‘Active Aging’: A New Definition For Today’s Boomers

The Jewish community has overlooked and underfunded its largest segment. But signs of change are encouraging.

The upside of aging: People who are post-midlife often have the experience and acquired wisdom to share with others.

After more than a dozen years of efforts, mostly futile, to convince the organized Jewish community to pay more attention to its biggest cohort, Baby Boomers, “we’re getting on the radar,” reports Stuart Himmelfarb, co-founder and CEO of B3/The Jewish Aging Platform, a non-profit dedicated to engaging – or re-engaging – Boomers in Jewish life.

As proof of progress, a recent day-long virtual convening on “Active Aging Engagement” was attended by more than 100 lay and professional practitioners  from around the country who work with active older adults in the community. The attendees focused on how older people are living more energetically than prior generations and how that impacts on the Jewish community.

A key goal is to redirect the traditional way of thinking of over-65s from a population “experiencing decline, fear and isolation,” as one speaker put it, to one offering “a range of exciting opportunities” and voluntary encore careers.

The participants in the program, the first of its kind, shared their experiences, initiatives and observations and were briefed on the formation of The Active Aging Resource Network (activeagingnetwork.org), designed to be a central resource for professionals, volunteers and funders committed to “capture the potential for Jewish and civic engagement” among people “from mid-life careers into retirement.” 

The new network features a directory of those in the field and a description of programs involved in this work.  It offers direct connections among those involved and invites collaboration.

The convening was sponsored by Jewish Federations of North America and the JCC Manhattan’s center for modern aging, along with The Natan Fund and The Sephardic Foundation on Aging, a clear indication that mainstream institutions are coming to recognize the opportunities, as well as challenges, of dealing with a generation of American Jews past midlife, more than a quarter of the community. Many of them identify more with the next generation than the previous one in terms of their energy, health, mobility and interest in remaining vitally engaged. 

Until now, this segment of the community has been overlooked and underfunded. American Jewish organizations over the last three decades have heavily focused resources and programs toward engaging the elusive “younger generation,” college students and young adults who, statistically, are the least interested in affiliating with synagogues and other institutions of Jewish life. 

“If you’re looking for funds for programs geared to people over 40, you’re invisible,” one frustrated volunteer told me last year about approaching federations or major foundations for support. 

Historically, communal institutions have assumed a caretaker role in relation to older Jews, providing an impressive range of geriatric medical and social services, focused on assisting the infirm. But society has changed, with the youngest of the Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) approaching the age of 60. 

“Active aging” is a phrase intended to redefine a cohort that, if motivated and engaged, could benefit from programs designed for their needs and interests and could, in turn offer high-level volunteerism to the community.

Focus On Grandparents

The convening highlighted some model projects around the country geared toward active-agers, with an emphasis on intergenerational connections. One of the most creative and successful organizations in this emerging field is The Jewish Grandparents Network (jewishgrandparentsnetwork.org), founded five years ago, which seeks to “engage, educate and celebrate grandparents as an essential in Jewish family life.” (Full disclosure: I recently joined the group’s national advisory council.)

David Raphael, CEO and co-founder, described research indicating grandparents play a key role in transmitting Jewish traditions and values within the family dynamic. That role today is particularly significant – and at times delicate – given that more than half of Jewish grandparents have at least one grandchild in an interfaith household. 

“Our mission is to be as welcoming as possible,” Raphael told me during a follow-up interview. In addition to activities that focus on Jewish holidays and rituals, he cited a variety of projects that allow grandparents and grandchildren to participate together, from reading stories and playing games online – 40 percent of grandparents live five hours or more from their grandchildren – to taking “meaningful walks” together. There are more than 90 activities and resources on the website.

Raphael, who spent 30 years working for Hillel in various capacities of leadership, said Jewish communal groups have been “slow to respond” to dealing with new ideas on aging, which remains “geared toward elder care.” The mindset is “to support them [older people] rather than engage them” in dynamic Jewish ways, he said. Most synagogues, JCCs and other Jewish groups focus on the nuclear family and are missing out on the opportunity to think intergenerationally. “Why not make membership in the synagogue or JCC intergenerational?” he asks. “It’s a win-win for the families and the institutions.”

Changing the organized Jewish community’s image of and response to over-65s is “an uphill climb,” Raphael says, “but we’re making progress.”

It Takes A Jewish Village

One impressive sign of progress is the nascent “Jewish village movement,” where older synagogue members come together to “socialize, exercise, study and pray together and help each other in a variety of ways, like visiting those who are ill or offering computer lessons or a ride to the doctor.

 Rabbi Laura Geller, rabbi emerita at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and co-founder of ChaiVillageLA, (chaivillagela.org), the first synagogue-based community of its kind, spoke at the convening of how her temple and another local Reform temple partnered in bringing older members together in community – not physically, but in empowering them to create programs, classes and activities that reflect a sense of shared Jewish values and looking out for each other. 

Chai Village is part of the national Village Movement of hundreds of similar communities around the country, and now includes several other synagogue-based villages. 

Other presenters at the convening from New York, Baltimore and Boston described local efforts that combine medical, social service, educational and social programs to engage active-agers in dynamic ways.

The keynote speaker of the day, Marc Freedman, co-CEO and founder of Encore.org. and one of America’s leading social entrepreneurs, noted that America is one of the most diverse and age-segregated societies in history. But he disagrees with those who believe that age-divide inevitably will lead to conflict. He called for “cogenerational action,” a determined effort to create multigenerational opportunities where older and younger people can work together to solve problems and bridge divides.

Freedman noted that he chose a much younger person than himself to be co-CEO with him in his work, and he urged the Jewish community to help lead the way in “linking an encore career to second acts for the greater good.”

Organizers of the convening came away inspired by Freedman’s message and encouraged by the number of participants, their interest in keeping in touch through the new Active Aging website, and the fact that more federations, concerned about engaging empty nesters, are rethinking policies and programs. 

As one social worker told me, “it’s time we started thinking of how we’re going to engage these post-65 folks rather than ‘where are we going to put them?’”

You can help widen readership of Between The Lines by sharing this column with those you think would value it.

For those new to Between The Lines, you can subscribe — either for free or paid ($36 a year) — by clicking the word “today” in bold: today

Also, a limited supply of copies of my book, “Between The Lines: Reflections on the American Jewish Experience,” a collection from 20 years of columns, is available at no charge to new readers who sign up for a paid ($36 a year) subscription, starting today. To receive a copy after subscribing, email me at garyrosenblatt@gmail.com and include the address where you want the book to be mailed. To subscribe, click the word “today” in bold: today