Posted by Marjorie U. Sokoll
When I was in college I worked as a nurse’s aide in a non-Jewish nursing home in Brighton. It was there that I met Dora. Dora was blind, completely alone in the world, and the only Jewish resident in this nursing home. I felt an immediate connection with Dora. She reminded me of the many elderly Jewish women who had been so important to me throughout my life – my great-grandmother, my grandmothers, and my many aunts.
Every Shabbat I would bring Dora a delicious challah from the local bakery, sing Hebrew and Yiddish songs for her with my guitar, and play Jewish music on a tape recorder. It was a very special relationship for both of us. At the time, I believed that Dora’s situation was unusual. Little did I know that there were hundreds of Doras living in nursing homes throughout Greater Boston isolated from their Jewish community.
That was thirty-six years ago.
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