LESSONS - Congregation Agudas Achim

JFS Grateful to Temple Beth-El and
Golden Manor Jewish Senior Services
Jewish Family Service (JFS) has maintained and expanded
its Senior Case Management Services through the generous
support both of the Kimmelman Charitable Fund of Temple
Beth-El and Golden Manor Jewish Senior Services (GMJSS).
Because of this assistance, JFS has been able to respond to
the rapidly growing number of seniors who need and deserve
community support. These seniors often face economic
hardship, disability, or enormous stress related to mobilityimpairment,
home maintenance, transportation needs,
medical emergencies, isolation, and mental illness. Even the
most self -sufficient seniors may suddenly need JFS services.
A stroke, a fall, the loss of a spouse, or even the sudden
loss of investment income can transform an autonomous
senior into one who needs a hand. The dedicated JFS case
managers assist seniors and their family members whenever
they need care and coordinate services wherever the clients
may be living. Because case managers retain a connection
with the senior as they move from setting to setting, there
are fewer errors in medical care, transitions are easier when
clients change their places of residence, and the senior has
Churchill Debaters Rank Second in the Nation
Year after year, elite schools like The Greenhill School, Pace
Academy, College Prep, St. Mark’s School and Bronx High
School of Science dominate the national policy debate circuit in
the constant pursuit of a Tournament of Champions (known as
the TOC) championship, the most sought after prize in all of high
school debate. The 2011-2012 school year has been no different.
Three months into the debate season, the lists of top debaters
are growing crowded with the usual suspects. However, even as
these and other perennial national powers continue their usual
winning, ways a pair of debaters from Churchill High School has
started to make quite a name for themselves as they too, aim to
lay claim to the end of season championship.
Churchill seniors (and, by the way, also members of Congregation
Agudas Achim) Max Birnbaum and Adam Lipton have been
debate partners since the first tournament of their freshmen year
of high school. While they have experienced a lot of successes
over their debate careers, nothing compares to what they have
accomplished this fall. Since early September, Birnbaum and
Lipton have been ranked among the top 10 debate teams in
the nation and, as of November 3, were tied for second. With a
third of the season already gone, they are proving themselves
much more than just an afterthought when it comes to true
championship contenders.
High school debate is a high stakes activity involving students
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a stable relationship to rely on at a time when she may be
lonely and frightened. A good example was Mrs. Kogan,
an 84-year old diabetic woman with a very fast-moving
case of Alzheimer’s disease. She was middle class, did not
qualify for poverty-based programs, but came to JFS with
multiple needs. JFS worked diligently with this client and
her family for 18 months through the steps of selling her
home and moving to an Adult Independent Living complex
and, within a year, into a Memory Care Facility. From there
she went to a hospital for orthopedic surgery and then to a
rehabilitation facility. JFS also partnered with her family,
providing consultation, supportive counseling, information
and referral. Mrs. Kogan’s situation was not unique, but the
case management that JFS provided was unlike the usual
patchwork of casework that is offered by each facility that
serves seniors. In the past year JFS has provided direct
case management services to more than 1000 seniors, their
caregivers and their families. The demand for these services
is increasing; JFS has enrolled 226 new clients since July
1, 2011. Temple Beth-El, GMJSS and the entire Jewish
community have provided the financial means for JFS to
offer quality, compassionate care to a precious commodity,
our seniors.
and schools who spend thousands of dollars to maintain their
competitiveness. A number of private schools in the country
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to fly their
students to tournaments all over the country. The TOC, founded
in 1972 and a prominent subject in the 2007 HBO documentary
Resolved, is their ultimate goal.
Fewer than 80 teams are invited to the TOC each year, with
invitations extended only to those teams who perform the
best at the most competitive of national circuit tournaments.
Birnbaum and Lipton, who have faced teams from California,
Alabama, Washington D.C. and a number of other locations
this year, have already earned their invitation to the 2012
edition of the tournament with outstanding performances at
tournaments held at The Greenhill School, Grapevine High
School and Houston Memorial High School.
Birnbaum and Lipton will next debate on the national circuit
during the weekend of January 27 when they travel to Atlanta,
Georgia to compete in The Barkley Forum Tournament at Emory
University, one of the most prestigious and oldest invitational
debate tournaments in the nation. Two weeks later they travel
to the California Invitational Tournament at U.C. Berkeley,
another TOC qualifier, where they will also compete in the U.C.
Berkeley Round Robin, an honor extended to only twelve teams
in the entire nation!
Dylan Pearcy
Winston Churchill High School Director of Debate