Jewish Council for the Aging

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Videos are a powerful way to present the challenges, joys and possibilities of aging.  Those listed below were not created by JCA, though some of our volunteers and staff wish they had been.

To suggest other videos, please contact us.  Note, however, that JCA does not present videos with the goal of promoting particular commercial products or services. 

 

• Four minutes. That's all it takes to watch a video by the National Council on Aging called "One Away,"  in which three older adults tell what it's like to be old and vulnerable in America today. Thirteen million older Americans live one missed meal, one lost job or one medical bill from economic disaster.

 

• Apparently, no one ages like old Australians, at least in this lively Australian advertisement called "IronWorkz."  We share it to rejoice in its spunkiness rather than to promote eating red meat, its advertising goal. (Research shows that a eating a varied, balanced diet, with or without red meat, plus exercise and regular visits to the doctor are likely to promote health and wellness, though not necessarily to the extent shown here.)

 

• Stephen Jepson believes that adults should never leave the playground if they want to avoid falls, be healthy and be mentally sharp. Now in his early 70s, Steve skates, jumps, invents and has a grand time in this inspiring video. 

 

• Jack Rushton tried to live every moment to the fullest. Jack, who died in 2012, was a quadriplegic, a humorist, and inspirational speaker, and a person who decided that disability needn't be disabling. After watching Jack's video entitled   "It's Good To Be Alive", one YouTube visitor wrote, "I'd say 'May God bless you,' but evidently He has."

 

• Do good guys really finish last? Maybe not! Watch Age of Champions, a trailer for an award-winning documentary about the Senior Olympics.

 

• 100-year-old author and humorist Bel Kaufman shows us why “age is not a function of numbers but a function of attitude” in this Generation Inspiration video by Guideposts.

 

• Mary Maxwell, the founder of Home Instead Senior Care, has wowed audiences with her humorous insights about growing old. In this video, her wit and deadpan delivery add spark and spunk to her invocation at an awards dinner.

 

• At 80, singer Janey Cutler received a standing ovation during her tryout in Glasgow, Scotland for the Britain's Got Talent TV show. Watch her win hearts and votes in this "official TV video." 

 

• Just for fun, watch an older couple having fun in between appointments at the Mayo Clinic.  See the YouTube video entitled Mayo Clinic Atrium Piano.  

 

• Watch as music revives and enlivens a 94-year-old nursing home resident who has dementia.   Alive Inside is a heartwarming, rough-cut excerpt from a one-hour film.

 

• YouTube archives an interesting collection of videos called “7up,” each of which shows portraits of famous people from the age of seven to old age. As example, you’ll find one segment on Katherine Hepburn segment on and another on Charlie Chaplin.

 

• At the age of 109, Alice Herz Sommer is the oldest Holocaust survivor, and she's clearly acquired more than a century of wisdom. "Everything is a present" is not only the title of this video -- an interview with Anthony Robbins -- but also her life's philosophy.

 

• The Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center provides free and easy access to scores of articles and fact sheets by NIA -- the National Institute on Aging -- about the causes, symptoms, treatment and challenges of Alzheimer's Disease. It contains a library of videos, too -- HBO Documentaries produced in collaboration with NIA.

 

• Via a series of short videos, Tributes to Aging, highlights achievements later in life by Clara Barton, Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin and others.