The Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA) was created as a multi-service, autonomous agency affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies (now UJA-Federation of New York) in June 1968. The agency's development began with a decision by the Federation's Committee on Communal Planning, which recognized that an escalating number of elderly New Yorkers required coordinated programs and services to meet their needs.
The goal was to attract lay and professional leadership with imagination and courage, and to mobilize the financial resources to address all unfilled needs of the Jewish aged in New York. In recent years, JASA has fulfilled the Jewish value of honoring the elderly, while serving older adults from many other communities.
Funding for JASA's creation in 1968 came from the Federation's Distribution Committee, and from significant gifts from Adele and Leonard Block, Evelyn and Louis A. Green, and the Kaufman Foundation. JASA established its headquarters in Manhattan, as well as eight community service offices in the boroughs, in its first year.
Today, JASA and its affiliates constitute one of the largest community-based, voluntary social service agencies serving the aged in the United States. Every year, JASA enriches the lives of more than 53,000 seniors in New York City through a wide range of effective programs and services.
