Seniors celebrate their living silver lining

Cedarhurst JCC’s Russian Division creates a cultural camaraderie

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Five years ago, sorrow enveloped Rachayle Polevoy. Her husband, Leo, had just died. The couple was married for 62 years.

“I was very lonely, very depressed,” she said, sitting in the upstairs catering hall at the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC’s Harrison-Kerr Family Campus in Lawrence. “I didn’t want to leave my room.”

Polevoy, 87, said her daughter, Raisa Galak, found out about the Gural JCC’s Russian Division Social Adult Day Care Program, and “pushed me” to join. “Then I came here and it was wonderful,” Polevoy said, “people were so happy to be here.”


The program, founded 25 years ago by Irina Vainblat also includes the Rainbow School for Children of Russian Descent, Sunday Studios educational programs for children 3 to 14 and youth programs offering classes in math from fourth to seventh grade and chess and logical games classes that helps prepare children for tournament-level competition.

On Oct. 9, it was silver anniversary celebration time for the seniors, in the Social Adult Day Care Program, many of whom are Holocaust survivors or like Polevoy, left the Soviet Union. Her native city of Odessa is on the Black Sea in what is now southern Ukraine. She and her family came to the United States 30 years ago.

More than 100 seniors ate a catered dinner then sat for a concert by renowned cellist Borislav Strulev, who spoke Russian throughout the performance to his Cyrillic compatriots. He performed several powerful pieces of music as a soloist then was joined by wife, violinist Anna Borovik, and then saxophonist Yaakov Mayuan. Among the more recognizable pieces was Mayuan soloing on James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and the trio playing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

“It’s 25 years of my life I gave my life for the seniors,” Vainblat said, a JCC associate executive director who leads the Russian Division, after she received gifts and many words of appreciation, both impromptu and written, from several seniors. “I came to the U.S. 27 years ago and my mother didn’t speak English very well,” she said, “I realized there were so many seniors like my mother. I don’t want them to feel lonely.”

In between the activities and trips, what Polevoy said she loves most is the camaraderie and the opportunity to share cultural connections. “The people here are friends,” the Merrick resident said. “These women are nearest and dearest to me. We are here three times a week, I wish it was five times a week.”

As the seniors filed out, went downstairs and outside to wait for the transport home, several took photographs with friends and Vainblat.

“This community has a relationship with the Russian community that goes back many years,” said JCC President Steven Bernstein. “The JCC is proud of that and we will do everything in our power to keep that relationship strong and growing.”

To learn more about the Russian Division, call Vainblat at (516) 569-6733 ext. 214.