ATHENS (EJP) – Anyone not aware that the complex they are approaching is the Restion home for Jewish senior citizens, would bet their last dime that it is a luxury hotel resort.
With its beautiful bungalows, breath taking surrounding and top class facilities it is a far cry from how most people envisage an old age home to be.
Sitting on 110,000 square meters in the Vari area of Athens, 25 kilometres from the centre of the Greek capital, Restion is a rest home built by Jews for Jews.
It was opened earlier this year. Help for survivors It is the brain child of prominent retired Greek Jewish doctor Jacques Alazraki who also owns the Blue Cross private hospital.
“The idea came to me- says president of the institution back in 1992,” Alazraki told EJP.
“I thought our people have had enough of moving around during our history, it is time to find a permanent home for the elderly, especially for the survivors of the Holocaust, who up to that point had to go to the Jewish old age home in Salonika (Thessaloniki), in northern Greece.”
By November 1995, Alazrakis had founded a non-profit organization called “The Welfare Institution of the Jews of Athens” to raise the funds needed for the building project.
He managed to attract investors, including a number of wealthy Greek Jews, as well as funding worth 1.5 million euros from the “The Claims Conference”.
Many Greek Jews worked voluntarily for this project. Today the Institution has 265 members.
Suitable area
The difficulty was to find a large plot of land in a suitable area, but this was solveded when one philanthropist, Angel Bella Restis, bought the land with her own money and donated it to the institution.
Angel Bella was also the driving force behind the realization of the facility, working tirelessly on the construction site, raising funds and taking care of the bureaucratic details.
The center has 67 rooms of 30 square metres with a balcony and a garden view, equipped with private bathrooms with support rails, safe non slip flooring, direct telephone line, air conditioning, 28" satellite TV, a mini refrigerator, 24 hour emergency paging system, and oxygen facility in each room.
| The Beit El synagogue at Restion |
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The complex has two dinning rooms, one for summer and one for winter, an outdoor pool especially designed for the elderly, laundry room where residents have access to the washing machines for personal use, cafeteria, and a large sitting-rooms for relaxation.
Yet as the director of the facility, Monis Halegoua, says: “the installations would be meaningless if we did not provide the service that we do.”
The center has a permanent cardiologist, psychologist, social worker, physiotherapist, while nurses work around the clock.
All the above medical services are included in the price of the center which is 1,635 euros per month per occupant.
Alternative way of life
Halegoua, who refers to the facility as a center for alternative way of life for elderly people, says: “it is not enough to provide the occupants just with high service and 5 meals a day of excellent quality.
They have to feel as if they are at their own home doing what they normally do.” For that reason all residents are free to come and go when ever they feel like, to visit family or travel in Greece or abroad.
A mini bus leaves at least twice a week to take its occupants for shopping, coffee, or any other thing they desire.
They also can have visitors, relatives and friends, all day long and treat them as they were at their home.
So far the Restion has only six occupants all when they need 42 just to break-even. Alazrakis is now discussing the possibility to have the community help pay part of the cost for all Holocaust survivors that wish to stay there.
When Halegoua was asked if non Jews can also stay there he said “the issue is being discussed by the board but we have not decided yet to go with it.”
So far many Christians that heard of the place by word of mouth have asked to have a relative stay since there is no such other center in Greece, in spite of the fact that they know it is a Jewish installation for Jews.
“We told them that if we decide to accept non Jews we will follow their religious traditions during high such as Easter and Christmas,” Alzarakis said, “But we will not change even an iota of its Jewish character, after all it is a Jewish facility. None of the Christians had any problem with that.”
In practical terms that means that every door will have its mezuzah, the kitchen and food will continue to be kosher, the synagogue will continue to function and there will be no church built.
Yet every Sunday a minibus will take the Christians for mass if they so wish.
One of the marketing drives now being discussed is trying to bring to the Restion elderly European Jews that are alone either for permanent residence or even for partial stay.
According to Halegoua “if you are alone in France or England and have nothing to keep you there why not come to us where the winters are milder and you will have 24 hours a day full attention. As our motto says “We live better together.”
All told the biggest problem facing right now the Restion is occupancy.