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00:08All right, you got your cameras ready?
00:11The horror.
00:56All right, you got your cameras ready?
01:26All right, you got your cameras ready?
01:29All right, you got your cameras ready?
01:50I discovered this community four years ago when I began an anthropological study of aging
01:55in an ethnic group.
01:56I thought at first I would work with Chicanos, since I'd worked in Mexico before, but they
02:01kept saying to me, why don't you study your own kind?
02:18Most anthropologists work with remote exotic people, so studying my own people was a new
02:24idea for me.
02:25At first I wasn't sure if it was anthropology or a personal quest.
02:29I cannot be by myself.
02:31Why?
02:32I can't sleep when I'm alone.
02:34So how do you manage now?
02:35I have somebody in the house.
02:38Who do you have?
02:39A lady.
02:39An anthropologist, of course, tries to feel the inside of a native's head.
02:43That's how, in a way, you know the culture.
02:45But in a sense, that's false in a way.
02:49It's an exercise in imagination because you will never be that.
02:52But I will be old, and I need to know that.
02:57If there's a validity in me identifying with that, that is like nothing I've ever experienced
03:04in working with Indians or working with, you know, really exotic people, I will never
03:10be a witch old Indian.
03:11But I will be a little old Jewish lady.
03:18Aging is usually regarded as a series of losses.
03:21True, these people have retired, but now survival is their career.
03:26Each day is made up of many small tasks and routines.
03:30Bertha's work, for example, is feeding pigeons, walking two miles every day,
03:34and telling and retelling a cycle of personal stories,
03:38with messages about courage, dignity, and autonomy.
03:42Don't you dare.
03:45Back.
03:46Get out of here.
03:48I was walking, that was on a Saturday.
03:51And that Saturday before Christmas, if you recall, was real dark, 4.30 in the afternoon.
03:57And a bunch of kids, there were about 15 of them, 13 or 15.
04:00And one guy says, spread out, kids, and they blocked my way.
04:05So I stood and looked at him, and I smiled.
04:08He walks up to me, he says, are you Jewish?
04:11I says, yes.
04:12Do you believe in Jesus?
04:14I says, all depends.
04:16He says to me, do you believe he's walking with us?
04:19I says, no.
04:20How can you prove it?
04:22I says, if he would walk with you, he would come up and say, hello, Bertha.
04:27How are you?
04:27After all, he was my cousin before yours.
04:30Hi, Mike.
04:34Good morning.
04:35Good morning.
04:36How are you?
04:38Fine.
04:39Good.
04:39Bertha and Mike meet every morning on this bench, midway between their homes.
04:44To make a new friend at this age takes courage.
04:47It means risking yet another loss.
04:52My first love, I met when I was 16.
04:58And I lived with him for 40 years.
05:02And I don't think there's anybody in this whole world can replace him.
05:07Why make a fool out of myself these days?
05:11I can't take care of anybody.
05:13Thank God I can take care of myself.
05:16Men are helpless.
05:18They are.
05:19No matter how efficient they are.
05:22Why don't you try me sometimes?
05:24Maybe I wouldn't be helpless.
05:26I'll share what I can do.
05:30Mike is helpless, in one way at least.
05:33He cannot protect Bertha from her own painful reminiscences.
05:37Bertha's history, outliving all her children,
05:41as a common hazard in extreme old age.
05:45You know, the first year I used to go in the cemetery every Sunday.
05:50Until the one time I must have passed out on the cemetery in my baby's grave.
06:00And I don't know what happened then.
06:04They called up my sister.
06:08And you see, I learned to live with everything.
06:11How did you bear it Bertha?
06:13I think you said enough for one day.
06:15I did.
06:17You see, my youngest son died.
06:22He died several months before him.
06:24And he heard it.
06:26He says, oh God, why didn't you take me instead of him?
06:29He's got a wife and children.
06:30I have nothing, just mama.
06:33And mama can take care of herself.
06:34Too much?
06:35They wouldn't want me.
06:36I should torture myself.
06:38I couldn't read too much.
06:41Because my eyes was always full.
06:44Donnie, I think you said enough for one day.
06:49Bertha and Mike are part of a small community of old Jews in their 80s and 90s,
06:54whose final home is in Venice, California.
06:58As children, around the turn of the century, they left the shtetls of Eastern Europe to come to the New
07:03World.
07:04Thirty years ago, when their children were grown and educated, they retired.
07:09Taking their small savings and pensions, they came to live by the Pacific Ocean.
07:17The Israel Levin Senior Adult Center is the focus of life in this community.
07:21Dues, $6 a year.
07:24Membership, $300.
07:25It is a world unto itself.
07:28A simple hall, where time, death, and the outside world are transcended.
07:34In behalf of Doris, I want to tell you, in reference what this center means to people.
07:44Doris doesn't have anyone here at all.
07:50All of you here in this center today is her family.
08:01She asked me to tell you this.
08:05You should know that all of you here feel for you.
08:10Especially I do, because I just went through the same thing, a loss of my beloved husband.
08:18And time is a healer, and we will all be with you, and we all love you, Doris.
08:26God takes and he gives, and we have to learn to live with it.
08:39Hi and everyone.
08:46Thank you so much.
08:48I was 55.
08:49I have a Tommy san ultra-pastu center, but we will all be with you.
08:52That's right.
08:53I have a Happiness place like this.
08:57And I have the Youth Saan ultra-pastu center, in their motherfuckers
09:01on the right hand.
09:01a way of life based on their sacred history and yiddish language they can weep and rejoice grieve
09:07and then sing with a sudden shift of mood that is common to the culture dignity they have irony
09:27they have a life lived not only every day but every hour every minute because these people are in their
09:3880s and 90s and death is there it's the invisible protagonist of every little scene you see
09:45played out and death can be a great consciousness raiser
09:56one year after harry asimo's death his stone is being unveiled according to jewish tradition
10:03harry was a tough independent man he knew he was about to die but willed himself to stay alive
10:09until the day of his 95th birthday party this eight millimeter footage was taken during the party
10:14harry made his speech to family and friends at the israel levin center then he folded his hands
10:20lowered his head and died the paramedics tried to revive him but harry had chosen the moment of his
10:27death it was an astonishing moment when harry and the angel of death were collaborators
10:42i would like to read a sentence of two of the last speech made here a year ago from harry's
10:51message to us
10:53my wish is that during the next five years until my 100th birthday
11:01whether i am still here or not that you continue to celebrate my birthday
11:14people felt harry's ceremonial death was his gift to them such a death should only happen to me they said
11:21according to his will they are reassembling this year they are celebrating they will continue beyond his death
11:31the
11:40the
11:40the
11:40the
11:40the
11:40the
12:03Very often when I walk in there, after they finish going through this kind of almost ritual
12:07thing of how wonderful it is that I'm a nice Jewish girl with a nice Yiddish punim and all that.
12:13What is punim?
12:14A nice Yiddish face, a nice warm smile, and they know I care for them.
12:17They then say, and I'm a lady professor, that always comes up, and then they say, who's
12:23with your children, you know, or they comment on the fact that I don't take up a hem so good
12:28for a lady professor.
12:30You know, there's always kind of this, there's a lot of ambivalence there.
12:32There's a lot of recognition that I have done what they wished they could have done.
12:41Pauline didn't have the choice of a real career, but she did have a talent for putting costumes
12:46together from scraps and bits of fabric.
12:49At the time I had what you call a schmata, just a schmata something.
12:55I don't know where it came from, but sure enough, I put it together.
13:01Sewing and singing are now her life work.
13:05On this machine, I put it in the center of the living room, where we took them in an apartment.
13:12And I didn't care for nothing, but this machine is my life.
13:17When you were younger, Pauline, even a young woman couldn't afford fancy clothes.
13:23You had to, I mean, in order to be attractive and well-dressed, you had to make your own, didn't
13:27you?
13:27No, yes.
13:28So what did I do?
13:32Neighbors, especially for my first daughter, a neighbor gave me a beautiful big doll.
13:39Had a beautiful dress on.
13:41So I took this dress off from the doll and fixed it up for my daughter.
13:46She was my doll.
13:48They did the most important thing.
13:51They made the choice, and their choice was to raise their children to maturity.
13:56Decent children who realized their fondest dreams, education, freedom, things like that.
14:03But the cost was themselves.
14:06A million different little things, whatever I found, a feather here, a feather there,
14:10out the blank.
14:11Huh?
14:34Oh, when I sing, I'm just in glory.
14:37I only feel sorry that I had no chance and was neglected, because I had to give up either
14:46my children's care, neglect them, and be somebody.
14:50So I had to choose my home, my children, take care of my husband.
15:04Are you enjoying the food?
15:07And they're never so happy when they're eating.
15:10Okay.
15:11Pretty soon, you'll have the stuffed cabbage, and the chicken with the cuddle, and some wine,
15:17and some candy for dessert, too.
15:20It's going to be a beautiful afternoon.
15:22It really is very, very beautiful today.
15:26Maury Rosen, the director of the center, has devoted the past 14 years of his life to
15:32this little group.
15:33Sometimes he is a son, sometimes a father, always an advocate and protector of the old
15:39people.
15:40He is with them every day, scolding, worrying, teasing, refereeing their battles, insisting
15:47that they continue.
15:48And he fights with the outside world for their survival.
15:54It never occurred to anybody that the elderly people were victimized by what was happening.
16:00These, you see this restaurant that we have here?
16:03They didn't exist 10, 15 years ago.
16:06There's all different kinds of apartments for the elderly people.
16:11But then the profiteers came, the greedy investors who were looking to just displace the elderly,
16:21and that they did.
16:22They threw down the structures, see?
16:25And to this day, it hasn't been built.
16:27And where do the elderly people go?
16:29They go wherever they can.
16:30They go up and down the streets, and they live in the most horrible and severe kinds of
16:37one-room apartments, but now the rent is not $50, $60 a month.
16:42The rent now is $175 or $200 or $225 a month.
16:47And how the hell are they going to make out on the Social Security that totals about $200
16:53to $250 a month?
16:57I'm very short-tempered with people who don't see the beauty of the elderly as I do,
17:02who look upon them and then find them to be invisible.
17:07Inside the center, they become visible.
17:10Anyone may dance, read a poem, make a speech, or sing a song.
17:15Maury is the impresario.
17:16Okay, we have a treat today.
17:18Don't go out, kill him.
17:20What a treat, unexpected treat.
17:22You know, Cosimo's friend, Sam Stoller.
17:25Dreaming of you.
17:25Sam Stoller, who's going to introduce, you introduce your friend to us.
17:30Tell us about your friend.
17:31How did you get to meet your friend?
17:35Ladies and gentlemen, with your kind permission,
17:39we have a man, a man from Italy,
17:43but there is a yid, a yid, an Italian yid.
17:49And he is gifted to sing Farunz Alamun.
17:56Okay.
17:57Ladies and gentlemen, this is my friend.
18:02Chick Kelly.
18:03Chick.
18:03Chick Kelly.
18:06Chick Kelly.
18:07Yeah.
18:08When I grow to hope, to dream,
18:17I have you to remember.
18:23So kiss me, my dear,
18:28And let them find
18:34When I grow to hope, to dream,
18:40Your love will be my heart
18:49What is your pension that you get?
18:51I get $185 in one place
18:56and $100 in the other place.
18:58How do you manage on that?
19:00I manage?
19:00I got too much money.
19:02What do you do with your money?
19:03I carry around money all the time.
19:05I have a check account.
19:06I get money in the bank.
19:08How do you take care of yourself living alone?
19:11Well, it's lonely.
19:12It is.
19:14Is that the hardest part of living alone?
19:19Well, I have to.
19:21You don't really have to.
19:23There are all those women down there.
19:25They're not my type.
19:29Why?
19:31They can sing the Yiddish songs downstairs.
19:33That doesn't apply to me.
19:35You don't like that.
19:36What's the best part about your life now?
19:39There's nothing good about it.
19:41Nothing good?
19:41No.
19:42Old age is a curse.
19:44You think so?
19:44Sure.
19:45What is the hard part?
19:47What do you seek?
19:48Your, your, your, your ailment, your dish, that.
19:52There's always something, you know.
19:54And when you go to sleep, you figure, oh, you wouldn't get up at it.
19:59You can't be contented when you have to come out by yourself
20:03and stay by yourself most of your life.
20:06You had a very good marriage.
20:08Oh, best of the world.
20:10Really?
20:11How many years?
20:13Fifty-nine years and nine months.
20:16If you, if you married again, a woman would take care of you.
20:22I can't get anybody that I, that my heart to go to.
20:27I can't marry.
20:28I don't buy a piece of cake.
20:30I don't buy it.
20:32Get married is a gift.
20:35To get married is to love one another.
20:39Loneliness is forgotten on Friday in Venice.
20:42The Sabbath is the most sacred of all Jewish holy days,
20:46when each week, for one day, a Jew may enter paradise.
20:50Traditionally, Sabbath begins at dusk with the lighting of the candles.
20:54But here, they enter paradise a little early,
20:56because it is dangerous for old people to walk these streets after dark.
21:00The spirit of the Sabbath is unaffected by the hour.
21:05Baruchato adenoi, ele hei num mele ho'eram,
21:13boi rei peri agofen, amen.
21:24This is the moment when the center becomes home and the member's family.
21:30The Jewish woman has the honor and the duty of bringing in the Sabbath
21:35with the lighting of the candles.
22:03Bertha feels her own mother's hands on her face
22:06when she makes the timeless ritual gesture.
22:10Shabbat shalom to our honored guest,
22:13to all my friends and all my dear ones and to all the members.
22:17Shabbat shalom.
22:19Shabbat shalom.
22:26Three times as long.
22:29Think positive.
22:31Think positive.
22:31Have a nice weekend.
22:33If you would go one at a time, it would be so much easier.
22:37At the end of the service each week,
22:40there is a struggle between pride and poverty.
22:43Bags of fruit and vegetables donated to the center
22:46by wealthier Jewish organizations are handed out.
22:50The idea of accepting charity is humiliating.
22:54They have always been givers, not takers.
22:57Moreover, cynics among them mutter about those
23:00who come to the Sabbath just for the food.
23:02Nevertheless, the spirit of the Sabbath absorbs it all.
23:07Shabbat shalom to you all.
23:11When these people die, their way of life dies with them.
23:16That makes each person's departure a crisis.
23:20Rose is leaving tomorrow for a home.
23:22She can't take care of herself anymore and has no choice.
23:26Rose faces this with spirit
23:28and went to the hairdresser in preparation for her last day in the community.
23:34Why did you decide to go?
23:36Why did you decide to move there?
23:38Why?
23:39Why?
23:40What I do, I move it.
23:41I'll tell you, my health is so good.
23:44I don't hear so well.
23:46My vision is getting very bad.
23:50And I can't do the cooking.
23:52I can't do the cleaning, you know.
23:54I used to be, believe me, a very nice housekeeper.
23:57I used to make a nice meal, too.
24:00And now it's hard.
24:00I could do it.
24:01How old are you now?
24:03How old are you?
24:04I'm over 80.
24:06So you'll have a little rest for a while?
24:09No matter how long, I'll see.
24:12Like I said, I'll see.
24:14120, as they say.
24:15Like I say to my children, this will be my last time.
24:18All right.
24:19The staff and the president, all together,
24:23because we're all human beings,
24:25trying to cope with a pretty, pretty rough world.
24:29And let's try to do our part in 76 to make the world better.
24:37New Year's Eve, like the Sabbath, is rescheduled for convenience.
24:42New Year's happens at the Israel Levin Center
24:44at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on December 30th.
24:47This is when their favorite musician can come and play for them.
24:50There is no question for anyone present that theirs is the real New Year's.
24:56We have a day to keep, all of us.
24:59And that's next year, all of us should be here
25:03and celebrate the next New Year.
25:07So let's, okay, so let's try to remember
25:14that you're under strict orders not to get sick
25:18and not to go to any hospital
25:21and to be in good health
25:22and to do a lot of good things.
25:26Everybody dance.
25:49Oh, my baby, you change.
25:52Please let me explain
25:55For me, Mr. Shane, that you're grand
26:00For me, Mr. Shane, yeah
26:05Can I explain
26:07For me, Mr. Shane, that you're grand
26:11I could say bell, bell, bell, bell
26:15Or even say, say, wunderbar
26:18Each language only helps me say
26:21How grand you are now
26:24I've tried to explain
26:27For me, Mr. Shane
26:29So kiss me and say you understand
26:57I look at my own gray hairs now with something akin to affection
27:03And I think to myself, you know, that those really signify coming into a different phase of life
27:11A better one than the one that went before
27:15I have models
27:17I am very fortunate, and I am in the minority, of having models before me as to how to age
27:22well
27:22That aging is not death, but there's a certain peace with death
27:27The realization and acceptance of death as a member of the family
27:30Kind of young, sweet kind of young
27:40Ewig bleibt erwacht in mein Sückhorn
27:46Wenn ich trau mit Eierzeit
27:52Tut mirer Ernst ein Dank und leid
27:59Ach, wie schnell ich bin schein' alt gebroion
28:09Kinderjohn, ließe Kinderjohn,
28:16Ewig bleibt ihr wach, ihr mein Seekon.
28:24Wenn ich noch mit eurer Zeit,
28:30tut mir also die Banken leid.
28:36Ach, wie schnell, ich bin schön aufgeworfen.
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