News Article

Let’s Use this Time to Strengthen, Not Weaken, Bonds Between Generations

A scroll through your Twitter feed or scan of the news headlines reveals a disturbing trend: ageism during the coronavirus quarantine.

Take Italy, for instance, where older adults with COVID-19 are among those the country is deciding not to save. That’s according to a New York Times Op-Ed by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, who self-described as “a chronically-ill rabbi,” who offers spiritual care to elders coming to the end of life. “Almost no one in my personal or professional world,” Kukla explains, “would ‘earn’ care if the United States were to come to a scenario like Italy.”

The ageism around the coronavirus in the U.S. is just as disturbing, when a state official calls on grandparents “to die for the economy” and a tweet calls older Americans “generally expensive to maintain and not productive.” Read the full blog post by Donna Butts.