RiverSpring Living, home of the iconic Hebrew Home at Riverdale, announced that Deirdre Lok has been named director and managing attorney of the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice. Malya Kurzweil Levin has been named assistant director and general counsel.
Joy Solomon, co-founder of the Weinberg Center and its director since 2004, will remain at the Hebrew Home as vice president of elder justice and spiritual engagement, and will continue leading a variety of projects for the organization.
The Weinberg Center is the nation’s first elder abuse shelter. It admits older adults from throughout New York City and Westchester County who are unsafe in their homes. At the Center, clients receive specialized, trauma-informed legal and social services specifically addressing the abuse they have experienced, alongside comprehensive care from Hebrew Home medical and clinical professionals. The Center aims to restore clients to physical, emotional, and financial health and the team works with each to discharge them safely back home.
Before assuming her new role, Lok was the assistant director of the Weinberg Center for 10 years and general counsel for 13 years. During her tenure, the Weinberg Center developed robust legal expertise, assisting clients in successfully addressing complex interlocking legal problems spanning Family, Housing, Criminal, and Supreme Court proceedings, in addition to transactional issues. Lok also developed deep partnerships within the court system, and she and the Weinberg legal team created innovative programs and products including the Statewide Elder Justice Resource Guide, established in partnership with the NYS Unified Court System’s Division of Policy and Planning. As an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School, Lok directs its HELP (Helping Elders through Litigation and Policy) Clinic, educating the next generation of attorneys on issues of elder justice.
Levin, who started as a legal intern with the Weinberg Center in 2011, was previously the team’s senior staff attorney. She has represented Weinberg Center clients in a wide variety of legal forums and has also worked to develop a body of written work around the shelter model, as well as various legal facets of elder justice. Recent publications include an issue brief co-authored with the RAND Corporation for the Milbank Memorial Fund, “An Elder Abuse Shelter Model for Integrated Health Systems and Beyond.”
Levin is also the coordinator of Westchester County’s Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team, a nationally recognized best practice in addressing complex cases of elder abuse.
“Deirdre (Lok) and Malya (Kurzweil) bring deep and broad experience protecting against and combatting elder abuse, along with a new vision and fresh ideas, and we’re excited to see how the Weinberg Center evolves under their leadership,” said Daniel Reingold, RiverSpring Living’s president and CEO. “We are profoundly grateful to Joy Solomon, a national leader in the field of elder justice, for her leadership, creativity, and vision in establishing and directing the Weinberg Center since its inception.”
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