What Does Elkana’s Senior Citizen Center Have to Do with Orot Israel College?

by Mrs. Tzvia Mintzer 
Head, Gil HaZahav Association, Elkana

Shalom lachem.

My name is Tzvia Mintzer, and I am the founding chairwoman of Elkana’s Gil HaZahav Association.

About five years ago, recognizing that the number of senior citizens here in Elkana continues to increase every year, we - the community’s older members - decided to establish a non-profit organization that would provide services for us in our old age. Our goal was to offer recreational and cultural activities in order to improve local senior citizens’ quality of life and to transform Elkana into a wonderful place to live – even for the elderly.

You’re probably wondering what Elkana’s senior citizen center has to do with Orot Israel College, which trains a generation of young teachers and educators in various subjects?!

Here’s my answer:
1. Elkana’s veteran residents have a longstanding, warm relationship with Orot Israel College. We value and appreciate Orot’s positive impact on the community and its older and younger residents.
2. We all wish to continue to maintain this rich bond, to continue to give and receive, and to continue to grow and develop together.

Elkana’s veteran residents have a deep emotional bond with Orot. They have been working together with Orot from its establishment and founding by its first president – a longtime resident of Elkana – our friend, Rav Dr. Yehuda Felix, and through its further physical and spiritual development by Rav Professor Neria Guttel.

Many of our friends in Elkana worked and still work for Orot in various positions. The community and its residents feel very close to Orot. We share many values with Orot, its administration, and its faculty, and we admire its academic achievements. Indeed, many of us – especially the veteran residents – consider Orot to be our home. A number of older Elkana residents studied at Orot and taught there, and now their grandchildren are following in their footsteps.

Meanwhile, Elkana serves as a warm home for the Orot students who live in the dormitories. Often, they meet their future husbands in Elkana, make their homes in the community, and accept teaching positions at one of Elkana’s various educational institutions.

Thus, when we decided to open our senior citizen center but lacked both a permanent location and technological resources, we did not hesitate to turn to Orot Israel College for help. And in fact, to our delight, Orot responded willingly and graciously to our request. Over the past four and a half years, leading members of Orot’s faculty delivered lectures at our center; we launched an intergenerational program with Orot’s students; communication students interview the seniors, who share their life stories; a Daf Yomi class is broadcast to the seniors on the local radio station; students give lectures at the center; and we attended computer courses at Orot and learned how to join the digital world. We are also extremely grateful for the use of Orot’s auditorium as a venue for many of our experiential and joyful events.

In the future, we hope to open a regional educational center on campus for the senior citizens of Elkana and the Shomron. This initiative will not only strengthen Orot’s ties with the area’s veteran residents but will also strengthen Orot’s regional and national stature. Orot Israel College’s administration has already approved the plan in principle, but due to a number of factors, we are not yet ready to begin this project.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank Orot Israel College and Rav Professor Neria Guttel for all their help and cooperation, and I look forward to watching our relationship grow ever stronger.