good morning welcome to mosaic i am rabbi wise i am honored to be your host. this morning we are having wonderful conversation with susan coster the executive director of gold man plaza here in francisco an -- san francisco an assisted living facility welcome. >> hi eric. so, where is it and how old is it and how does it function as a facility? >> well, it is ten years old we are having a celebration, ten days of celebration to celebrate the ten years in

october. and it is on post street between scott and pierce and it was created by mount zion health fund, jewish family and children's services they identified a need for a jewish assisted living facility in san francisco 12 or 13 years ago and started fundraising to get it off the ground. mount zion health fund donated land and jewish family and children's services had their offices on that property and they are in the building that we are in. we share the building but our facility takes up a greater amount of time because -- excuse me, a greater amount of space because we have people living there. >> so really it is people's homes. >> oh, yeah. people have apartments. and they are private and they live in their apartments, and then they open the door and everything begins and they get their meals, and house keeping, and transportation, there are activities that go on 12 hours

a day, everything from exercise every morning, and you can either do chair or standing depending on your capacity, and we have lectures and live music all the time we go out, on all kinds of trips we have doe sents come in and talk about the latest exhibit and then will take a group of people out to see the exhibit at one of the museums in san francisco. it is wonderful and intellectually stimulating and fun. we do a lot of fun things as well. when you look at all the different wonderful choices that an elder person has to make in the jewish community about where they might move when they decide to leave their home and move into some kind of a senior living facility, what is it about this that makes it special? >> i think it depends on each person's needs, i will tell you that anybody who comes to visit when you walk into the lobby,

it is very very impressive and beautiful, spacious has lots of light we have a skylight, that beams sun when we get sun in san francisco down into the lobby. it is maintained incredibly well, there is a nonprofit board mostly made up of mount zion and jewish family and children's services appointees some community folks and all of the money that is collected for rent or levels of care go back into the building. it is a volunteer board they don't take a penny and the highest priority is provide services to older adults and that is what we do. so you walk around many people think they are on a cruise ship or a luxury hotel, although we have people of many different income levels and we do have scholarships because we are nonprofit so if there comes a time when some body spends down because they are lucky enough

to have lived longer than they thought they might you can go on the a scholarship program. >> they provide shabbat services. >> yes. >> we have been doing that since its inception but it is just an absolutely wonderfully loving, comfortable, safe place for folks to be and i know the staff enjoy being there just as much as the residents do and that makes it very much like a home atmosphere for everybody feels like they are part of a larger extended family. >> that's true. what is nice about it, no matter what level you come in at, if you stay there and your needs increase you can pick up levels of care and not have to move or worry about it. it is done in a way so that you can maintain your dignity, so you might come in and not have any health needs, and then the longer you live and we hope we are successful enough in hoping you live long enough, you might

need medication management or escort service or whatever and we have an rn who runs our health services staff we have a dementia floor if it is needed and you can stay home you don't have to move again we have a hospice waiver, so that you can stay until end of life and most people do. >> we are going to take a really quick break and come back in just a moment please join us back here on mosaic

welcome back to mosaic i am rabbi eric wise. we are talk being susan costa the executive director celebrating its ten year anniversary and we are joined by renee a resident and recently elected as the

president of the resident council. welcome renee. >> thank you. >> so when you were looking around at places to move to, what attracted you to this plaza? >> we were attracted because we liked the jewish atmosphere and we've had -- i've had a kosher household all my life and so did my husband so having a kosher place to go to seemed very good. because many other places but they are not -- if you wanted to stay kosher my husband is very fussy he wants to stay kosher, we probably could have done other things give you corer maybe tv dinners or something, but we like to be in this nice jewish atmosphere we get kosher food we don't have to think about it, if it is okay or not okay that was a big

decision. >> when you were thinking about some place that was jewish for you i know we have so much diversity in the jewish community, in the broader san francisco bay area, for you, what did jewish mean? >> for me, jewish is my lifestyle. i have been used to it from day one. i've -- i was raised in an orthodox family in germany, and have gone to jewish schools i hardly knew non-jews most days and just out of my insides my living. >> and among the other residents what kind of -- what is the jewish diversity? >> well, not too many strictly orthodox a lot of them are conservative most i think are reformed jews. >> i would agree. >> but they are all interested in judaism and they are used to

jewish surroundings. >> i would imagine some residents themselves wouldn't even identify themselves as a particular movement of judaism say orthodox or conservative or reform i am just jewish or culturally jewish it was important for me to be among my people even though they don't particularly belong to a -- >> i would say many wouldn't feel they wanted the facility to be kosher, but the board felt even if one person wanted corer we would be kosher without it being a tv dinner. we have a small group of people who are and it is really important to them we will remain that way. >> you have a wonderful chef. >> she is the best. >> one of god's gifts to earth. >> i know her food is quite

delicious. >> very good. >> we are known for our food, corey and her staff puts out an amazing, amazing product. for every meal and on the holidays particularly. >> yes, she has special meals for holidays and she just knows the right thing to have for us friday nights and for holidays, and saturdays, and she just knows the right thing. >> so when you talk with people about what the plaza is like, how do you talk about your fellow neighbors and the atmosphere and staff? >> everybody is very friendly the neighbors are wonderful, i mean, we talk to each other like we are family. like a big family. >> you know there is so much conversation in the community these days about what it means for a community to support a person as they age in their home and to keep them in what is thought of as familiar

surroundings might be the family home they've raised children in and now remain in, and then the other end of the conservation what does it mean to not be isolated in your own home and instead move into a community where you are with people even though you are going to meet new people at a later stage of your life. >> exactly. >> i am wondering how those things -- how you thought threw those things when you -- through those things when you made a decision for yourself. >> for me it was not quite as difficult because i still had my husband. a lot of people come they are single or just lost a spouse. maybe, maybe it may be a little bit more difficult but everybody is so welcoming and for my part, we knew a lot of people that lived there already so that -- there is one man my husband knew when he was 15 years old, so you know, you don't feel so strange.

you feel more like home, more easily. >> i would like to add something. >> yes. >> % of the -- 50% of the population comes from out of the san francisco area and move here because their children live here and they are having some problem whether it is trouble cooking or maybe they have fallen and hurt themselves and the children are flying back and forth between florida and san francisco or new york and chicago. so they come here because the adult children live here and it is really important for them to move into a place where they have their cohort group and their culture. even though we have probably 10 or 15% of the building is not jewish, those folks too have chosen to live in a jewish community and it is a safety issue and it is not just the safety of security but the safety of feeling inside yourself you are in a welcoming place a place there is a commonality even if you don't

know anybody. we have a hospitality committee made up just of residents who will have dinner with them and introduce themselves to activities. i think it is different for each person but a large population comes here because the kids are here. >> renee and susan we will take a quick break and ask you to please come back here to mosaic in just a moment and i love it ♪

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call them (415)345-5060 welcome back to mosaic i am honored to be your host. rhoda goldman was a philanthropies here in san francisco. tremendous heart and soul her family and she had been active in the jewish community for generations she and her husband were richard were very involved in many causes. so it is named in her honor and in her memory. >> yes. yes. >> so at rhoda goldman plaza celebrating ten years what are you doing to celebrate this wonderful happy occasion? >> we are doing 10 days of celebration, each day is a theme day. familypublic are invited to some of those days but it varies from a writers day where we are producing a writers

anthology from residents who have been working all year they will be doing readings. we are having a speaker, the wife of one of our residents who is a well known psychologist she wrote a book about aging she is going to be talking about that. we are having a health fair one day and physicians and health professionals not only having booths there but also doing lectures all day long on health issues, we are having a volunteer recognition day because many of our residents and outside folks volunteer to do things in our community or other communities so we are recognizing them. every day is a special day, there is a jewish heritage day, san francisco day, it is really going to be fun we are opening with the beginning of that week there will be an art exhibit we are having a showing that they have been working residents have been working on art pieces that will be a permanent installation in the building. we have an art exhibit every year but this year it will be a

permanent installation and we are cull min nateing, october 6th through 16th on the 16th a founders celebration we are having a buffet dinner, we are inviting donors who gave money way back when to make this happen. we are going to have speeches renee will one speaker and all the boards who have been involved will be involved just celebration of look at us look what we did we are still here. >> fantastic. >> we are it is very exciting. >> quite a wonderful milestone to reach for the community and also looking to them for the future. >> yes. >> i think renee one interesting thing people don't always realize about a place like rhoda goldman plaza it is like you move into a new neighbourhood while services come to the neighbourhood, there in the building, people don't realize how active people

are outside their neighbourhood. so can we talk about what you do outside, what some residents do to give us a sense of the activity of the folks there? >> a lot of people volunteer. many people volunteer for the jewish family children's service which is located next door to us. and i know some people that helped like serve at thanksgiving and roshhashana they go to one of the terms, so they do all kinds of things. >> i know a lot of people belong to a synagogue and a lot don't but for those who do, they are very active in their own particular synagogue. >> they are and a lot of people go every week, i myself, my husband and i we go every week,

every saturday we go to beth shalom. we have been doing it for how many years. >> i think one of the great things it both supports people in their life outside and supports people in the choices that they make about building their life inside so for example the bay area jewish healing center provides services for those people on site even though on friday afternoons, even though folks also go on saturday mornings so that people have the full complement of observing or celebrating shabbat as they wish. >> the rabbis are so beloved by the residents. i hear it all the time. people have different favorites but i hear it all the time they are really lovely about the rabbis. it is nice to hear. >> we love being there and are so proud we were there. i really at the first shabbat i think when the first resident

was there in the olive room we did shabbat. one first resident. >> really nice and in terms of what people do outside of the building, we have some body who goes to work every day. and so the gamut is pretty high people volunteer, people work, there are garage spaces if people want to bring their cars if they still have their cars and want to continue that independence it really varies people are very active with family and friends and friends come and dine and are guests you can still have people for dinner you can request a reservation, you can request a private dining room and have a private party, anniversary party, so we try to support people in any way we can in continuing the life they want to have. >> we will take a quick break and join us back here in just a moment here on mosaic

welcome home, man.

welcome back i am rabbi eric wise and honored to be your host. we are in a wonderful continuing conversation with renee and she is president of residents council and susan. welcome back. can you tell us about what the activities are for the residents at rhoda goldman plaza. >> i can do you want to talk about what you like? >> well, i can talk about activities. the one thing which is important to me is the exercise because exercise classes each and every day. and a lot of people -- well, some people come to some of them but not all of them. which is i think very important

thing for people in our age to keep moving, to use our bodies, our muscles. then we have a lot of people that come for lectures, some of it for current events some for historic, history of the bay area, which i think is very nice a lot of the people that did come from other places that they learn about the bay area because now they live here. >> mm-hmm. >> they might as well know what is going on or what has been going on. >> right. >> and some of the activities of course some people like better than others and some times we go to movies we go out to luncheons, and whoever wants to do these things can. you sign up for it and that takes care of it. >> yeah, i would say that we try really hard to listen to

the residents and listen to what they like so our activities director will meet with each new person when they move in and try to get a sense of what they like and tell them what goes on here and it varies some folks really like crafts and there is a knitting class or there is an art class. we have a kiln so if people want to do -- work on pottery, we have all kinds of interesting art issues going on, it could be an art lecture, we have a book club, we have the writers workshop, there is as she said different kinds of exercise every morning, there is live music several times a week. >> i think you have computer and workshops. >> we have computers. >> and you also have a wonderful library. >> we do have a library it is

open to anyone who wants to borrow a book we ask you to bring it back. there are libraries on every residential floor as well there is a main library on one of our common areas and every floor sitting areas and there is books to read, folks play bridge at night on their floor or marjon. interest in marjon it is so virried what -- varied what people like. singing. >> i know so many many of the the activities come out of what residents want so as needs rise and as interest are ped i know rhoda goldman plaza is responsive. >> and trips are popular. >> believe it or not we are at the end of our time together susan and renee thank you for being here. >> thank you for inviting us. >> we will put a comma in the conversation and hope people want the learn more and thank

you congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> have a wonderful day

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