Local synagogues use this weekend to honor parents and help local Jewish nursing home raise money

Feb. 16--Steven Suskin can already imagine what Pincus Paul Social Hall will look like after it is renovated.

The dated, frosted windows that dot the walls will be gone, said Suskin, director of philanthropy at Beth Sholom Village in Virginia Beach. New lighting and flooring will modernize the wide space, and a stage will showcase productions by Jewish playwrights and works with Jewish themes.

The grandmothers and grandfathers now sitting in a tight circle trading memories of Pearl Harbor and blue suede shoes will have even more to do in the new room.

"This is their home," Suskin said. "It's already beautiful, but we want to make it even better."

The Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village is in the middle of a $3 million capital campaign to renovate the nearly 40-year-old building, the area's only Jewish skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.

The fundraising drive is called the "Honor Campaign," and local synagogues have designated Friday and Saturday as "Kahbaid," or honor weekend, to recognize elders. This weekend was selected because it is the time when synagogues around the world are studying the Ten Commandments. Local congregations will concentrate on the fifth, "Honor thy Father and thy Mother."

At the Kempsville Conservative Synagogue in Virginia Beach, congregants have provided photos and brief memories for a display that will be shown Saturday. Rabbi Marc Kraus at Temple Emanuel in Virginia Beach will speak about the difficult decisions adult children face as their parents age.

Seniors will lead the prayers Saturday at Congregation Beth El in Norfolk, Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz said.

He will discuss briefly the importance of respecting elders in the family and community. It is important to remember "our fathers and mothers who nurture us literally and figuratively," he said.

The construction project will cost $5 million, and the Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia Foundation has invested $2 million. Another $1.8 million, so far, has been raised.

Work is expected to start this spring and will include refurbishing all 100 resident rooms and installing individual showers in each bathroom. The corridors and dining room will get a face-lift, the therapy rooms will be refitted with state-of-the art equipment and more beds will be designated for short-term rehabilitation patients.

Nursing facilities are seeing a higher demand for rehabilitation services, Suskin said, and locals are looking to Beth Sholom for the care.

The Virginia Beach facility has received above-average scores in staffing and quality measures on the Medicare.gov website, which ranks nursing homes.

"We want to be the one that's on top of the list," Suskin said. "We want to be the facility that people want to come to."

Beth Sholom opened 37 years ago off Military Highway for Jewish families who needed care in a facility that provided kosher meals.

Before 1980, Jewish families had to take their aging parents to Richmond.

Berger-Goldrich is open to all faiths, and about 60 percent of its population is non-Jewish.

Marcia Futterman Brodie's history with Beth Sholom goes back long before she became director of marketing in 2012.

Her parents, Mindy and Ralph Futterman, were instrumental in getting it built. Mindy Futterman had to put her brother in the Richmond facility after he suffered a series of strokes, and she drove to visit him on the weekends.

"She wasn't the only one in that position," Brodie said.

Brodie's father, a dentist, volunteered services at Beth Sholom once it was completed, and both parents each served as president of the board. When they became ill, Brodie had both of them cared for at Beth Sholom.

Her father received care for seven years and her mother for three. Both died in 2011.

She said she believed her father lived longer than expected because of the quality of care.

"There are staff members here who remember me from the days of when I was visiting my parents," Brodie said.

"I'm very protective of Beth Sholom because I know what it's like. I know what it's like to be a family member here."

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