Sacred Seasons Celebration Kits are innovative resources to enable staff, volunteers or family members to facilitate celebration of Shabbat and holidays for Jewish elders in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and retirement communities. Each kit includes everything needed by a leader without Jewish background to create a celebration:

• Leader’s guide with information on the observance and step-by-step instructions for creating the celebration
• Master copies of large-print participant handouts with songs and prayers in Hebrew, English and transliteration
•  CD recording of songs and blessings in the celebration.

We have completed production of kits for Shabbat, Passover and Hanukkah.

With support from the Gimprich Family Foundation, kits for Shabbat, Hanukkah and Passover are available on the Web site http://www.sacredseasons.org, thus making Jewish celebration accessible to frail elders across North America. The printed materials can be downloaded free of charge, and the CDs are available for a nominal shipping and handling fee.

With support from the Fund for the Elderly, the Fredna Creamer Family Charity Fund and the Rose P. and Robert M. Epstein Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, we have distributed hard copies of the celebration kits to over 200 long-term care facilities, 25 chaplains and 150 para-chaplains in the Delaware Valley.

In the future, we look forward to developing Sacred Seasons resources for frail elders living in their own homes in the community.