Home Concert Debut!
We were delighted to launch a new home concerts program whereby elders host professional musicians for friendly one-on-one concerts! This was made possible thanks to our new partnership with the …
Project Ezra is a nonprofit organization that helps frail Jewish elderly to live with dignity, companionship and community on NYC’s Lower East Side. Founded in 1972, we provide elders with a spectrum of social services, community activities and home help.
Project Ezra was founded to bring light and joy into elders’ lives, inspired by the activism of the 1960s, the principle of tikkun olam and the Yom Kippur liturgy: “Do not forsake us in our old age; as our strength seeps away, do not abandon us.”
“Ezra” means “help” and that’s our mission—to help elders to address the challenges of aging and to live with dignity and independence. We provide hundreds of elders with a variety of services and activities to reduce their social isolation and to enhance their lives.
Today, over four decades after our founding, the need for our work is more acute than ever. As longevity increases, so do the needs of the elderly population we service. Lower Manhattan is home to thousands of increasingly frail Jewish elders. We are here to help them with the challenges of aging.
Project Ezra is not a member of any federation or umbrella organization. We do not seek or accept government funds. Our existence depends on the support of the community at large.
All our elders are aged over 65—most are in their 80s and 90s but some are over 100!
Most elders have lived on the Lower East Side for decades, often their entire lives. Others found refuge here. Some are survivors of the Holocaust; many are from the former Soviet Union. All live in low- or middle-income housing cooperatives or in public housing on the Lower East Side and surrounding areas.
We are located by Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs). NORCS are housing communities, developments, apartment buildings, and neighborhoods with high concentrations of older residents. Most longtime residents are committed to remaining in their own homes but need essential support services to do so.
Project Ezra serves 300 or so frail elderly who are economically, physically or psychologically marginalized. We also have contact with hundreds more when they are in need of certain of our services.
Each elder is different and naturally their physical mobility, psychological wellbeing and financial needs vary. In addition to programs and concrete services, we provide elders with regular visits and telephone reassurance, checking in on their wellbeing and reducing their social isolation.
We know each of our elders personally. As many have outlived or lost touch with their families and friends, we are often the closest they have to family. Although we function, in part, as a traditional social service agency, we strive to be much more—by embracing the spirit of family and community.
Elders become Ezraites thanks to referrals from neighbors, relatives, doctors, other community organizations and word of mouth. To allow all Jewish elders of varying religiosity to feel comfortable at Project Ezra we observe kosher dietary laws and the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
We were delighted to launch a new home concerts program whereby elders host professional musicians for friendly one-on-one concerts! This was made possible thanks to our new partnership with the …
Project Ezra’s Jayne Skoff visits ARSP in Israel Jayne Skoff of ARSP partner Project Ezra in New York took the opportunity to …
An inter-generational Sunday morning program where Yiddish music feeds the soul.
An Ezra elder tells the 8th graders of North Shore Hebrew Academy about how she was hidden in a convent, smuggled to Israel, where she was imprisoned by the British, …
Jack Lemmon once said that death ends a life, not a relationship. Hilda’s and my relationship was very special, it shaped me a lot and will therefore always accompany me. …