Center for Senior Services
Few contemporary issues are more critical than the aging of the population. Recognizing that senior citizens remain valued members of our community, B’nai B’rith has a leading role in providing senior housing and advocating for the issues that affect older adults.
B’nai B’rith International is a leader in the Jewish community’s approach to aging issues through the B’nai B’rith Center for Senior Services. With our first housing partnership with HUD launched in 1971, and with 35 buildings in 27 communities, we are the largest national Jewish sponsor of subsidized housing in the United States. But we don’t just build senior housing—CSS staff support training and programs for the residents, building staff and board members that make up our Housing Network.
Working with our members and supporters throughout the United States, our Senior Advocacy work advances B’nai B’rith’s agenda on a range of seniors’ issues—including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, funding for the aging services network and any Federal programs that affect the day-to-day lives of older adults living in the U.S.—to policy makers in Washington, D.C., and across the country.
“It should be noted that the B’nai B’rith Senior Housing Network is more than bricks and mortar and provides so much more than just basic shelter needs. Quality housing is key to aging with dignity. Each of our buildings provides personal interaction, services and life enhancing activities for every resident in the property.
Our goal is not simply to build an apartment building, but to create a sense of community and a welcoming environment for all of the residents, as well as to keep them living independently in their neighborhoods for as long as possible.”
– Janel Doughten, Associate Director, Center for Senior Services
Senior Advocacy: Our Issues. Our Perspective.
Housing – B’nai B’rith is a recognized leader in providing housing for low-income older adults since 1971. We are the largest national Jewish sponsor of subsidized housing for the elderly and we continue to look for innovative ways to build new housing and preserve existing units.
Health Care and Medicare – Healthy aging cannot begin at 65—it requires lifelong access to affordable health care, without which older adults are more likely to have multiple chronic (and expensive) health problems. B’nai B’rith actively supports responsible efforts to expand access to these services. B’nai B’rith supports the U.S. government’s Medicare program that currently covers those who are 65+ as well as millions of disabled adults. We support changes that are helpful to beneficiaries and for the program’s sustainability.
Social Security – B’nai B’rith International supports maintaining and strengthening the Social Security system as a social insurance program and believes it is important to help older Americans safeguard their retirement savings.
B’nai B’rith has long maintained that both Social Security and Medicare must be carefully examined in order to strengthen them as the social safety nets they have been since their inception. We have expanded upon our expertise in senior housing to become leading specialists in many aspects of critical senior services
Stay Informed
News & Updates
Featured Virtual Content
Watch
Helping Older Adults During Covid and Beyond: Service Coordinators
Listen
Podcast on Senior Housing and Advocacy with CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin and Center for Senior Services Director Mark Olshan
Learn
Protecting Older Adults From Fraud (with Deborah Royster of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
What We're Talking About
View past virtual content
- 2026 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2025 Summer – Seniority Report
- 2025 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2024 Summer – Seniority Report
- 2024 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2023 Summer – Seniority Report
- 2023 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2022 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2022 Fall – Seniority Report
- 2021 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2021 Spring – Seniority Report
- 2020 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2020 Spring – Seniority Report
- 2020 Fall – Seniority Report
- 2019 Spring – Seniority Report
- 2019 Fall – Seniority Report
- 2018 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2018 Summer – Seniority Report
- 2018 Spring – Seniority Report
- 2018 Fall – Seniority Report
- 2017 Winter – Seniority Report
- 2017 Summer – Seniority Report
- 2017 Spring – Seniority Report
- 2017 Fall – Seniority Report
Joint programming between CSS and B’nai B’rith Connect
The B’nai B’rith Center for Senior Services continues to team up with the young leaders of B’nai B’rith Connect to host events at the buildings in the CSS Housing portfolio.
B’nai B’rith Connect is the next generation of leaders for B’nai B’rith International. As budding philanthropists, Connect Leaders also roll up their sleeves and volunteer at the community level, delivering care and support as part of B’nai B’rith’s community action and humanitarian aid efforts. Although Connect is not currently located in all the areas where CSS buildings are located, this is a step in helping develop more Connect membership by holding volunteer events that attract young leaders and benefit the residents as well.
In January, CSS and Connect co-hosted a Sip and Paint program along with the staff and Board of Directors of the B’nai B’rith Apartments of Deerfield Beach, Florida I/II/III. More than 30 residents and young leaders painted their interpretation of a tree, under the guidance of staff member Angie Arroyo. The program started with a pizza party for residents and Connect members to get acquainted. In between waiting for the paint layers to dry, residents and Connect members mingled while sipping wine and eating hors d’oeuvres provided by the building.
The Sip and Paint event was such a success that in April the two groups co-hosted a combination Passover Seder and Unto Every Person a Name dinner program for the residents.
In May, Connect will host a food donation event at the Adelstein Family-Project H.O.P.E. B’nai B’rith House in the Bronx, New York. Donations will be accepted in advance and will be packed and distributed to residents at the building. This is a follow-up to the Mitzvah Makers event held in December 2024, when Connect volunteers and members of the building’s Resident Association packed emergency preparedness kits, personally delivered them to each unit and shared meaningful moments over pizza and a lively game of BINGO.
Many thanks to B’nai B’rith Connect leadership, building staff and Boards of Directors of the CSS Housing Network for their hard work putting all of these events together!
CSS Hosts Senator Alsobrooks Staffer at B’nai B’rith Homecrest House
B’nai B’rith welcomed Ricky Powell-Graves, Regional Coordinator for Central Maryland, from Senator Angela Alsobrooks’s (D-Md.) office to Homecrest House in Silver Spring, Maryland. Powell-Graves toured this Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-backed property and visited the gym, residents’ apartment units, the library, computer room and dining facility.
Before the tour, Powell-Graves spent time speaking with residents about their experiences at Homecrest House. Residents raved about the activities, staff and affordable rent.
Congressional visits like this are a valuable way to show elected representatives’ offices the importance of HUD senior housing. By touring the properties and speaking with residents, Members of Congress and their staffs get a firsthand look at the vital role affordable housing plays in a neighborhood.
In attendance from the B’nai B’rith Housing community were B’nai B’rith International Associate Director for the Center for Senior Services Janel Doughten; B’nai B’rith Legislative Director for Aging Policy Evan Carmen; Homecrest House Executive Director Carol Cohen Wolfe; and Homecrest House Property Manager Shenell Gordon. Also in attendance was American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC) Policy Consultant Alayna Waldrum.
“We appreciate Ricky taking the time to visit Homecrest House—a shining example of the role HUD senior housing plays in the community, and we are thankful for Senator Alsobrooks’s office showing support,” Carmen said.
B’nai B’rith International is a leader in the Jewish community’s approach to aging issues through the B’nai B’rith Center for Senior Services. With 35 buildings in 27 communities, we are the largest national Jewish sponsor of subsidized housing in the United States. But we don’t just build senior housing—CSS staff members support training and programs for the residents, building staff and board members that make up our Housing Network.
