Villages all over the country, including ChaiVillageLA, will be simultaneously gathering to celebrate this milestone in village history--when visionaries gathered in Beacon Hill, Boston to start the first village.

ChaiVillagers will gather together in the Temple Isaiah Social Hall, and join thousands of villagers across the country to listen to watch a special live-streamed celebration. The featured guest will be Dr. Atul Gawande, the author of the highly-celebrated book, Being Mortal, which explores balancing the quality of life with the preservation of life.  Dr Gawande will be interviewed by Robin Young, the host of NPR’s Here & Now and will speak about the value of community and opportunities as we grow older.
 
Following the live-streamed program, Rabbi Emerita Laura Geller will lead a ChaiVillageLA discussion.

This program is open to village members, all temple congregants and the public. Village members may register online and all others can register by contacting ChaiVillageLA Director, Devorah Servi, at [email protected] or 310-592-0321.

Members click here to register!

Join your fellow Village members for a moderate paced walk around Rancho Park. Each circle around the park is 2.2 miles, and should take 45 minutes. Free parking is available on Patricia.

On Saturday, September 9th members of ChaiVillageLA will help make an empty apartment a real home for one of Los Angeles’ many homeless families. In conjunction with PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), and the generous financial support of ChaiVillageLA members, Myrna and Bill Hant and Eileen Dardick, we will furnish and outfit an apartment for a family in need.
 
Join us by donating items to make a home for this family, and if you are available, come with us to take them to their new apartment to celebrate their joy and ours. Our goal is to provide a family with many of the everyday items that we are used to and that truly help transform a house into a home. A little bit of your generosity goes a long way.

Members of ChaiVillageLA are invited to take part in the Dor Vador (Generation to Generation) Project, a special intergenerational storytelling and art project being run by the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in cooperation with Temple Emanuel Religious School and ChaiVillageLA.

Interested in the Dor Vador Project? Come to our fun Storytelling Workshop!
If you could not make last time’s informational meeting, then this workshop is for you.

The storytelling workshop will encourage participants to get deep into their own stories. We will determine where stories begin, where stories end, and how we get from the beginning to the end. We will play with the description of characters. We will examine our preconceptions and how to incorporate the element of surprise and suspense into the telling of our stories.

This workshop will be led by Carl Weintraub, a professional storyteller and videographer, involved with the Dor Vador Project.

Project Background:

What is the Dor Vador Project?
We believe older Jewish adults have the life experiences to share and stories to tell. This project will help village members tell their stories on video so that they can hand down their wisdom to the younger generation.

What makes the Dor Vador Project multi-generational?
Jewish children and teens will work with the storytellers to create art based on their videos.

Temple Isaiah is proud to be joining the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ (NAMI) Annual 5K Walk on October 7th at Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles. Team Isaiah is being led by villagers Helene Korn and Ann Weinman, on behalf of Isaiah Women.   According to Helene, the event is “open to everyone - congregants of Temple Isaiah and ChaiVillageLA members.”  Together,  participants will help NAMI raise awareness of mental health issues and erase the stigma of seeking treatment. 
 
The NAMIWalk is a family and pet friendly event with entertainment, drumming, food trucks, and more. You can also participate virtually. Temple Isaiah and ChaiVillageLA member, Shelley Hoffman, is Walk Manager for the NAMIWalk, which is the largest mental health advocacy event in Southern California.
 
Please consider joining TEAM ISAIAH and/or donating to the team by visiting https://www.namiwalks.org/team/Isaiah.

You may also contact Helene Korn ([email protected]), or Ann Weinman [email protected]) or visit www.namiwalks.org/losangelescounty to learn more.

Dale Joyner attended Myrna Hant’s current event discussion on August 8th. As usual, there was much to talk about. Myrna introduced about six different topics. Dale felt that most of the news items were grim and depressing, particularly the implications of North Korea’s latest missile strike and President Trump’s response to it. A very thought provoking debate took place around the moral and ethical questions concerning the latest innovation in gene clipping and DNA selection. To lift the mood, Myrna ended with a humorous story about a chemistry student’s response to an exam question, which asked “Does Hell exist?”

The vast majority of adults want to remain in their homes and neighborhoods as they get older, but sometimes this takes a supportive community. ChaiVillageLA is a vibrant, multi-synagogue, multi-generational community that enables congregants to age in place in their own homes by providing assistance to one another and enriching each other’s lives, as part of a self-governing village supported by Jewish values.