On the ball, the JCC way
Maybe, just maybe, Methuselah had the inside track on living to be 969 years old. Maybe he was channeling the regional JCC equation that states: Thou shall remain active.
Allan Eisenkraft, 75, principal of Allan Eisenkraft Real Estate in Nanuet and a regional developer who bought, renovated and sold the enormous Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Mills in Yonkers, today weighs 222 pounds. He”™s up a bit, he admits, but is substantially down from his 250-pound-plus top weight. He credits three visits a week to the Rockland JCC in West Nyack, where he is the two-time past president and current board member. His wife, Estelle, like Allan is instrumental in the establishment of the Rockland JCC in 2007, plays mah-jongg there twice each week.
When the Rockland JCC opened, it had 700 members. Today, it has 2,700 members, 1,000 of whom are seniors. According to Eisenkraft, “For many it”™s their home away from home.”
Last December, appropriately during the celebration of Hanukkah, the Rockland JCC announced something of a regional gift. It would be hosting the 2012 Maccabi Games, the Jewish youth Olympics, with the Jewish Federation of Rockland County paving the way via a $25,000 gift to get the ball rolling. Estelle and Allan Eisenkraft, too, have been active in the effort and he said the JCC has raised $1 million of a needed $1.5 million to host the games.
The Maccabi Games in Rockland are sure to generate deserved headlines, just as they did when the Mid-Westchester JCC hosted them in 2009. But the JCC story ”“ both the Rockland and Mid-Westchester iterations ”“ is about senior activities, as well. In Rockland, Eisenkraft said a senior spa with separate rooms for the likes of massage and facials is already built and soon to become active. The money for three swimming pools has been raised. One of the pools will be the senior-friendly, walk-in variety.
At JCC Mid-Westchester in Scarsdale, group fitness coordinator Deirdre Pachon has been teaching classes including arthritis fitness two times per week for the past two years.
“I love teaching this class,” Pachon said, noting her arthritis classes attract up to a dozen participants.
“It”™s been very well received,” Pachon said. Targeted improvements in her class include mobility and muscle strength, plus balance, posture and the self-management of pain via methods like ice, heat and gentle stretching. “The focus is on feeling the movement while you are doing it,” she said. “And then keep it up outside of class.” In the fall, Pachon hopes to lead a popular Zumba workout for seniors called Zumba Gold.
JCC Rockland ”“ the home to a Champion Paper mill before the JCC”™s three-year, $21 million renovation ”“ offers 44,000 square feet of workout space plus a wide array of health options and five fitness-oriented employees to help the uninitiated navigate the likes of cardio, spinning, boxing and $1 million in exercise equipment. The center offers personal trainers who can be booked online. Allan Eisenkraft uses one.
At JCC Mid-Westchester, the voluminous offerings include the just-begun Argentine tango class. Yoga, Tai Chi, aerobic dancing and cardio sculpting also are popular with seniors. Pachon said one yoga instructor ”“ Tao is her name ”“ is popular ”¦ and at 95 years old “everyone is intrigued by her.”
Perhaps acknowledging that all that running around can be exhausting, JCC Rockland”™s Jerome and Simona Chazen Senior Center offers the likes of an open game room for cards, a senior driving program in conjunction with AARP, men”™s and women”™s separate discussion groups and even a knitting-crocheting circle every Tuesday morning.
JCC Mid-Westchester also cares for the entire being, featuring a performing arts center and offerings like Israeli folk dancing and a crash course in reading Hebrew. Continuing its 2009 Maccabi Games tradition, the center this summer will send representatives to this year”™s host sites in Philadelphia and Israel.
“We also have great ”˜aquacise”™ classes for people who can”™t take land- weight-bearing exercises,” said John O”™Brien, sports and facilities director at JCC Mid-Westchester, noting that in the water, the muscles, but not the joints, get the workout.