May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and we asked Malka Young, LICSW, Director of Allies in Aging, JFS Elder Care Solutions to reflect on how her Jewish American heritage influences her work as a Geriatric Care Manager.
Growing Older Thinking of Jewish Heritage Month
By Malka Young, LICSW , Director of Allies in Aging, JFS Elder Care Solutions
Growing older, in my mind, has always been intimately associated with being Jewish.
My grandmothers spoke Yiddish and kept kosher kitchens. I remember my Grandma Ruth meticulously scouring her kitchen for Passover, wrapping every surface in aluminum foil. Even after my Grandpa Hymie moved into a nursing home, she kept up this tradition, taking two buses just to visit him each day.
Our seders were long. The grownups sat at one end of the table, the kids at the other. The adults discussed the Haggadah in Yiddish, and those discussions went on and on. We learned patience. We learned reverence. We weren’t entertained with toy frogs or ten-plague masks. My sister and I used to joke that someday when we were old, we too would speak Yiddish and talk English with an accent.
In Jewish tradition, aging is sacred. Leviticus 19:32 tells us: “You must rise up before the aged and honor the face of the older person; you must fear your God—I am the Lord.” These two instructions—rising up and honoring—resonate throughout Jewish texts like the Talmud and the Mishnah. One calls for action, the other for presence. One teaches us to support our elders. The other reminds us to treat them with dignity, simply for the lives they’ve lived.
That spirit guides my work every day. As Director of Allies in Aging, JFS Elder Care Solutions, I carry these values into every interaction—with older adults, with families, with care teams. If you were to visit my office, you’d see two framed prayers on the wall. One reads:
“Holy One of Blessing, You have commanded us to occupy ourselves with the needs of the community.”
The other:
“Holy One of Blessing, Your presence fills creation, for Whom the world is like this.”
To me, those two prayers reflect what it means to serve older adults. It’s both doing and being—helping someone living with Parkinson’s or dementia, and also remembering that they are more than their diagnosis. They are someone’s mother, father, teacher, neighbor or friend.
During Jewish Heritage Month, I feel especially proud to be part of a tradition that honors aging, memory, and care. I’m grateful to do this work with compassion, and through the heritage that shaped me.
Guided by the Jewish traditions of social responsibility and compassion, JFS is proud to recognize and celebrate Malka—as well as all our staff and Board members of Jewish American heritage—whose invaluable contributions strengthen and sustain our work in the community every day.