Some 50 elderly Jewish residents in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, which once had 200 flourishing synagogues and now does not have any, were able to attend Rosh Hashana services with the help of the Association of Jewish Anti-Poverty Workers, S. Elly Rosen, its director, disclosed today. Through the same special arrangements, Rosen added, the elderly Jews will worship again on Yom Kippur eve and on Yom Kippur.
Rosen said there were still some 2000 elderly Jews living in poverty and fear in Brownsville. Some continued to attend services in the apartment of an elderly Jew until he entered a nursing home last Purim. Rosen said the association arranged for temporary facilities in the community center of the Van Dyke Houses, a senior citizens low-income housing project. But the elderly Jews were unable to raise enough money among themselves through ticket sales for a cantor and a reader.
Rosen said he approached Rabbi Jack Stern, Jr. of the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, which provided the additional funds needed for the functionaries. The services were conducted by David Miller, president of the Senior Centers of Greater New York. Miller, who is blind, recited the services from memory and blew the Shofar. Torah reading was done by a Lubavitcher rabbi, Yaakov Blotner.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
