medicaid and Medicare — have cut back their reimbursement rates for nursing homes.
In San Francisco, Daniel Ruth, CEO of the 138-year old Jewish Home, says that kosher food adds about 2% to 3% to his facility’s $65 million budget, and during lean years that extra budget line always comes up for discussion. Thus far the home has maintained its kosher kitchen, but when Ruth’s organization recently opened up a new Jewish independent-living facility in nearby Palo Alto, the board decided to create a quasi-kosher kitchen in which residents could add cheese to their hamburgers and milk to their coffee — even after a steak dinner. Ruth found that the bank providing the loan wanted them to do this to ensure financial viability.
“I think it’s really now, in the last year or two — and really going forward — that Jewish communities are going to be making this kind of change,” Ruth said.
The timing of these shifts is somewhat curious, given that kosher-keeping Jews have long been a minority in the United States. In fact, the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey indicated that today’s elderly are actually slightly less likely to keep kosher than younger Jews. While 19% of Jews aged 55–64 said that they kept kosher at home, the number rose slightly to 20% for ages 45–54, and to 22% for ages 35–44. This is consistent with the growth of Orthodox Judaism in America, the main wing of Judaism that insists on kosher food.
Nursing home experts say that historically, despite the fact that a majority of Jews did not keep kosher, kosher food was seen as a communal responsibility at Jewish homes, many of which were set up by Jewish charities.
“The assumption was always there that this was a norm that everyone would adhere to,” said Alan Glicksman, a sociologist at the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.
Sadie Hofstein, 86, president of Martins Run’s residents association, said that when she moved in eight years ago, she had not kept kosher in her own home, but she figured that the restricted menu was the price of living in a Jewish environment.
“You came here, and the expectation was that it’s going to be kosher,” Hofstein said. “There never was a thought of a non-kosher kitchen, and people simply fell into it.”
Glicksman said that communal norms have been breaking down as the avenues of Jewish identity have increased and competition has made the customer king — even in the world of senior living.
“There are more diverse assumptions about what being Jewish means,” Glicksman said. “Kosher food is a window into this whole complex topic of what makes Jewish health and social services Jewish.”
The competition has become fiercer, in part because older Jews have been willing to move into non-Jewish facilities and non-Jews have moved into Jewish homes. This has spawned all sorts of creative responses. In Georgia, the Cohen Home has stopped ordering kosher meat but has kept out inherently treyf foods, like pork and shellfish. In, Boston, the newly opened community NewBridge on the Charles will supplement its kosher offerings with a nonkosher restaurant that will avoid pork but offer up shellfish.
“Maybe it’s just New England,” said Sara Paasche-Orlow, the rabbi for Hebrew SeniorLife, which opened NewBridge. “We have clearly learned to be Jews in more diverse ways now.”
The arrival of non-kosher dining options provides more than just gustatory benefits for residents who, like Feltzer, are thrilled about the change. Paasche-Orlow said that patients at nursing homes today are generally older and more frail than they were in the past, and as a result they have more exacting dietary needs.
“They are definitely more concerned now about just eating what makes them feel okay,” Paasche-Orlow said of the residents with whom she deals. “They don’t want to worry about the timing of eating ice cream.”
This does not mean that the decision to drop kosher food — or even to add non-kosher options, as did Hebrew Senior Life and Martins Run — does not run into deeply felt resistance. All the homes making these decisions talk about emotional debates among their board members. In Atlanta, when a for-profit nursing home next to a synagogue announced that it was doing away with a kosher kitchen in 2008, the rabbi at the synagogue led a group of investors that tried to buy the home and keep it kosher. In the end, a local Christian group bought the home and maintained the kosher kitchen.
An often repeated fear is that the end of kosher food will lead to the end of the broader Jewish environment at these nursing homes. In Boston, Zaitchek wrote to people worried about the changes at Chestnut Park.
“We have to stand united today confronting them on the issue of kosher food, or we won’t be able to stand united tomorrow when Chestnut Park altogether ceases to offer a Jewish living space.” Zaitchek wrote in an e-mail.
The management at Chestnut Park has assured residents that they will maintain a Jewish environment, including “kosher-style” meals that won’t mix milk and meat or include pork or shellfish. At Martins Run, even the decision to add non-kosher options while maintaining a kosher dining room was almost too difficult to talk about.
“It was hard for people to even approach this as a conversation for a long time,” said Linda Sterthous, CEO of Martins Run.
But two years back, Martins Run did a survey and found that close to 90% of prospective clients wanted non-kosher food. “Once we had some solid quantitative evidence, it’s hard to look away from,” said Sterthous. “We were finding that many of our key target population prospects were leaving us and saying, ‘Nice place, great environment, but I’m going to go to the place down the street because I can eat whatever I want.’”
“Food is primal,” Sterthous added.
Contact Nathaniel Popper at popper@forward.com
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BS"D This is absolutely scandalous. A Jewish place providing a "stumbling block". A "quasi" kosher kitchen? There is no such thing as a kosher hamburger. I don't care how glatt the meat nor how cholov Yisroel the cheese.
There needs to be a solution that allows for Yidden to spend their remaining years like Yidden.
I know at least a few names of places to tell people NOT to go to, thanks to your article, though.
'...they have more exacting dietary needs.' Do their dietary needs include pork, bacon, ham and shellfish? People who are ill need not wait as long after meat, if they need milk products. Amazingly our many strictly kosher Jewish Care facilities in London some how manage to cope with people's exacting dietary needs.'
While the vast majority of Jews do not adhere to kashrut as certified by the Orthodox Rabbinate, pork products and shellfish should not be part of the diet in organizations supported by the Jewish community. The small minority who will settle for no less than strictest observance will have to pay for it in institutions run by strictly Orthodox groups like Chabad.
It is a sad situation.
But put it in perspective.
First, Jewish institutions of all sorts are in financial trouble. We have built multiple institutions (schools, shuls, yeshivot) based on years of affluence--often with support of the non-Orthodox community. Now we are facing the "seven lean years" and--face it--the non-Orthodox community is focusing on its own needs. Also, "Orthodox" has acquired some undesirable connotations as a result of multiple scandals (that need not be identified here).
Second, the idea that kashrut is a religious obligation (which it is) is weakened by members of our own community. There are nursing homes owned and run by Orthodox Jews, with Jews as residents, that do not even have a kosher kitchen. The owners are profiting from providing tref food, including milk-meat mixtures. And yet those owners are often honored by their synagogues and schools as mainstays of the community.
Third, it's easy to spend someone else's time and money. When my mother was in one such home (chosen for overall quality and proximity), I put a fridge in her room and brought her the kosher food she needed. Not everyone can do that personally, but when it's important you make some arrangements.
Summary: Look in the mirror.
I worked for a Kosher senior facility for 12 years. 7 years ago, they decided do away with Kosher, and the facility now is struggling to keep any Jewish identity at all. Coupled with the fact that there are more options such as Assisted living facilities, without keeping Kosher, the facility becomes more an more watered down.
If 90% want a golden calf then they should have that too. Certainly serving shrimp and lobster are a great way to cut costs. Nice argument for treyf. If you don't believe in G-d or any of the other commandments and you want to live at a Jewish retirement home, you should, at the very least respect those that do want kosher food. In a generation or 2 there will be nothing to bind Jews together as a community.
The article by Nathaniel Popper invites two questions?
1. Why has adherence to laws of kashrut become so marginalized ?
2. Why is kosher food so much more expensive than other food?
The answer to question #1 is that adherence to all aspects of traditional Judaism has become marginalized; particularly those aspects that involve effort and expense. The reasons for this marginalization are numerous; but chief among them is the failure of most Jewish leaders/educators for the better part of the last century to educate rank and file Jews about the details of their heritage.
The answer to question #2 involves profit. Kosher meat typically costs at least twice as much as non-Kosher meat. This huge increase can not be explained by the marginal extra expenses of ritual slaughter, removal of blood, and hashgachah (supervision) or even by the smaller market for kosher meat. Rather, the price of Kosher products are dramatically inflated beyond ordinary market prices for equivalent non-Kosher products; the profit ending up who knows where. The search for the profit should include Kosher certification organizations, like the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. These organizations typically compel businesses that receive their stamp to sign a contract that forbids the business to disclose how much they pay in exchange for rabbic seal of approval. Exposure of the details of this Orthodox rabbinic monopoly could be embarressing for the rabbis if it were to show that a large fraction of the difference in price between kosher and non-kosher food winds up in the rabbi's pockets. After all, the high cost of kosher food is one of the important factors that leads to non-compliance of contemporary Jews with the laws of Kashrut.
22% keep Kosher? The last figures I saw said that in my native Baltimore about 75% kept kosher. Does it depend on how you word the question? You could ask, 'Do you buy kosher meat?' or you might ask, 'Do you buy cholov Yisrael cheese,toivel all your kelim and separate challoh from your dough?' The former might be 75%, the latter 10%. If the price of kosher meat is a major factor in serving treyfus, perhaps the Rabbinate could give a discount for supervising kashruth for senior care homes. If you think kosher meat is expensive in the USA, you should do a study of Kashruth here in the EU. When we visit NYC we can't believe how cheap kosher meat is !!!
What a world: Jewish nursing homes going treif, women arrested for wearing a tallit to pray in Israel, Rabbis supporting Rubashkin. Perhaps these chaotic and incomprehensible events -- evidence that the Jewish people are losing their minds --- indicates that the Messiah is coming -- one can only pray!
Although I agree with you that chutzpa will increase in the days before Moshiach arrives, I wouldn't include the Rubashkin issue. The Rabbis only asked that he have time with his family before sentencing and his prison term begins. They were thinking of his children and their need to adjust to the change in their family life. Judges normally keep someone is prison awaiting sentencing if he is violent or dangerous. Is the court afraid he will employ a few more illegal immigrants ?
There's more to Judaism than keeping kosher. Also, keeping kosher doesn't make you a better Jew. Being Jewish is an intellectual tradition, one that is very much alive.
"Rather, the price of Kosher products are dramatically inflated beyond ordinary market prices for equivalent non-Kosher products; the profit ending up who knows where."
Martin, the price has also been driven way up by the imposition of the Glatt Kosher standard, an unnecessary stringency that results in much more waste than did traditional kashrut. It was implemented in order to provide livelihoods for young Haredi men who were otherwise unemployable, due to their increasing numbers and the decreasing number of jobs available in their communities, coupled with their abysmal level of education.
One more example of Modern Orthodoxy acquiescing to the Haredim.
I'll put in a plug for The Coves (Independent Living Facility) and River Garden Hebrew Home. Both Kosher, and located in beautiful Jacksonville, Florida.
Not only kosher food, but a warm climate, as well.
HERE AT THE TRADITIONS OF THE PALM BEACHES THE RESIDENTS ARE PROUD THAT WE CAN CONTINUE OUR LIFELONG PRACTICE OF KEEPING KOSHER. IN SPITE OF THE CONSERVATIVE AND REFORM MOVEMENTS SHYING AWAY FROM KOSHER, WE THE RESIDENTS WHO ARE CONSERVATIVE , REFORM AND SEMI ORTHODOX CONTINUE TO OBSERVE THE LAWS OF KASHRUTH AS WE DID IN OUR PAST LIVES. WE ARE EGALETARIAN IN OUR SYNAGOGUE AND IT MAKES LIFE EASIER IN OUR OLDER YEARS.THOSE WHO WANT TO CHEAT CAN EAT OUR WHEN THEY DESIRE
It seems like "when in Rome do as the Romans do" and we all know the status of Rome now.
My mother lives at Martin's Run. She was raised in a kosher home Prior to moving to Martin's Run she always maintained a kosher kitchen for our family, and later, just for herself. When I complained to the Martin's Run board two years ago about their decision to start serving non-kosher food, I was given the answers that this was a marketing decision, that 90% of the residents didn't want the place to be kosher, and was assured that the board struggled "as Jews" with this decision. My reaction was that Jewish law is not subject to the democratic process. e.g. If 90% of the residents wanted the board to supplement the establishment's income by stealing (also against Jewish law!) it would still be wrong for the board to do so.
I am relieved that Martins Run is building what they say will be a separate kosher kitchen and dining hall for those who want it. While I still object to a Jewish institution serving treif, this is certainly preferable to having the kosher residents receive frozen dinners. I just hope the two-kitchen solution remains a viable way of organizing the food service.
I am doubly saddened to learn that the Chestnut Park facility near Boston is becoming non-kosher. I happen to know Alan Zaitchek. His father was the rabbi at my childhood shul and our families have been close friends for years. That such a pious and kind man as Rabbi Zaitchek should be faced with this situation is appalling. I hope that the right will prevail over the expedient.
my apologies - it's ZaitchIk nt ZaitchEk. I copied the Forward's spelling error!
Some of the residents at these facilities were forced to leave Russia and Europe because they are Jews. They lived through the attempt to wipe Jews and Judaism off the face of the earth, but millions did not -- all dying Al Kiddush Hashem -- for being Jewish. Now these survivors, children of survivors and other relatives, are being denied the ability to live their lives according to a fundamental, identifying Jewish law -- Kashrus. As easy as that. No guns, no barbed wire, no yellow stars no roundups or roll-calls.... And it's at the hand of Jews who "struggle" with the question. The real question is how these Jews calm their consciences.
I challenge Jeff Eyges to name and prove that even one nursing home is "owned and run by Orthodox Jews, with Jews as residents... and does not even have a kosher kitchen, and from which [these Orthodox Jewish] owners are profiting from providing tref food, including milk-meat mixtures" -- presumably to their Jewish residents.
It's a canard. And embittering at that.