Twenty years have come and gone since Rick Goldstein took on the challenge of serving as executive director of Greenwood House — but his focus has never wavered.

"My very first goal was just to make sure that the quality of care continued and that we served the Jewish community in the way that it wanted to be served," Goldstein said during a recent interview at the Robert and Natalie Marcus Home for the Jewish Aged on the Greenwood House campus in Ewing.

"I feel the same as when I came here," he said. "Every day is a challenge to continue to provide that care."

On Sunday evening, Nov. 11, board members and friends of Greenwood House will honor Goldstein for his role in meeting that challenge. The program, A Celebration of Rick Goldstein: 20 Years of Service, will begin with a cocktail reception at 5 p.m. at Greenacres Country Club on Lawrenceville Road in Lawrenceville.

"Hopefully, we're celebrating 20 years of great service to the community," Goldstein said. "Certainly, I didn't do any of this by myself."

As he looks back over those years, he said, the highlight is the fact that Greenwood House has maintained the highest level of care. "We are one of the few nursing homes in New Jersey that has a waiting list, and it's all because of the quality of care," he said. "Our nursing home has been the skilled-nursing facility of choice for the community."

Just 33 when he took over the reins at Greenwood House in 1987, Goldstein brought to the task a firm grounding in the disciplines needed to do the job. A native of Cleveland, he had earned a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University and had become a certified public accountant along the way.

In addition, he had gained experience working at the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Cleveland and the Jewish Home in Atlanta, where he spent three years as assistant director. While there, he earned his license as a nursing home administrator.

Today, Goldstein lives in Yardley, Pa., with his wife, Sandy, a licensed practical nurse who works part-time at Greenwood House, and their 11-year-old son, David. The family belongs to Congregation Beth El of Bucks County in Yardley.

The celebration of Goldstein's 20th anniversary is coming at a time when Greenwood House is on the cusp of change. Its 132-bed Marcus Home for the Jewish Aged is adding six beds to its skilled nursing facility, and the 20-bed Abrams Residence assisted-living facility is expanding to accommodate up to nine more residents.

Even as that expansion goes forward, the Greenwood House board is seriously considering purchasing land for a new facility on the 80-acre West Windsor Township site of the proposed new Jewish Community Campus of Princeton Mercer Bucks, according to Goldstein.

"Our strategic planning committee is exploring the options and the feasibility," he said. He added that he expects a decision about the move to be made sometime within the next six months.

One of only two Jewish nursing homes remaining in New Jersey — the other is Daughters of Israel in West Orange — Greenwood House is changing in other ways, as well. The agency has just received Medicare and Medicaid certification for its new hospice program and, in conjunction with that program, Goldstein said, he has plans to grow the small but successful home-care program that Greenwood House has been running for the past eight years.

"Certainly, we are the only nonprofit Jewish hospice in Mercer County now," Goldstein said. "We can serve people at home or at Greenwood House or at other nursing homes." Although the hospice program is nonsectarian, he added, "Obviously, we can provide uniquely Jewish services."

As he looks back at this juncture, Goldstein said, he is proud of the fact that for 14 of the past 19 years, Greenwood House has won a rare "zero deficiencies" rating from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. And he is especially proud that Greenwood House has been able to maintain its mission of serving the Jewish elderly without regard to their ability to pay — a mission that leaves the agency with an operating deficit of one million dollars every year.

"I just see myself as a facilitator, taking the resources the community provides and helping the community put it together so we can do what we know is the right thing for the community," Goldstein said. "Up till now, we've been able to afford not cutting the care and not compromising our mission at all, and that would be my goal for as long as I'm here."

In addition to all the responsibilities he shoulders at Greenwood House, Goldstein has served for the past 15 years as first vice president of the Princeton-based New Jersey Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the state association for nonprofit nursing homes. In that role, he has been active in lobbying in Washington for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for long-term care. He also works with the Washington-based Association for Jewish Aging Services, the central coordinating agency for Jewish nursing homes in North America.

"It's really not a job — it's a way of life, running a Jewish home. That's the way I see it," Goldstein said. "I'm glad I've been here for 20 years. It's been a great journey."