Olympics at LAJH with Bank of America

Connections to Care Mobile Hero
Home / News & Events / Newsletter

The Olympic Spirit Soared at Los Angeles Jewish Health Thanks to Winning Support from Bank of America

Sep 4, 2024

During a summer filled with exciting coverage of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, there was another, event right here in Los Angeles that brought talented athletes out to shine. This August, Los Angeles Jewish Health hosted its own Senior Olympics, engaging dozens of residents of the Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Medical Center in an afternoon of fun and stimulating activities, enabling them to join in the celebratory spirit inspired by the Paris games.

Critical to the success of the Senior Olympics was the outstanding participation of nearly 20  staff members from Bank of America, including Larry Schnaid, past president of Los Angeles Jewish Health’s support group, The Guardians. Led by Judy Friedman-Rudzki, director and senior treasury officer at Bank of America and LAJH’s current board chair, the energetic group were active participants as part of the bank’s long-time dedication to volunteerism and civic engagement. Bank of America encourages its more than 200,000 employees to be active in their local communities, to support the organizations that revitalize their communities. Collectively, bank employees log millions of volunteer hours each year.

“Bank of America believes its employees should give back because we are part of the tapestry of the community,” notes Judy Friedman-Rudzki, director and senior treasury officer at the bank and LAJH’s new board chair. “I am thrilled that, through events like the Senior Olympics, I can help bring two fantastic organizations—LAJH and Bank of America— together to make a critical difference for seniors in Los Angeles and beyond.”

These types of collaborations help LAJH improve the health and well-being of thousands of seniors each year. “Judy and her dedicated colleagues at Bank of America are wonderful partners with us,” says Dale Surowitz, LAJH’s president and chief executive officer. “The generosity of groups like theirs helps extend our reach into the community and bolsters our impact as a key health resource for so many seniors citywide.”

The Senior Olympics event was classic LAJH—finding creative ways to engage and challenge seniors as they enjoyed the company of fellow residents, staff and especially the new friendships made with the outstanding Bank of America volunteers. LAJH’s staff lead for planning and orchestrating the event was Susan Leitch, director of therapeutic activities. “Programs like this promote socialization, friendly competition, and feelings of self-worth and satisfaction among our residents. They also instill a sense of camaraderie between residents and their peers,” she says. “This Senior Olympics event was fantastically successful: The day after, residents kept asking when we’d be having the next one. We have already started to plan a version of the games for next year!”  

Participating residents had six games to test their skills: Tic-Tac-Toe, Giant Dartboard (using cloth balls instead of darts), Basketball, Badminton, Cornhole, and Bowl Chipper, a variation on golf. All games were held indoors, keeping residents nice and cool from the late summer San Fernando Valley heat. The lobby and multipurpose room were decorated in the spirit of the Olympics, including flags from around the world and banners hanging from the ceiling, lending the space an international air.

Participants included 101-year-old LAJH resident Sadie Migden and Suzanne Blum, an 86-year-old resident who stopped by to check out the event, which she says was indicative of the level of care LAJH puts into everything it does. “LAJH does so many things well,” she says. “This is the best place in the city for skilled nursing care; you can rest assured that if you need help with something, you can find that help here.”

Click here for a full gallery of images from the Resident Olympics with Bank of America
For More Images from the Resident Olympics with Bank of America Click Here

Sign up for the Los Angeles Jewish Health newsletter, Connections.

Recent Articles

Aug 6

Los Angeles Jewish Health Welcomes Rabbi Marc Kraus

For new Los Angeles Jewish Health rabbi Marc Kraus, there’s something special about working in a residential community.“So many rabbis only have a chance to engage with their communities weekly, monthly, or even annually when they come to synagogue. But, at Los Angeles Jewish Health, I get to see people every day and to develop deep pastoral connections with them,” he says. “Finding this job was a dream come true.”Rabbi Kraus arrived at LAJH this summer as campus rabbi for Eisenberg Village, joining Rabbi Karen Bender, who serves as the organization’s chief mission officer. In his brief tenure, he has already gotten the flavor of what makes LAJH’s community unique.“It’s so wonderful to be part of this huge village in the middle of Reseda,” he says. “I’ve been breaking bread with residents at every meal, getting to know them and seeing just how beautiful Jewish life here really is. I feel so incredibly welcomed.”Rabbi Marc KrausA native of London, Rabbi Kraus has been in the U.S. since 2010. After completing his undergraduate degree in Hebrew literature at Oxford, he received his rabbinic ordination from American Jewish University and a Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from William & Mary. Over the course of his professional career, Rabbi Kraus has served as both a pulpit rabbi and a licensed marriage and family therapist.“I’m a spiritual seeker, an academic, and a therapist,” he says. “I believe my diverse experience—whether it was facilitating Orthodox Jewish holiday services in England as a teenager, spending time at an egalitarian yeshiva in Jerusalem, tending to a Conservative synagogue congregation in Virginia, or logging thousands of hours as a marriage and family counselor—has prepared me well to provide LAJH residents with pastoral services that help them find meaning in their everyday lives.”Avoiding denominational labels is central to Rabbi Kraus’ rabbinic approach. “I see myself as a facilitator of people’s Jewish journeys, no matter where they’re coming from,” he says. “I think there is a lot of wisdom in every denomination, and my goal is to meet LAJH residents where they are—recognizing where they’re coming from and adapting accordingly. Ultimately, I want to help people connect with their spirituality in whatever way is most resonant for them.”Singing is another of Rabbi Kraus’ key areas of focus. “Music is such a powerful way to bring people together. As a vocalist, I feel being able to sing is a gift—and being able to share that gift with others is blessing,” he says.Rabbi Bender notes that the many blessings Rabbi Kraus brings are being felt by LAJH residents far and wide. “It is a mitzvah to ‘find yourself a rabbi,’ and we feel truly blessed to have found Rabbi Kraus—and even more so that he has chosen to join the LAJH family,” she says. “He is a gifted scholar, a soulful singer, and a deeply compassionate pastoral presence. In just his first month, he has already inspired minds and touched hearts across our community. We are profoundly grateful to welcome him as the rabbi for both Eisenberg Village and Fountainview at Eisenberg Village.”In the coming weeks and months, Rabbi Kraus looks forward to meeting as many members of the LAJH family as possible. His energy and enthusiasm are nothing short of infectious.“I was overjoyed on the day I started at LAJH,” he says, “and my excitement has only grown every day since.”Rabbi Kraus speaks to residents of the Newman Building 
Read More
Aug 6

Breaking New Ground On Safe and Effective Reductions in Medication Use

Each year, millions of people in this country are helped by psychotropic medications—drugs that affect the mind, emotions, and behavior and that can play an important positive role in regulating mental health. These medications can be life-changing. They also carry serious risks and dangerous consequences, particularly for older adults.Despite their potential danger, psychotropic drugs (including a class known as anti-psychotics) are often prescribed for older adults, including those residing in long-term care facilities and especially those with dementia. Government and other health regulators require nursing homes to report data on the number of residents they serve that are on anti-psychotics, and the numbers in many facilities across the county show widespread use.An important initiative at Los Angeles Jewish Health is addressing this issue head-on and is implementing innovative ways to reduce seniors on psychotropic drugs while improving their overall health. Thanks to a close collaboration between doctors with expertise in geriatrics, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers at LAJH, residents are increasingly showing dramatic health improvements—and even thriving—without these risky medications.“The use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes in the U.S. is a significant problem,” says Noah Marco, MD, CMD, LAJH’s chief medical officer. “For residents with dementia, the instinct to prescribe the drugs is perhaps understandable: They often exhibit behaviors that are difficult to manage with non-medication treatments, a challenge complicated by the lack of FDA- and insurance-approved medications for the agitation caused by Alzheimer’s dementia.”Aida Oganesyan. Dr. Noah Marco, Ilana SpringerTo address this challenge, LAJH has created a new process, bringing an interdisciplinary team together on a monthly basis to review the cases of residents who are on psychotropics and to identify safe and effective ways to reduce or eliminate the use of the drugs for those individuals.  The protocol is yielding impressive results.“Thanks to the dedicated and compassionate clinicians and staff at LAJH, we’ve achieved a 49% reduction of anti-psychotic medication use from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2025,” Dr. Marco says. “The new numbers put us well below the state average for usage rates—and we accomplished this without increasing prescriptions of other psychotropic medications.”The LAJH teams’ strategy has been driven by a focus on seeking alternate treatments tailored to the individual needs of each specific resident.“We’re working to put gradual dose reductions in place, prioritizing non-pharmacological interventions to support residents’ wellbeing instead of medications,” says Ilana Springer, LAJH’s senior vice president of In-Residence Services. “Often, that translates to learning what kind of activities might prove triggering to a resident and then finding other, more soothing activities to help them feel better.”According to Aida Oganesyan, director of the LAJH pharmacy, this kind of customized care has been critical to the new initiative’s success.“We reduce anti-psychotic medications on a case-by-case basis—and we only do it in concert with providing substantial support for each resident,” Aida says. “By being extremely measured in our approach and providing patient-centered care, we ensure that we’re only tapering residents from these drugs when they truly don’t need them.”Of course, this level of individualized care comes at a cost—one that is made manageable thanks to support from LAJH’s generous donor community.“We could not be doing this without help from our donors, whose contributions allow us to have a higher nurse-to-resident ratio than many nursing homes,” Dr. Marco says. “The additional staff—as well as the many volunteers, residents’ paid companions, and family members who sit with our dementia residents and keep them safe and calm—are far more effective than any medication.” 
Read More
Jul 9

Los Angeles Jewish Health Welcomes New Chief Information Officer

Rey Lopez brings experience and community commitment to improving local seniorsʼ lives (RESEDA, CA – July 8, 2025) Los Angeles Jewish Health announced the appointment of Rey Lopez as its chief information officer. Lopez arrives at LAJH with two decades of experience strengthening information technology (IT) infrastructure in the medical field to enhance the delivery of high-quality patient care. Central to Lopezʼs portfolio at LAJH is building technology and business solutions to help the organization grow, to assist its employees to be more efficient in their jobs, and to safeguard residentsʼ health and wellbeing by protecting their sensitive personal health information and data.“Whether itʼs securing electronic health records, streamlining our payroll systems, or reducing cost and boosting the performance of our data reporting systems, there are so many ways we can harness technology to be more nimble and to provide LAJH stakeholders with new pathways to success,” Lopez said. LAJH Chief Information Officer Rey LopezLopez joins the LAJH leadership team at a critical time in the healthcare industry, as emerging technologies play a growing role in the provision of vital care and as concerns around protecting data privacy continue to require best practices in the field. His knowledge and expertise will help drive LAJHʼs strategic approach to effective data management. “We are pleased to welcome Rey as a member of the LAJH family,” said Dale Surowitz, LAJH CEO and president. “His commitment to safeguarding the health and privacy of our residents makes him a perfect addition to our leadership team.” Lopez arrives at LAJH after a long tenure as CIO at Kern Medical in Bakersfield and, before that, as Director of Information Systems, St. Joseph Medical Center at Providence Health & Services in Burbank. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, he attended California State University, Northridge, graduating with a degree in business administration and management information systems. It was as a small business owner in the late 1990s—based in Encino, he consulted on issues related to workerʼs compensation—that Lopez developed an interest in pursuing a healthcare career. His new position at LAJH further deepens his connection to the San Fernando Valley, where he currently resides. “Iʼm so happy to be working in the Valley again, contributing to the community that I love,” Rey says. “Through LAJH, I look forward to helping make it an even better—and healthier—place to live.” 
Read More