Meeting new and old friends at the Gural JCC's Sukkot party

Part fall festival, part holiday celebration and a reunion for two long lost friends the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC partnered with the Five Towns Premier Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center for the second annual Sukkot party at the Woodmere health care facility on Oct. 17.

A half dozen Premier clients who are Holocaust survivors mixed with 44 Gural JCC members, who are also survivors, for a “sip and paint” class as glasses were decorated with fall colors.

Held in Premier’s Yispach Moshe shul, Rabbi Herchel Reisz led the group in several Yiddish folk songs and without much urging there was audience participation, and then dancing. Sitting next to each other were Gloria Lefkowitz of Bayside and Lucy Roth from Cedarhurst. It was the first time in 20 years that the former Canarsieneighbors had seen each other. “We lived in the same neighborhood and had the same friends,” Roth said. “She didn’t remember me at first,” Lefkowitz said. Both women couldn’t believe that after all this time they would meet again.

Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg, from Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere, noted the unifying nature of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, as “everyone’s new year,” He related the ancient custom of sacrificing 70 animals to God as emblematic of the Jews faith to the modern day responsibility of being a responsible citizen and patriotic.

Cathy Byrne, the JCC’s associate executive director for older adults and special needs, helped to ensure the activities ran smoothly and noted how well the JCC members blended with the Premier clients. “This is a great event and a way the community can come together and see our facility,” said rehab center administrator Joe Benden.