My 92-year old grandfather, a Holocaust survivor from Lodz, Poland, sleeps in my childhood bedroom in Los Angeles. He has adorned its walls with photos of the dead: his wife, wearing a borrowed gown in a postwar wedding portrait; a daughter, beaming at her high school graduation, and other friends and family members. There are…
With the population of retiring baby boomers growing, the Forward reached out to someone in the belly of the beast: a financial manager in Florida. After all, the image of Jews retiring to Florida is so ubiquitous that it’s been fodder for more books, TV shows and movie scenes than one can immediately recollect, from…
Elderly. Senior. Senior citizen. Aged. Oldster. Old. The words rile. They’re not me. I ski, bike, climb mountains, blog, freelance and, yes, enjoy sex — even as I qualify for Social Security. Nor do they describe an energized generation of 60- and 70-somethings and beyond, many of whom shun the word “retirement.” These men and…
Just as baby boomers defined what it meant to be a teenager in America in the 1960s and ‘70s, they are now redefining what it means to grow old. Every day, 10,000 people turn 65 in the United States, with baby boomers making up over a quarter of the U.S. population, according to a 2010…
Holding several part-time jobs, living with friends, making do without employer-provided benefits and never expecting to achieve your parents’ standard of living: it’s all become routine for today’s youngest entrants into the job market. But in a semi-recessionary, post-union, without-a-safety-net era, workers twice their age are also getting used to the getting-by lifestyle. Unemployment is…
Ben Bochner, 56 Austin, Texas Job: Singer-songwriter Previously: Video production and songwriting on the side This fall, Bochner left steady work as a videographer in his longtime home of Eugene, Ore., to pursue music in Austin. Why Change?: “I fell in love with Texas nights. I felt I understood why cowboys wrote songs. There’s a…
Esther Merves, 54 Springfield, Va. Job: Adjunct professor at George Washington University and standardized medical patient, both part time Previously: Full-time staff research scientist at GWU A doctor of sociology, Merves was laid off from her full-time position several years ago. After fruitlessly searching for another fulfilling full-time job, she is “still in the process…
Gail Pierris, 62 New York City Job: Executive assistant to the business manager of DC9, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Previously: Executive assistant at the New-York Historical Society Pierris has degrees in museum education and art history, and has worked in everything from travel and publishing to finance. She enjoys the perks…
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