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  • 21 hours ago
Number Our Days 1976
Transcript
00:08All right, you got your cameras ready?
00:11The horror.
00:31The horror.
00:31The horror.
00:33The horror.
00:54The horror.
00:58The horror.
01:01Ha, ha, ha, ha.
01:04Ha, ha, ha, ha.
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?
02:04Religion and politics, I say a little.
02:07Really?
02:08It's one of the most interesting things.
02:10It is, it is.
02:12Especially politics, which is, you can't be without it.
02:16Religion, you can't be without it.
02:18Most anthropologists work with remote, exotic people, so studying my own people was a new idea for me.
02:25At first I wasn't sure if it was anthropology or a personal quest.
02:28I 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.
02:40An 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.
02:51Because you will never be that.
02:53But I will be old.
02:55And I need to know that.
02:57If there's a validity in me identifying with that, that is like nothing I've ever experienced in working with Indians.
03:05Or working with, you know, really exotic people.
03:10I will never be a Wheatrell 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.
03:23But 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.
03:33Walking two miles every day.
03:35And telling and retelling a cycle of personal stories.
03:38With messages about courage, dignity, and autonomy.
03:42Don't you dare.
03:45Back.
03:47Get out of here.
03:48I was walking.
03:49That was on a Saturday.
03:51And that Saturday, before Christmas, if you recall, was real dark.
03:554.30 in the afternoon.
03:57And a bunch of kids, there were about 15 of them.
03:5913 or 15.
04:01And one guy says, spread out, kids.
04:03And 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.
04:13Do 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, it was my cousin before yours.
04:30Hi, Mike.
04:34Good morning.
04:35Good morning.
04:36How are you?
04:38Fine.
04:39Good.
04:40Good morning.
04:42Good morning.
04:44It's our new…
04:46Sure…
04:49Amber didn't hide. Good
04:50morning. Very
04:50good, very good.issäferred
04:50Wilson, Author, Author, Author, Author,ируb características your first love and whatsapp
04:52MSI- My first love, I met when I was 16.
04:56him. And I lived with him for 40 years. And I don't think there's anybody in this whole
05:05world can replace him. Why make a fool out of myself these days? I can't take care of
05:12anybody. Thank God I can't take care of myself. Men are helpless. They are, no matter how
05:21efficient they are. Why don't you try me sometimes? Maybe I wouldn't be helpless. I'll show you
05:27what I can do. Mike is helpless in one way at least. He cannot protect Bertha from her
05:35own painful reminiscences. Bertha's history, outliving all her children, is a common
05:42hazard in extreme old age. You know, the first year I used to go in the cemetery every
05:49Sunday. Till the one time I must have passed out on the cemetery in my baby's grave. And
06:01I don't know what happened then. They called up my sister. And you see, I learned to leave
06:10with everything. How did you bear it, Bertha? I did. You said enough for one day. I did. You see,
06:18when my youngest son died. He died several months before him. And he heard it. He says,
06:27oh God, why didn't you take me instead of him? He's got a wife and children. I have nothing,
06:31just mama. And mama can take care of herself. Too much. They wouldn't want me. I should
06:37torture myself. I couldn't leave too much. Because my eyes was always full.
06:44Donnie, I think you said enough for one day. Bertha and Mike are part of a small community
06:51of old Jews in their 80s and 90s, whose final home is in Venice, California. As children,
06:59around the turn of the century, they left the shtetls of Eastern Europe to come to the New
07:03World. Thirty years ago, when their children were grown and educated, they retired. Taking their small
07:10savings and pensions, they came to live by the Pacific Ocean. The Israel Levin Senior Adult
07:18Center is the focus of life in this community. Dues, $6 a year. Membership, $300. It is a world
07:27unto itself. A 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. Doris doesn't
07:46have anyone here at all. All of you here in this center today is her family. She asked me to
08:02tell you this.
08:05You should know that all of you here feel for you, especially I do, because I just went through
08:13the same thing, a loss of my beloved husband. And time is a healer, and we will all be with
08:23you,
08:23and we all love you, Doris. God takes and he gives, and we have to learn to live with it.
08:57Because they have been left alone, they turn to each other to create a way of life based on their
09:02sacred history and
09:03Yiddish language. They can weep and rejoice, grieve, and then sing with a sudden shift of mood that is common
09:11to the culture.
09:24Dignity, they have. Irony, they have. A life lived not only every day, but every hour, every minute, because these
09:37people are in their 80s and 90s, and death is there.
09:41It's the invisible protagonist of every little scene you see played out. And death can be a great consciousness raiser.
09:57One 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 until
10:09the day of his 95th birthday party.
10:11This 8mm footage was taken during the party. Harry made his speech to family and friends at the Israel Levin
10:18Center.
10:19Then he folded his hands, lowered his head, and died. The paramedics tried to revive him, but Harry had chosen
10:26the moment of his death.
10:27It 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, whether I am still here or not,
11:03that 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.
11:28Bless you all the voice. Then you will go and show your eyes and lend.
11:35Passion, crisis, everything.
11:42.
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.
12:33There'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
12:47together from scraps and bits of fabric.
12:50At the time I had what you call a schmatte, just a schmatte or something.
12:55I don't know where it came from, but sure enough, I put it together.
12:59I got it together.
13:01Sewing and singing are now her life work.
13:05On this machine I put 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 know yes so what did I do neighbors especially for my year first daughter a
13:37neighbor gave me a beautiful big doll had a beautiful dress on so I took this
13:42dress off from the doll and fixed it up for my daughter she was my doll they did
13:49the most important thing they made the choice and their choice was to raise
13:53their children to maturity decent children who realized their fondest dreams education
14:00and freedom things like that but the cost was themselves a million different little
14:07things whatever I found a fellow here at other day out the blank
14:33oh when I think I'm just in glory I only feel sorry that I
14:41had no chance and was neglected because I had to give up either my children's care
14:47neglect them and be somebody so I had to choose my home my children take care of my husband
14:55my son thank you are you enjoying the food and they're never so happy when they're eating okay pretty soon
15:11you'll have the stuffed cabbage and the chicken with the cuddle and some wine and some candy
15:18I'm happy for the sweet tooth it's gonna be a beautiful afternoon it really is very very beautiful today
15:26Maury Rosen the director of the Center has devoted the past 14 years of his life to this little group
15:33sometimes he is a son sometimes a father always an advocate and protector of the old people he is with
15:41them every day scolding worrying teasing refereeing their battles insisting that they continue
15:48and he fights with the outside world for their survival
15:53it never occurred to anybody that the elderly people were victimized by what was happening
16:00these you see this restaurant that we have here they didn't exist 10-15 years ago
16:06there's all different kinds of apartments for the elderly people but then the profiteers came
16:14the greedy investors who were looking to just displace the elderly and that they did they threw down the
16:23structures see and to this day it hasn't been built and where do the elderly people go they go wherever
16:30they
16:30can they go up and down these streets then they live in the most horrible and severe kinds of one
16:38-room
16:38apartments but now the rent is not 50 60 dollars a month the rent now is 175 or 200 or
16:45225 dollars a month
16:46and how the hell they gonna make out on the Social Security that totals about 200 to 250 bucks a
16:54month
16:57I'm very short-tempered with people who don't see the beauty of the elderly as I do who look upon
17:03them and
17:04then find them to be invisible inside the center they become visible anyone may dance read a poem make a
17:13speech or sing a song Maury is the impresario okay we have a treat today don't go off killing what
17:20a treat
17:21unexpected treat Cosimo's friend Sam Stoller you introduce your friend to us tell us about your friend how did
17:32you get to meet your friend ladies and gentlemen with your kind permission we have a man a man from
17:42Italy but
17:43there is a Yid a Yid an Italian Yid and he is gifted to sing Farunz Aleman okay ladies and
17:58gentlemen this is my friend
18:00chick kelly chick chick kelly chick kelly chick kelly
18:07yeah
18:09when I grow too old to dream
18:17I have you to remember
18:21I have you to remember
18:23so kiss me my dear
18:28and I have you to let the mind
18:34when I grow too old to dream
18:40your love will be my heart
18:50what is your pension that you get I get a hundred and eighty five dollars in one place and a
18:56hundred dollars in the other place how do you manage on that I manage I got too much money what
19:02do you do with your money I carry around money all the time I have a check account I get
19:06money in the bank how do you take care of yourself living alone well it's lonely it is what is
19:15that the
19:15hardest part of living alone
19:19well I have to you don't really have to there are all those women
19:23no down there they're not they're not my type why they can sing the Yiddish songs downstairs that doesn't apply
19:34to me you don't like that what's the best part about your life now there's nothing good about it nothing
19:41good no old age is a curse you think so sure
19:45what what what is the hard part
19:47that what do you seek your your your ailing your dish that there's always something you know and when you
19:54go to sleep you figure oh well you wouldn't get up any
19:58you can't be contented when you have to come out by yourself and stay by yourself most of your life
20:06you had a very good marriage
20:08oh best of the world really how many years 59 years and nine months if you if you married again
20:19a woman would take care of you I can't get anybody that I that my heart to go to I
20:27can't
20:28get married I don't buy a piece of cake I don't buy it get married is a gift to get
20:35married is to love one another
20:39loneliness is forgotten on Friday in Venice the Sabbath is the most sacred of all Jewish holy days when each
20:46week for one day a Jew may enter paradise
20:50traditionally Sabbath begins at dusk with the lighting of the candles but here they enter paradise a little early because
20:57it is dangerous for old people to walk these streets after dark the spirit of the Sabbath is unaffected by
21:04the hour
21:24this is the moment when the center becomes home and the members family
21:30the Jewish woman has the honor and the duty of bringing in the Sabbath with the lighting of the candles
21:37on the candles
21:37the church
21:40the church
21:43the church
22:03Bertha feels her own mother's hands on her face when she makes the timeless ritual gesture.
22:17Shabbat Shalom.
22:19Shabbat Shalom.
22:29Think positive.
22:31Have a nice weekend.
22:33If you would go one at a time, it would be so much easier for all concerned.
22:38At the end of the service each week, there is a struggle between pride and poverty.
22:43Bags of fruit and vegetables donated to the center by 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 who come to the Sabbath just for the food.
23:03Nevertheless, 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.
23:23She can't take care of herself anymore and has no choice.
23:26Rose faces this with spirit and 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.
23:42My 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.
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.
24:01I 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.
24:11I'll see.
24:12Like I said...
24:12Longer years.
24:14120, as they say.
24:15Like I said to my children, this will be my last time.
24:18All right, the staff and the president all together, because we're all human beings,
24:25trying to cope with a pretty, pretty rough world.
24:30And 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 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on December 30th.
24:47This is when their favorite musician can come and play for them.
24:51There is no question for anyone present that theirs is the real New Year's.
24:56We have a date to keep, all of us.
25:00And that's next year, all of us should be here and celebrate the next New Year.
25:08So let's...
25:12Okay, so let's try to remember that you're under strict orders,
25:17not to get sick, and not to go to any hospital, and to be in good health,
25:23and to do a lot of good things.
25:27Everybody dance.
25:49Oh, bambee, bitch, shank,
25:53please let me explain,
25:56bambee, bitch, shank.
25:57Fist of change means that you're grand.
26:00Da-da-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-da-da.
26:02For me, fist of change, yeah, again I complain.
26:07For me, fist of change means you're grand.
26:12I could say bell, bell, bell, bell, or even say, say, wunderbar.
26:18Each language only helps me say how grand you are.
26:24But now I try to explain, my mirror is to change, so kiss me and say you understand.
26:56I look at my own gray hairs now with something akin to affection.
27:04And 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, I am very fortunate, and I am in the minority, of having models before me as to
27:21how to age well.
27:23That aging is not death, but there's a certain peace with death, the realization and acceptance of death as a
27:29member of the family.
27:38A better one than the other, the one that went before me as a member of the family.
28:00A better one than the other, the one that went before me as a member of the family.
28:23Oh
28:44He'll call me.
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