A NARRATIVE (Click Here for Timeline)
You can barely walk five steps at Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia without noticing inscribed names: names of generous givers, past leaders, and honored employees. But, in only one place will you find the name of Bessie Hurst. It is fifteenth from the bottom in the second column on the large memorial plaque hanging outside the chapel listing the names of former residents in the order they passed away. Bessie Hurst of Portsmouth was number sixty-two.
But on Wednesday, September 3, 1980 she was number one, the first person to call Beth Sholom “home”. “She was so excited and happy, “ recalls Mindy Futterman who stood at the door weeping in joy as Mrs. Hurst was wheeled in. “I’d known her all my life. She would often have my Father and my Uncle Willie over for dinner. Bessie was a wonderful cook, had a great sense of humor, and was very gracious.”
Before the day was out, Eva Butler of Newport News and Annie Bernstein, Celia Markowitz, and Rae Katzman of Norfolk would also become charter residents of Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia. Ida Rashkind, Lena Cohen, and Rose London moved in the next day. The following Monday, according to admission records, Mrs. Futterman’s Uncle Willie Chovitz became Beth Sholom’s first male resident.
Willie Chovitz transferred to Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia from Beth Sholom home in Richmond, the only Jewish nursing home in the Commonwealth of Virginia at the time. “For us it was a question of expanding the Richmond home or building one in Tidewater,” says Ira Robbins, the first Executive Vice President of the Beth Sholom Home Corporation, who lent his vast expertise in Geriatrics to the committee given the task of creating Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia. “We actually began studying the issue in 1971, were interrupted by 1973 Yom Kippur War, and resumed wholeheartedly afterwards. We absolutely could not have done it without Ira and the people in Richmond” stated Lawrence Brenner, a Norfolk jeweler, who would be part of a threesome of founding fathers. They were also old friends. “I went to Cheder with Lawrence at Beth El and double-dated with him in our youth,” says Jack Barr, a contractor who would later become Beth Sholom’s second president. Its first would be Morty Goldmeier, a Norfolk CPA. Brenner would become the chief fundraiser, Goldmeier the dealmaker, and Barr the volunteer construction supervisor. The Tidewater Jewish Federation formed the ad hoc group and gave it a simple directive: see if there is demand for a Jewish nursing home and resources to build it.
“We drove back and forth to Richmond one Sunday a month for five years to attend Board Meetings,” recalls Goldmeier, who at the time ahead no relative in a nursing home. (Later his mother-in-law and mother would be residents at Eastern, one admitted a few years after the other’s passing, and both by coincidence assigned to the same room.) Likewise, Lawrence Brenner had no immediate vested interest in Beth Sholom. Only Jack Barr, whose mother and father-in-law lived in the Richmond Home, had a direct connection. “But we were all equally committed. We just thought there was a need for a Jewish Home in Tidewater and believed people would contribute” stated Barr.
They were right! “To many Jewish residents in Eastern Virginia who wanted to see local money stay in the community, the Home became a representation of the community’s needs,” said Ira Robbins. Brenner attended numerous meetings with potential contributors and received very few turndowns. “It was hard work but very gratifying.”
To purchase the nine acres of land on Auburn Drive from developer Larry Goldrich and build the 66,000 square foot complex would cost an estimated $4,000,000. It was Goldmeier, the accounting expert with wide experience in nursing home financing, who suggested that the dollars raised be invested in the community’s first endowment fund to cover future deficits, and a mortgage loan arranged to pay for construction. “We found five banks willing to purchase equal shares of a $2,850,000 Industrial Revenue Bond. Average interest rates were 14% - 15% at the time and we only paid 7-1/2%. We were very lucky,” stated Goldmeier.
Time would prove the Beth Sholom Unrestricted Endowment Fund and a second endowment established by the United Jewish Federation to be invaluable in financing tools. While the funds were collected, the building and design committees chaired by Jack Barr and Richard Porter respectively devoted hundreds of hours and thousands of miles to devise the right design. The group’s most fruitful time was spent on the road, visiting four homes in as many states in two days. Ira Robbins led a large entourage, which included the late architect Laszlo Aranyi and Beth Sholom Central president Dennis Brumberg to facilities in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland. But it was a Jewish home in Albany, New York that most impressed the committee.
Inspired, they decided on a one-story structure resembling a wheel with three spokes to simulate a small city. Corridors would have street names and each wing a theme: “Earth, Sky, and Water,” which would be color-coded Orange, Yellow and Blue to help orient aging residents with failing memories and diminished vision. There would be a central core called the Horizon Center with an “Esplanade” just beyond the front lobby leading residents and visitors past a mini-mall of small stores, envisioned to include a Barber/Beauty Salon, Gift Shop, Music Room, Clothing Boutique, and Café. There would be 102 rooms, 84 of them private, all identified with an address and the name of the resident who would be invited to bring along personal belongings. Each nursing station would accommodate no more than 40 residents, 20 below the maximum standard. Corridors would be short, staffing high, independence encouraged, activities numerous, Jewish dietary laws and other religious services strictly observed.
R.D. Lambert was the contractor, but Jack Barr left nothing to chance, visiting the Auburn Drive site twice most days to oversee construction. As the white stucco structure with its brown mansard roof and canopied entrance walkway took shape, the realization of accomplishment began to set in. “It was the most glorious time in my professional career,” says Ira Robbins who made frequent visits to Virginia Beach from his home and office in Richmond. “I have never worked with a more loyal dedicated and hard working group of people. It was an exciting period for me.”
“The whole process consumed us,” recalls Lawrence Brenner. But there was help all around. “Everyone wanted to be part of the action,” says Mindy Futterman, who was Chairperson of the Dedication Ceremony held on September 14, 1980, an extremely hot day that saw chairs sink holes in the freshly paved parking lot. “Despite the heat, we had one of the largest dedications ever seen in Tidewater, with more than 400 people in attendance; it was beautiful.”
Looking on that Sunday were those fortunate Jewish seniors, all proud to have lived long enough to be Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia’s initial residents. Filling the three wings would take time and required new President Barr to place numerous calls to local hospital discharge planners in search of prospective residents. In time they came, from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News, following the lead of a Portsmouth woman named Bessie Hurst, who could hardly have known what she started.
Soon it became clear when Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia began its operation in September 1980 that the facilities needed one governing organization. Beth Sholom Home of Virginia created an executive office as an umbrella doing business as Beth Sholom Geriatric Services of Virginia. This office, located in Richmond, began to grow and function as a financial office and as a corporation. The growing need for facilities for the elderly soon gave rise to the addition of two senior independent living facilities: Beth Sholom Woods in Richmond and Beth Sholom Sands in Virginia Beach. Beth Sholom Housing Corporation, under the same umbrella, was formed to oversee these two new entities and to satisfy the financing requirements set forth by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A Board of Governors was created by Beth Sholom Home of Virginia to oversee the two nursing homes and the housing corporation. This body acted as a management company overseeing the operation of all four facilities.
In 1988, Albert Katz became the Executive Vice President of Beth Sholom Geriatric Services. Mr. Katz served as a liaison of Beth Sholom Home of Virginia, to the Virginia Endowment for the Jewish Aged (VEJA), to the Board of Governors, and the Boards of the four facilities. When Al decided to retire, effective March 1998, after many years of dedicated service, it was the right time to review, revamp, and refine the organization.
The Board of Directors of Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia (BSHEV) determined that a streamlined form of governance would best allow it to prepare for and respond to the dramatic changes taking place in today’s healthcare industry. This involved separating from the existing corporation, Beth Sholom Home of Virginia, and creating a new entity known as Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia. The reorganization became effective on January 1, 1998. Despite Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia’s officially individual status, management and operation is a mirror image of the previous organization. In fact, the Board of Directors, Officers and Staff personnel of Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia remained the same. The Home, from the perspective of the Community and residents, had never been altered during the reorganization. Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia may be anew entity, but provides the same superior quality of care. The Home’s operations and high standards of exceptional quality date back to 1980 for Virginia Beach and 1947 for Richmond. BSHEV’s Mission today is the same as before, and that is to care for the elderly in our community.
In October of 1998, Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia became the Management Agent for the adjacent independent low-income facility called Beth Sholom Sands.
"Also, in October, 1998 Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia began to explore the viability of constructing an assisted living facility. Extensive marketing and feasibility research concluded that such a center, built on the grounds of the existing Home, would be welcomed by the Jewish Community which had long sought to have a full continuum of care campus for the elderly in the region. (The Richmond home had already made such a commitment).
The Board of Directors decided to formally name that campus Beth Sholom Village, and in June, 2002, ground was broken for the assisted living facility to be called the Terrace. The three story building, expected to be completed in late 2003, will house 71 apartment units, 18 for the mentally impaired. At the same time, the Home itself will undergo a signficiant renovation, expansion and refurbishment that will include new furniture, wall coverings, religious/cultural center, nursing stations, expanded Alzheimer's wings and more.
When completed, the Village will be the "Next Generation of Care" for Beth Sholom as it strives to fulfill its mission of meeting the challenge of providing quality care for the Jewish aged in Hampton Roads.
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