Published July 13. 2023 09:38AM
By ANITA HIRSCH
Special to The Press
At a May 22 meeting of the Friendship Circle, a senior group that meets at the Jewish Community Center, Allentown, provided a luncheon for its Better Together Buddy program.
The Buddy program, which pairs a senior member of the Friendship Circle with a student at the Jewish Day School, is funded through a grant sponsored by Legacy Heritage which is to be used to provide eight educational intergenerational sessions between the Jewish Day School 11- to 13-year-olds and Friendship Circle seniors.
The grant is being promoted by Beth Kushnick, director of Outreach and Engagement at the Jewish Day School, and is also the JCC’s Friendship Circle Senior program director.
Kushnick organized a pen pal program in which 25 Jewish seniors write letters to 25 students at the Jewish Day School.
This luncheon was the first chance the students and their pen pals could meet in person.
There was a lot of talking and laughing and hugging after only just writing letters to each other for this year.
Amy Golding, head of the Jewish Day School, notes the three-year initiative is an intergenerational opportunity to build relationships between seniors and students.
PRESS PHOTOS BY ANITA HIRSCH The seniors of the Friendship Circle and the buddies from the Jewish Day School met for lunch for the first time. About 50 seniors with their Better Together Buddy pals enjoyed the lunch and bingo on May 22 at the Jewish Community Center, Allentown,
Carla Messinger with Arianna Padin and Leah Leisawitz.
Ari Johnson and Kaitlyn Glickman mark their bingo cards at the Better Together Buddy lunch.
Friendship Circle member Lillian Nissenbaum, 105, and her pen pal Emmett Fleisch.
Beth Kushnick, director of Outreach and Engagement of the Jewish Day School and the Jewish Community Center's Friendship Circle Senior Program director, leads bingo at the luncheon as she calls the winning numbers.
Jewish Day School student Eli Fleisch and his writing pal Lucille Wahrman from the Friendship Circle.
