Hillel Lodge opens new wing
By Michael Regenstreif
 Inez Zelikovitz cuts the ribbon opening the new Joseph and Inez Zelikovitz Pavilion of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge. Holding the ribbon are Lodge Foundation President Ingrid Levitz (left) and Jeff Miller, chair of the fundraising campaign. Looking on in the front row are Leon Gluzman and Lodge President Seymour Mender. (Photos: Michael Regenstreif)
Expansion project supervisor Elizabeth Richard is presented with a special hard hat marking the completion of Hillel Lodge’s new wing. (From left) Hillel Lodge Executive Director Stephen Schneiderman, Lodge President Seymour Mender, Richard, and Lodge Foundation President Ingrid Levitz.
(Front, from left) Jeff Polowin, Ingrid Levitz and Inez Zelikovitz visit one of the rooms ready to receive residents in the newly completed wing at Hillel Lodge.
A large crowd of happy Lodge supporters, Jewish community leaders and dignitaries gathered, December 15, to celebrate the dedication and opening of the new Joseph and Inez Zelikovitz Pavilion, with 21 new beds, at the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge.
The opening of the Zelikovitz Pavilion, the Lodge’s new west wing, was a long time coming. Ingrid Levitz, president of the Hillel Lodge Long-Term Care Foundation, noted that she and others had been working toward this day since 2004.
The need for more long-term care beds has long been recognized. It is estimated there is a shortage of at least 5,000 long-term care beds in Eastern Ontario, a shortage Hillel Lodge anticipated when it designed the new facility on the Jewish Community Campus and relocated from Wurtemburg Street in 2000. The Lodge’s west wing was left unfinished in the expectation it would be used for more beds in the future.
Approval from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to add 21 long-term beds to the 100 beds already in operation was finally granted in October 2010 after more than three years of indications from politicians and bureaucrats that the approval was imminent.
“Hillel Lodge will be enhanced by the addition of the much-needed 21 beds,” said Levitz in her remarks.
Levitz paid tribute to Lodge benefactor Inez Zelikovitz, who was in attendance, citing her “exemplary support and generosity.”
“There was no shortage of friends” who rallied behind the Lodge’s expansion project, said Lodge President Seymour Mender.
Among those Mender publicly thanked was Mayor Jim Watson, who attended the event along with several city councillors. Watson, he said, was a “constant advocate” for Hillel Lodge, recently as mayor, and previously during his time as an MPP and provincial cabinet minister.
Mender also paid tribute to MPPs Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre), who was also in attendance, and Bob Chiarelli (Ottawa West-Nepean), as well as John Fraser, Premier Dalton McGuinty’s executive assistant, for their efforts in advocating on behalf of the Lodge and its expansion project.
Mender also credited Jeff Polowin for his “advice on how to get things done,” and thanked the Jewish Federation of Ottawa for its ongoing support.
Mender finished his remarks by calling attention to Jeff Miller, a past Lodge president who “led by example” and “singlehandedly raised the funds” needed for the expansion project. Miller’s efforts, he said, were “Herculean.”
Miller discussed the $5.2 million capital campaign needed to finance the expansion project.
“We’ve raised $4.5 million to date, 85 per cent of our goal,” he said, “and we won’t stop until we get it.”
Miller said there have been 44 gifts of more than $25,000 to the campaign.
The final speaker was Hillel Lodge Executive Director Stephen Schneiderman.
Schneiderman credited the provincial bureaucracy and, particularly, the Hillel Lodge staff for their ongoing efforts to ensure the new wing became a reality.
In particular, Schneiderman called attention to Elizabeth Richard, the Lodge’s director of Environmental Services and co-ordinator of Quality Management, who supervised the expansion project. A special hard hat was presented to Richard as a souvenir of the project.
Following the brief speeches, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the ground-floor entranceway to the new Zelikovitz Pavilion.
Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum, the Hillel Lodge chaplain, recited a blessing and the ribbon was cut by Inez Zelikovitz. Guests at the event were then allowed to tour the newly completed facilities, including residents’ rooms, an activities lounge and dining hall.
A few days later, on December 19, the first of the 21 new residents began living in the new Joseph and Inez Zelikovitz Pavilion of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge. Activities and leisure lounge in the new wing at Hillel Lodge.
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The Jewish Federation of Ottawa and Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation announced the appointment, December 18, of Rony Podolsky as chief development officer.