Families fall into homelessness for many different reasons: loss of a job, huge medical bills, divorce, domestic violence, foreclosure. Any one disaster can mean the loss of a home. When that happens, the first step is to find temporary shelter and other support to keep the family together and stabilize the children. Then comes the…
Feeding the Heart & Soul
…Jewish tradition recognizes a meal as a time for intimacy, fellowship, and significant conversation… Because eating creates intimacy amongst people it creates opportunities for encounters of the intellect and the soul… Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko I was blessed to experience the gift of an intimate table as a child. Then as an adult, my husband…
A Special Mitzvah Project
13-year-old Gabe Vinnick is a student at Pine Lake Middle School and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Herzl-Ner Tamid in February. We wanted to learn more about Gabe’s special mitzvah project that benefited the Polack Food Bank. What was your project? I used money I was given for my Bar Mitzvah to purchase food at…
A Day in the Life Of…
…Emergency Services Case Manager Lauren Fabella 9:00 a.m. Checking messages is always first on my list when I get into the office. JFS is a referral given by the 211 Crisis Clinic program, and the housing line I monitor from that referral source is critical. People calling the housing line are looking for shelter vouchers and…
What Does the Word “No” Really Mean?
The right to self-determination is sacred in our culture; the law protects a person’s “right” to be homeless, to be mentally ill without treatment, or to live in a home that is dangerous and uninhabitable if that person refuses help. Because these legal and cultural protections parallel our continuing lack of adequate services, I worry…
A Babushka’s Wish for Her Family
I am from Russia. My husband and I were born in Ukraine. We finished the school and the university in the city of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. I became a teacher of mathematics. I worked mainly in high school. My husband was a naval officer. Therefore, he worked at the places near the water….
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