By Stewart Ain
JTA
The struggles of the newly poor come in all shapes and sizes: Jewish families turning to Jewish social service agencies for help paying electricity and mortgage bills. Isolated Jewish seniors on fixed incomes who, for the first time in their lives, are facing food insecurity and mental health issues exacerbated by social isolation.
In response to this, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City has spent the last 100 days seeking new and increased investments into its annual campaign, in order to earn national matching dollars to provide extra funding for local programs serving exactly these purposes: help paying utility bills, food security and mental health support.
Thanks to a $54 million Human Services Relief Fund coordinated by the Jewish Federations of North America (the umbrella organization for federations), any increased, new or dedicated money raised by Jewish federations from September through year end, up to $36 million total, is being supplemented by another 50% in funding contributed by seven Jewish philanthropic foundations: the Maimonides Fund, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, the Mandel Foundation, the Singer Family Foundation, Leslie and Abigail Wexner, and the Wilf Family Foundation.
“As the pandemic dragged on, our board grew increasingly concerned about the impact on the most vulnerable members of the Jewish community,” said Mark Charendoff, Maimonides Fund’s president. “We wanted to create an opportunity that would help local communities meet those needs.”
When the chance to leverage local generosity into national matching dollars came up, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City immediately took action, sharing the message in one-to-one conversations with donors and creating marketing campaigns like its November Giving Week effort.
Now, at year end, Federation has raised some $222,000 in new and additional funds, translating to a national match of $111,000—all new money coming from outside Kansas City to give extra funding to local programs like the Chesed Fund, KC Kosher Meals on Wheels and to purchase personal protective equipment for Village Shalom.
“I’m proud that our Federation staff and volunteer leadership have worked so diligently to ensure this substantial additional funding for our partners,” said Helene Lotman, Federation president and CEO. “I also want to thank our benefactors for their additional generosity during this challenging year.”
This extra cash infusion offers local human services programs—already supported strongly by Federation grant funding—a boost when it is most needed. The Chesed Fund—the only Jewish community assistance mechanism outside of one’s family or synagogue that provides for short term and longer term chronic financial need cases — has distributed more than $10,000 in support toward paying utility, rent and mortgage bills.
KC Kosher Meals on Wheels, which provides hot, nutritious meals to home-bound Jewish elderly and disabled individuals, while also providing regular visits and friendship to combat isolation, saw an immediate uptick in clients at the start of the pandemic, which continued throughout the year.
Both programs will receive additional funding from Federation in January, along with a handful of others—including one that provides career assistance and two that offer mental health services to Jewish college students.
Other communities—like Kansas City—are greatly benefitting from the Human Services Relief Fund, allowing their Federations and partner Jewish agencies to care for the most vulnerable.
In Toronto, Canada’s largest Jewish community, one out of eight Jews was struggling with poverty before the pandemic. After COVID-19 arrived, the number of vulnerable community members surged.
“Polling shows that at least 44% of Canadian households have suffered job loss or reduced working hours,” said Adam Minsky, president and CEO of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. “The Jewish community is no exception. Many previously stable, working and middle-class families are now vulnerable.”
In Washington, D.C., the local federation sent an additional $150,000 to the local Hebrew Free Loan Association, enabling the distribution of about 60 new loans and an increase in the maximum loan amount to $2,500 from $1,500.
In one example of an individual beneficiary of that, a 57-year-old Jewish Uber driver had stopped driving because of the coronavirus and simply ran out of money. “He had no income to pay his bills,” said Shuli Tropp, executive director of the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Greater Washington, which gave him a loan.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Jewish Family Service agency is using money it received from the Jewishfederation there to provide Jewish seniors with computers, data plans and training to help them learn to get on the internet and use video chats to interact with others.
In New York, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor named Dina had been a frequent visitor to the Jewish Community Center of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, before the pandemic. She used a walker for the two-block trek from her apartment to attend the Yiddish, singing and good-neighbors clubs. A widow, she had a home health aide from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
But when the pandemic started, her ability to move deteriorated drastically and she developed back problems. Her home health agency refused to increase the aide’s hours, so Jewish social service agencies stepped in.
“With funds from UJA-Federation of New York, we provided her son with emergency cash assistance so he could hire a home health aide around the clock,” said Alex Budnitsky, CEO of the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst. “That saved her because she fell down in the middle of the night in May and the aide called an ambulance that brought her to the hospital.”
The New York federation has been raising $2 million as part of the Human Services Relief Fund. That will net the federation another $1 million from the 50% matching program.
In all, 110 federations have participated in the fundraising drive. The amount each was asked to raise is proportionate to the size of the local Jewish population.
“The combination of the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 will have long-term consequences for our overwhelmed human service network,” said JFNA’s national campaign chairman, David Brown, who has led the funding effort. “Federations play a critical role in raising and providing the crucial resources needed to respond to these critical needs.”
This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America, which represents 146 local Jewish Federations and 300 network communities. This story was produced by JTA’s native content team, with additions/localization from the staff of Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.
