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Research proves the lifelong importance of exercising body and mind. For adults 60+, the JCC offers resources to keep you engaged. Drawing on decades of experience, the JCC offers activities that address the social, cultural and physical needs of these members. Hope to see you at the J!
All programming takes place at the Uptown JCC unless otherwise stated.
For information, email aclanton@nojcc.org or call 504-897-0143
Download a copy of our monthly newsletter for August 2026.
September Book Club: Boy from North Country by Sam Evan Sussman
Reviewer: Chloe Evans, English Studies Major & Office Manager, Department of English, Loyola University
In Sam Sussman's semi-autobiographical debut novel, Boy from the North Country, 26-year-old Evan returns to his upstate New York home to care for his dying mother, June. As they navigate the final months of her life, Evan uncovers family secrets and explores long-held rumors that his biological father is the legendary musician Bob Dylan.
Tuesday, September 15| 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Free and open to the community
RSVP by Monday, September 14th
October Book Club: Sunflower House: A novel by Adriana Allegri
Reviewer: Diane Zimmerman, Jewish Community Leader & Educator
The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri is a historical fiction novel exploring the Nazi Lebensborn program—a state-run eugenics project designed to breed racially pure "Aryan" children. It follows Allina Strauss, a half-Jewish woman who conceals her heritage to survive and ultimately risks everything to save innocent children from Nazi control 
Tuesday, October 20 | 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Free and open to the community
RSVP by Monday, October 19th
November Book Club: Returning: a search for home across three Centuries by Nicholas Lemann
Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries is a searing family memoir by journalist and historian Nicholas Lemann. It traces five generations of his German-Jewish family as they transition from humble beginnings to wealthy, assimilated plantation owners in the American South, ultimately exploring themes of belonging, race, and religious identity.
Tuesday, November 17 | 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Free and open to the community
RSVP by Monday, November 16th
December Book Club: Run, Darling by Karen Essex
Reviewer: Kathy Rush, Cultural Anthropologist
A historical fiction following the Gabor sisters’ escape from Nazi Europe to America, where they transform from Jewish refugees into glamorous Hollywood icons.
Tuesday, December 15| 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Free and open to the community
RSVP by Monday, December 14th
Call (504) 897-0143 with any questions. All programs take place at the Uptown JCC.
BETTER BALANCE
Balance exercises, along with certain strength exercises, can help prevent falls by improving one's ability to control and maintain body position, whether one is moving or still. Join us for this invigorating, low-impact class.
Wednesdays | 10:45 - 11:30 am
No charge members | $2 non-members
DANCE FOR PARKINSON'S
This FUN, free creative movement classes are specially designed for people living with Parkinson’s. Caregivers and supporting family and friends are welcome, as are individuals with other movement or neurological challenges. Participants report benefits such as improved mood, balance, flexibility, and strength. No experience necessary.
Please join us and dance to LIVE MUSIC by accompanist Jeffrey Pounds!
Sponsored by the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust, classes are modeled after the Dance for PD® program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, whose network of affiliates now spans over 300 communities in 25 countries around the world!
Wednesdays | 10:30 - 11:45 am
Pre-register onsite during class times, or in advance here. Visit NOBA for more information.
CHAIR YOGA & GUIDED MEDITATION
This class is geared towards seniors and will take place on chairs. It begins with soft stretching and yoga, then moves into guided meditation. Led by Kelly Bond in the Mind/Body Studio.
Fridays | 11:00 am - 11:45 pm
No charge members | $2 non-members
SENIOR CHAIR EXERCISE
Designed for seniors at all levels and abilities, this class involves stretching and strength training. Either exercise from a chair or standing, according to your comfort level. Wear comfortable clothes and closed-toe shoes. Check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.
Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays | 10:45 - 11:45 am
Join us for mah jongg, Rummikub or bridge. Challenge your brain, meet new people and spend the afternoon with friends. Bring your lunch; dessert and coffee will be provided.
JCC - Uptown
Tuesdays | 12:00 - 3:00 pm
Free and open to the community
Call (504) 897-0143 with any questions.
High Holiday Luncheon
Celebrate the High Holy Days with your friends at the J and savor all the traditional foods including matzah ball soup, brisket, tzimmis and honey cake. Natalie Cohen, our Director of Jewish Life, will lead a discussion on the meaning of these holidays.
Thursday, September 10 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
$3 members | $5 non-members
RSVP by Monday, September 7
Sukkot Party
Join us for a festive celebration of Sukkot, a week-long Jewish festival where families build a temporary hut called a sukkah and eat meals in it to commemorate the Israelites' 40 years in the desert. We will enjoy a delicious harvest feast and celebrate the traditions of the holiday.
Thursday, September 24 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
$3 members | $5 non-members
RSVP by Monday, September 21
Lunch & Learn with the Rabbi - October
Join us for our monthly Lunch & Learn as we discuss interesting topics with a local Jewish leader. This month, Rabbi Silverman from Touro Synagogue will be joining us after we have a light lunch.
Thursday, October 1 | 12:00 - 1:30 pm
$3 members | $5 non-members
RSVP by Monday, September 28
Morris Bart Sr., Lecture Series: Dr. Joel Dinerstein
The Benefits of a Diasporic Identity for Jewish-Americans
We are living through a moment of disruption and discord in Jewish identity. There is a deepening political and cultural chasm between the perspectives of Israeli and American Jews, with some writers arguing for the renewal of diasporic identity.Dr. Joel Dinnerstein grew up with a diasporic identity in Flatbush, Brooklyn, one of the most urban Jewish neighborhoods in America in the mid-20th Century – Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond both went to my high school. Combining autobiography and scholarship, I will make a case for a diasporic identity for American Jews, as illuminated by reading excerpts from his new family memoir, The Last of the Ellis Island Jews.
Dr. Joel Dinnerstein is the Sizeler Family Professor of Judaic Studies at Tulane University, and two of his courses have these tensions as key thematics: (1) Jewish-American Literature, based on the diasporic identity of immigrant Jews; (2) Jews and Race, which focuses on how and why Jews were the racial Other of Europe long before the Holocaust.
Monday, August 10 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Free for members | $10 non-members
RSVP by Thursday, August 6
Morris Bart Sr., Lecture Series: The Work of the Jesuit Social Research Institute
For nearly twenty years, the Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) at Loyola University New Orleans has worked to advance justice in the South through research, education, advocacy, and service rooted in the Jesuit tradition. Guided by the belief that faith calls us to confront injustice and uphold the dignity of every person, JSRI has partnered with communities, policymakers, faith leaders, and students to address some of Louisiana's most pressing challenges.
This lecture will explore the institute's history, from its founding to its current work in prison education, immigration, and public policy. Participants will learn how JSRI combines scholarship with action to promote meaningful change and will hear stories of lives and communities impacted by this work. The presentation will also look ahead to the institute's next chapter as it prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary and launches a renewed vision for building a more just South. Join Annie Phoenix, JSRI Executive Director, for a conversation about the role that faith, research, and civic engagement can play in creating a future where justice, opportunity, and human dignity are shared by all. A kosher, catered lunch will be served.
Monday, September 14 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Free for members | $10 non-members
RSVP by Thursday, September 10
Morris Bart Sr., Lecture Series: Jews, Coffee, and The Promised Land
Our Talmudic sages cautioned Jews against going abroad alone at night. You could fall into a ditch, invite scandalous gossip, be robbed or murdered. Be especially afraid on Tuesday nights and Erev Shabbat. The demoness “Agrat, daughter of Mahalat, she and 180,000 angels of destruction go out at these times.” (Pesachim 112b:15). Then, in the 15th century, a nadol gamur, a new thing which hadn’t existed before, was introduced to the world by way of Ethiopia and Yemen: coffee. Coffee stimulates wakefulness. “Coffee makes the night a day, and thoughts sharper than a blade”. Coffee and the coffeehouse culture it seeded liberated the night for purposes pious to profane, political to philosophical. Coffee was a great disrupter. Wherever coffee houses insinuated themselves, trouble brewed. How has Judaism responded to coffee and coffee houses? What influence have they had on Jewish religious practices and secular culture over the succeeding five centuries? Retired New Orleans tour guide, David Feldman, will talk about these questions - over coffee.
Monday, October 12 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Free for members | $10 non-members
RSVP by Thursday, October 8
Train Dreams
Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier ( Joel Edgerton), whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America.
Thursday, August 27 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
No charge for members and non-members
RSVP by August 25
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Writer Lloyd Vogel forges a friendship with famed children's television host Fred Rogers and learns to make peace with his painful past. Starring Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, and Susan Kelechi Watson. Bring your lunch; movie snacks and coffee will be provided.
Thursday, September 17 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
No charge for members and non-members
RSVP by September 15
NOMA: Sèvres Magnifique: French Porcelain from the Collection of Thomas B. Lemann
France’s royal porcelain factory at Sèvres, on the outskirts of Paris, has for nearly 300 years produced both decorative and useful ceramic objects of exemplary craft. Creating vases, tea sets, plates, and bowls that signified wealth, power and opulence to the eighteenth-century French court at Versailles, Sèvres factory artists worked alongside chemists and the best sculptors of the Rococo era to produce fine porcelain with luscious glazes in a range of colors. This exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art celebrates the bequest of a superb group of Sèvres porcelain from New Orleans collector Thomas B. Lemann.
Wednesday, August 19 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Free admission for Louisiana residents courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
RSVP by Monday, August 17.
Ogden Museum: The Dream is the Truth
The Dream is the Truth showcases a unique survey of artists whose practices fall within and across the categories of Vernacular Art, which broadly includes self-taught and Visionary Art, all drawn from Ogden Museum Collection. The exhibition features paintings, drawings and bricolage sculptures created within a grassroots Southern tradition of artmaking beyond academic or conventional art institutions. These artists deeply engage recurring themes of spirituality, memory, sense of place and community, often transforming found or repurposed materials through strikingly original expression and a strong sense of artistic purpose.
Thursday, September 3 | 1:15 - 2:30 pm
Admission to the museum is free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays, courtesy of The Helis Foundation Art for All program.
RSVP by Monday, August 31
NOMA: Tour of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Where art meets nature - experience 100 works of art set in a unique Louisiana landscape. Join your friends for lunch at Cafe NOMA and then a docent-led tour through the sculpture garden.
Thursday, October 8 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Free admission for Louisiana residents courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
RSVP by Monday, October 5
Special thank you to our peer facilitators: Dov Glazer, Jillian Richman, and Carol Tully
Call 504-897-0143 if you have questions. All groups take place Uptown.
Current Events Group (RESUMES IN AUGUST)
Meet others to discuss current news and events. No particular viewpoint is required, just an interest in what's going on in the world. Bring an open mind. This group will meet on the second Tuesday of each month.
Tuesdays
1:00 - 2:00 pm
Free and open to the community
Men's Group
The JCC Men's Group is a monthly discussion group for retired gentlemen to create community and conversations. Meeting on the first Friday of each month, this group provides an opportunity for men to come together to connect, reminisce, and explore a range of topics with their peers.
Fridays
12:45 - 2:00 pm
Free and open to the community
Knit One, Crochet Too
Come and knit and crochet along with us. Beginners are welcome; we will get you started. Already an expert? Share your expertise with the group. Bring your works in progress and some show-and-tell items. Other handicrafts are also welcome.
Every Monday
10:00 - 11:00 am
Free and open to the community
RSVP with this form
Stressed? If you're feeling it, chances are your child is feeling it too. You know the signs; when your mind starts racing and your heartbeat starts racing, your tendency is to get louder and faster. But what you and your body and your child need is for things to slow down and start making sense.
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Members can now access Online Member Services on mobile devices by downloading the New Orleans JCC app in the App Store or Google Play.
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