14
Federation Star
COMMUNITY FOCUS
January 2022
NAPLES SENIOR CENTER
www.naplesseniorcenter.org / 239.325.4444
Dementia respite and caregiver support Dr. Jaclynn Faffer President/ CEO
N
aples Senior Center reopened its dementia respite services on Marco Island on Dec. 2, 2021. It was the first time since closing the doors in March 2020, due to COVID-19, that the group met in person. During the pandemic, all programs were offered on a virtual platform. The initial group had nine participants and was facilitated by
Simona Staicu-Levy, NSC dementia program coordinator. Also participating was Marisa Luizzi, NSC music therapist and three vetted and trained NSC volunteers. We hope to expand the Marco program to two days a week. The four-hour structured respite group is offered five days a week, onsite, at NSC on Castello Drive. There are 22,000 seniors living with dementia in Collier and Lee Counties and 19,000 family caregivers providing care for their loved ones. NSC is committed to providing support for those with dementia as well as their caregivers, with wraparound services. Activities in the respite program are designed to achieve the program’s goals of enhancing
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SWFL
communications skills, improving an individual’s mood, helping access longterm memory and increasing socialization. We provide caregiver education, with strategies for relieving stress along with activities that can be enjoyed at home as well as opportunities to socialize with other caregivers. For more information about the Dementia Respite Program and Caregiver Support, call NSC at 239-325-4444. When you drive by the site of the new Naples Senior Center on Autumn Oaks Lane, you might unknowingly drive on by. With site work beginning in early November, the 13.7 acres looks totally different! The land has been cleared and
the foundation work has begun. It is so very exciting to finally be building our dream. We are grateful for all the support along the way … and going forward! And speaking of dreams, on Jan. 8, Naples Senior Center will celebrate “A Decade of Dancing, Dining and Dreams” at its 10th annual Evening for Better Tomorrows. Guests will enjoy a scrumptious dinner and dance to the music of Shadows of the ’60s under the stars at Royal Poinciana Golf Club. Heartfelt thanks are extended to all who plan to come show their support! As 2022 begins, NSC extends best wishes to all for a healthy and safe New Year.
www.jhsswf.org / 239.566.1771
Jack Nortman to be honored at Never Again event By Marina Berkovich, president
T
he more time passes after each genocide, even one so well documented as the Holocaust, the fewer the eyewitnesses and the more challenging the education and prevention become to humanity – this is an historically proven fact, not a supposition. Just think back to the Civil War or WWI eras and reflect on your own reluctance to hear the cautionary tales those survivors and soldiers were so eager to pass on, except the stories encapsulated and embellished in the bestselling novels and Oscar-winning films, like “GWTW” or “A Farewell to Arms.” Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust has become a worldwide concern, particularly in the USA. Because the prime ethnic/religious eradication aim of the Holocaust were Jews, teaching such lessons is an inseparable part of Jewish history everywhere. The next wave of denial is regrettably upon us. Copouts,
like “Holocaust fatigue,” should have no place in our world, with antisemitism on the rise and Jewish children, businesses, houses of worship and homes targeted in acts echoing that of the pre-Holocaust time. Yet, with only about a third of U.S. states mandating Holocaust education, it is an uphill battle and Jews everywhere are fearful that once the last Holocaust survivor passes, the fragile legacy of this unfathomably senseless cruelty will be written off or distorted. The Holocaust is an inseparable part of 20th-century Jewish history, woven into our memory and legacy. That is why The Jewish Historical Society has partnered with the Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center to honor Mr. Jack Nortman during a very special NEVER AGAIN event on Sunday, Feb. 6 11:30 a.m. at Hilton Naples. The event committee is comprised of notable locals
SERVING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY SINCE 1996 Fuller Cremation Center 5325 Jaeger Road Naples, Florida 34109
Fuller Funeral Home 1625 Pine Ridge Road Naples, Florida 34109
239.592.1611 wecare@fullernaples.com
www.FullerNaples.com
and is co-chaired by Sandra Lee Buxton and Ellen Seigel. Mr. Nortman is a child of the Holocaust. His parents were transported to Siberia by the ever so “helpful” Soviets and returned back to their native Poland on the windowless railroad cattle and goods transport car, aka boxcar. Railroad cars, as such, were routinely used by the Soviets and the Nazis to transport human chattel in the mid-20th century in grossly inhumane conditions that assured the demise of a majority of those transported. More than 60 years later, the Nortman family procured an authentic WWII era boxcar and brought it to Southwest Florida to become the only traveling boxcar in the U.S. Since 2008, over 150,000 people, mostly students, visited this boxcar, which travels with specially constructed removable stairs to allow the visitors this one small convenience that the unfortunate WWII transports did not have. Small groups of boxcar visitors remain inside, with doors closed, for a few minutes. To most of them, these minutes are life altering as they mentally immerse into the inhuman condition of those who were packed into boxcar transports on their way to the killing camps Nazis built all over Poland, or Soviets deep into Siberia’s eerily similar inhumanity of Stalin’s GULAG. Now, the Nortman family is assuring the continuity of Boxcar Education
through an $84,000 matching grant established for the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center. The joint fundraiser branch will feature the premiere of The Jewish Historical Society of SWFL’s original production, the next documentary in the SWFL Jewish Pioneers series: Jack Nortman, The Boxcar Education Giant. At the event, we will honor philanthropist, Jack Nortman, for his unfailing commitment to preserving historical accuracy of this education process. The Boxcar will be on the grounds and available for inspection by event attendees. There are many ways for you to assure the success of this event. The primary beneficiary of the matching grant is The Holocaust Museum of SWFL. To purchase tickets for the event and contribute to the Holocaust Museum Boxcar Education Program, go to https:// hmcec.org/calendar/category/event/list/. For sponsorship of the brunch or advertising in the event program, contact Marina Berkovich, president, The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, 8805 Tamiami Trail North, Suite # 255, Naples FL 34108, telephone 833-547-7935 (833-JHS-SWFL), email: office@jhsswf.org The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida and the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center are stand-alone section 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
