Keeping In Touch THE MAGAZINE FOR JEWISH SENIORS No. 129 July 2019 Tamuz 5779 JewishCare is a Member of the JCA Family of Organisations Find us on (JewishCareNSW) 2 Keeping in Touch | July 2019 Contents 4 Q & A with Bernard Salt AM 6 Give Peace a Chance Study Tour 7 Moira Blumenthal 8 Innovative Israeli Technology 9 Maccabi Australia Welcome to the latest edition of 10 Maureen Mendelowitz Keeping In Touch magazine 11 I love cruising with Margaret Short 12 Eye Health Does Matter Well-respected demographer Bernard Salt gives 13 Yoga for Seniors us a sneak peek into the lives of the over 55s and global megatrends via our Q & A page. I’m pleased 15 Our Kitchen Hand to be able to present an overview of the inaugural Give Peace a Chance NGO study tour to Israel and 16 JewishCare News the Palestinian Territories. 18 Aged Care Packages Keeping In Touch pay tribute to inspiring Jewish 20 Birthday With Friends seniors, high achievers in every sense of the word and share important Israeli cancer research news. I 21 Family Support Services hope you enjoy the health tips as well as the latest 22 A Remarkable Woman news from JewishCare and Burger Centre plus our regular pages covering travel, book and movie 24 His Smile Says It All reviews and what’s on over the coming months. 26 Laughing Matters Included are a few pages devoted to laughs and fun facts thrown in for good measure. 27 Facts to Make Your Day I want to acknowledge once again the assistance 28 There’s Nothing Like A Good Book I have received from JewishCare and Print35 staff who help me assemble this publication, and I also 29 Movie Time wish to thank the many people and organisations 30 Out & About who have let me share their stories. 31 Upcoming Events Keeping In Touch is published three times a year - March, July and November, if you know someone who would like to receive this free publication, please contact JewishCare, and they will be added to the mailing list. While Keeping In Touch tends to concentrate on information for older members of the community, Editor: Elise Hawthorne JewishCare as an organisation supports community members of all ages and from all walks Design by Print35 Design Studio of life. If you know of anyone who needs a helping The opinions expressed in this publication are hand, please phone FirstCall on 1300 133 660. the authors’ own. Enjoy. Keeping in Touch is published by JewishCare, Elise Hawthorne 3 Saber Street, Woollahra NSW 2025 Editor Ph 1300 133 660. July 2019 | Keeping in Touch 3 Q & A with Bernard Salt AM Elise Hawthorne The Legacy Shaper (LS) is aged 80-something and can often be a lone person, a widow, suddenly thrust into a time and a situation when they think about life and the next generation. LSs think about passing on family history, stories, photos and artefacts to the point they will even tag different items to different grandkids. LSs are thinking about the legacy they will leave behind. The Reflectors are aged 88 and over and are by their very age frail. They are apt to ask the big questions in life, perhaps the biggest question in life, and that is: what is the meaning of life; what was its purpose. Reflectors can be very religious and/or philosophical. In some ways, perhaps in many ways, they are humanity’s philosophers. Q. What are the key health and wellbeing issues affecting the 70 - 88 + Australians? A. The key health and wellbeing issues can be dictated by financial security and family connection; get those two Fs right—family and Bernard Salt finances—and the ageing process can be—I suspect—a rewarding and enjoyable time ernard Salt AM, the managing director of The in the lifecycle. If you ever want to see true BDemographics Group, is one of Australia’s most human contentment, see a 70-something or an sought-after social commentators. He recently gave 80-something in quiet enjoyment of their home me and in turn Keeping In Touch magazine readers and family. a fascinating overview of the world of the over 55s Q. What are the underlying demographic trends and the global megatrends coming our way. Bernard that will shape the world order in the 2020s and outlines the way the over 55s are sometimes all beyond (how we might be reimaging the way life lumped together, but in reality, there is a plethora of might be lived...60 as the new beginning)? senior segments, each with a fascinating story to tell. A. I think the key demographic trends shaping Q. What are the characteristics of the following the 2020s in Australia and beyond will be the ages: 70-79 Grandparent Helper, the 80-to-87 baby bust. If there was a baby boom in the 1950s Legacy Shapers and the 88-and-over Reflectors? then there will be a baby bust in the 2020s. A. The Grandparent Helper (GPH) is aged This will skew government spending and in due 70-something, and their big thing in life is to course could cause resentment among young share in, help with, contribute to the bringing up generations. Self-sufficiency is the answer for as of grandchildren. They will even move house to long as possible. be closer to their grandkids. GPHs see the 70s as their last window to make an impact and to help out; plus at that stage of the lifecycle, there is nothing sweeter, no greater purpose in life, than to spend quiet (and not so quiet) time with their grandchildren. 4 Keeping in Touch | July 2019 Q. There has been much talk about the market for Q. What would your superpower be? Baby Boomers to galvanise into a political force A. To not need sleep; I’d be Stay Awake Man. as they move fully into the retirement stage of the lifecycle, discuss your findings. A. There is no doubt that baby boomers will * Pew Research Centre defines baby boomers as galvanise into a political force in the 2020s; this being born between 1946 and 1964 lot ain’t gonna sit around and be dictated to by Bernard has popularised demographics through a generation that has no idea of the issues of his books, columns and media appearances. ageing. Boomers have been hippies and dinks His body of work is encapsulated in six popular and yuppies and seachangers…we will not waft best-selling books. He appears regularly as a off meekly towards the great abyss without making guest on various radio and television programs a fuss and ensuring fairness along the way. Two and now hosts a business chat show called The more boomer Fs: fuss and fairness! Next Five Years broadcast on SkyNews Business Q. Who would you invite to your dream dinner Channel 602. party dead or alive and why? To learn more visit: www.bernard-salt.com.au A. For me, it would be Audrey Hepburn; Weary Dunlop; my grandfather Ernie Gibson whom I never met but whose life and hard work I admire; me (no point if I’m not there); Michelangelo (greatest artist); Banjo Paterson (so he could recite Clancy of the Overflow); Albert Einstein for his creative brilliance. Bernard Salt speaking July 2019 | Keeping in Touch 5 Give Peace a Chance Elise Hawthorne he NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) is well the tour in conjunction with Israeli-Palestinian tour Tknown for bringing people of different cultures operators, Breaking Bread Journeys. She said together, allowing them to share their stories in that, “the construction of a balanced agenda was of a positive and life-affirming way. Throughout the paramount importance, as was equal time spent in year it runs or is a partner in a variety of interfaith Israel and the Palestinian Territories. As all our work to and intercultural projects for people of all ages. date has shown, the very best way of engaging with Their recent inaugural Give Peace a Chance NGO others on the subject of Israel is by taking them there study tour to Israel and the Palestinian Territories to see things for themselves.” is an inspiring example of a unique community Another inspiring highlight of the journey was meeting development initiative, aiming to educate, achieve representatives of the Parents Circle, an organisation peace and bring about positive social change. of those from the Jewish and Palestinian communities The tour sought to engage leaders from NSW who have lost their next of kin in the conflict, who now Catholic, Pentecostal and Uniting churches and the engage in the work of peace and reconciliation. LGBTIQ sector. Nineteen participants including well- The tour was endorsed by the Israeli Ambassador respected actor/author Magda Szubanski spent eight to Australia and the Head of Delegation to Australia days in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jericho and Ramallah of the Palestinian Authority, who both briefed the meeting NGO leaders, journalists, educators, participants before departure. politicians and just ordinary people; learning how grassroots people-to-people peace projects are “It was an incredible learning experience for all of us enabling co-existence in the absence of a political in the tour group, from those who had never been to peace process. Israel, to those of us who had lived there. The hope it engendered in us for co-existence of the peoples of “Meaningful” and “life-affirming,” are some of the words this land in the face of the overwhelming failure of any tour participants used to describe their experience. political peace process was heart-warming.