Maimonides famously explained that the degrees of tzedakah can be likened to the rungs of a ladder. On the highest rung, he placed the idea of helping others to help themselves.
For the Jewish United Fund (JUF), this concept is more than a metaphor; it is a moral imperative. Many of the agencies supported through our JUF dollars are engaged in helping people achieve self-sufficiency.
Since 1884, Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) has offered employment and training services to give individuals the tools to be self-sufficient. The agency still helps immigrants, as when it was founded, but has expanded its scope to encompass the needs of executives and middle managers, women returning to the workforce, entrepreneurs, young professionals, persons with disabilities, refugees, and the economically disadvantaged. Every year, JVS helps more than 10,000 people match their skills to professional and business opportunities through a network of Chicago area employers.
JVS has great experience in helping downsized breadwinners regain their self-reliance. One of its innovative programs, the Jewish Employment Network, uses congregations as a conduit to connect employers with unemployed community members. Another, the Duman Microenterprise Center and Loan Fund, offers no- and low-interest loans, education, and mentoring for those starting or expanding a small business.
For those who are disadvantaged, JVS becomes their advantage. JVS has a proud history of vocational training for people with severe disabilities and took part in the New Immigrant Study to determine the best routes to employability for new Americans. JVS gave laptops to youths with barriers to employment to encourage their earning GEDs and, through the CareerTracks program, offered specialized services to at-risk young adults, helping them achieve a career or educational direction.
Maintaining self-sufficiency also is a concern for seniors. The JUF-supported Council for Jewish Elderly is dedicated to providing the services seniors need to continue to live at home—from hot or frozen kosher meals for those who can no longer cook, to transportation for those who can no longer drive, to Adult Day Programs for older adults needing supervised, structured daily programming.
Similar programs to those offered by JVS and CJE also are offered by JUF-supported agencies in Israel. Additionally, JUF supports important services in Israel that foster self-sufficiency for new immigrants.
One Ethiopian immigrant, a woman named Atallah, expressed her gratitude for these programs. “I did not like taking money. I am young and strong—I can work, I can learn,” she said, adding, “I want my boys to be proud of their mother.”
Atallah found help though, a project run by one of JUF’s overseas partners, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), in partnership with the Israeli government. JDC seeks to break the cycle of poverty for nearly 750,000 chronically unemployed Israelis by helping to address the barriers that they face to employment, giving immigrants, people with disabilities, and disadvantaged young adults the skills required to find and keep decent jobs.
Bizu, another Ethiopian-Israeli mother, went from cleaning homes to working in a silicon-chip factory. Amita, who was removed from an abusive home as a child and raised in a residential school, has completed an accounting course. “I would never have known from where to begin,” says Amita. “Now I am getting the resources to become better than the environment in which I grew up.”
Still other success stories are being written every day by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), another JUF overseas partner. Pavel, a disabled widower from Ukraine, is now living in his own apartment in a sheltered-living facility funded by JAFI. Ehud, a 30-year-old son of Moroccan immigrants, received JAFI grants that allowed him to keep his business open and support his young family in the bomb-riddled town of Sderot, on the Gaza border. “Trying to run a business in Sderot is not easy,” says Ehud. “For seven years we’ve lived in the shadow of terror.”
Then there is Thomas, a Hungarian immigrant who was verbally or physically assaulted on a daily basis because he was Jewish. “I wanted to live my life in peace, without having to look behind me all the time,” he says. “When a Jewish Agency emissary explained my aliyah options, I came to Israel for the first time, and stayed.” JAFI also helped Thomas learn Hebrew. “I have the energy and strength to work hard,” says Thomas. “I will raise my family and build my future here.”
No one likes to need help. But when they do, they know they can count on JUF and the agencies we support to be there, helping them get back on the ladder, and giving them a leg up to the next rung.
Please make your generous, increased gifts to the JUF 2007 Annual Campaign and the Israel Emergency Campaign today. Call (312) 357-4805 or pledge online.
