Japanese and Jewish Seniors Celebrate Passover

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The Japanese Retirement Center was filled with new sights, sounds and tastes on Monday morning. 50 Japanese seniors, 50 Jewish seniors and one Rabbi gathered to break unleavened bread in celebration of Passover.

“Everybody is loving it, they’re very excited,” said Bonnie Polishuk, Marketing Director for the Los Angeles Jewish Home.

Round tables brought Jewish and Japanese retirement home residents together for the first time. Even Rabbi Anthony Elman got into the multicultural spirit.

“I’m very excited I had sushi last night in fact,” said the rabbi.

The cultural exchange is in honor of the Jewish Home’s 100th anniversary—but the original site of the home is now a Japanese retirement center. So the two centers compromised, celebrating Passover together, followed by a meal of sushi.

Seating is randomly assigned, but one pair of ladies aren’t complaining. 89-year-old Lucille Weiss and 86-year-old Betty Uchida have become fast friends.

“Oh I love her!” said Weiss, of Uchida. “I hit the jackpot! She’s so personable.”

“She’s wonderful,” said Uchida, of Weiss. “I feel like she’s a friend I’ve always had.”

They make quite a pair--they both dressed up for Passover. Weiss wears a black beret and three inch long sparkly earrings, and Uchida wears a bright pink sweater set with pearls.

Weiss is the Passover veteran here. She’s done the ceremony her whole life, but just as the group is dipping parsley into salt water, both of Weiss’ hearing aids fail. So first-timer Uchida guided them both through the rest of the Seder.

“She was pointing out things to me, and I’m the Jew! I was really lucky, I’m telling you,” said Weiss with a laugh.

Passover is a celebration of freedom and the end of oppression. Shawn Miyake, president of Keiro Senior Healthcare, says the Japanese and Jewish residents here have more in common than one might think.

“The Jewish people in world war II were put in concentration camps, the Japanese had a very similar experience being put in relocation camps here in the U.S.,” said Miyake.

Uchida and Weiss talk about this as they sip grape juice—their wine substitute. Both Weiss and Uchida vividly remember World War II. Uchida’s family owned a restaurant in California.

“We had to just close it and lose everything that we had, because each person only had forty pounds to carry,” recalled Uchida. “I remember being put in the barbed wire and we couldn’t get out, they had guns so we wouldn’t get out of line.”

And Weiss said in the face of violence overseas, she joined the Airforce as a flight nurse.

“I was able to travel all over the world: China, Burma, India. Lost a lot of friends, a lot of friends,” said Weiss.

After the Passover ceremony closes, sushi and rice are served. Uchida shows Weiss how to hold her chopsticks and they make promises to see each other soon.

“She and I are buddies now,” said Uchida. “I told her, I’ll come and visit her and she’ll come and visit me!”

It’s hard to believe Uchida and Weiss were strangers this morning. In the first day of a ceremony all about coming together with family, the two of them seem to have found each other at the perfect time.