Chesed
By JFS Jewish Community Liaison and Volunteer, Lisa Soicher
With Thanksgiving behind us and the winter holidays fast approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about gratitude and loving-kindness (in Hebrew, defined as chesed). My earliest, most memorable experience with chesed occurred when I was 8 years old and on a family trip to the Chicago Zoo with my five siblings. We encountered a distinguished-looking elderly gentleman in a soiled three-piece suit and bow tie resting on a park bench. His hair was quite disheveled, but with his tattered briefcase on the ground beside him, it was obvious he cared about keeping up appearances. To preserve his dignity and avoid potentially embarrassing him, my mom gave my sister and me a $10 bill and instructed us to wait near the bench for a bit.
We were told once he got up to walk away, we were to approach him, show him the money we found under the bench, and say it obviously must have fallen from his pocket. My mother’s generosity and compassion were overshadowed only by her sensitivity to protecting his dignity. Chesed is that intersection where empathy and action meet.
Fast-forward 50 years, after volunteering with Jewish Family Service for more than a decade, I now find myself working in the chesed business as JFS’s Jewish Community Liaison. Before joining JFS a year ago, I, like many others, had no idea about the economic vulnerability of Jews in our community. Yet the 2018-19 Greater Denver Jewish Community Study commissioned by the Rose Community Foundation revealed 18% of the approximately 91,000 Jews living in the Denver Metro area reported having difficulty making ends meet or were unable to do so. 13% skipped rent, mortgage, or utility payments, and nearly 80% reported experiencing mental health issues (anxiety, stress, depression, or other serious mental health issues). Given the Study was conducted before the pandemic, it is safe to assume these statistics underestimate the magnitude of the problem. What is even more troubling, only 6% of these people described as economically vulnerable sought help from a Jewish agency or synagogue. Part of my job is to disseminate the key takeaways of the Study to the Jewish community in hopes of shedding more light on this growing issue and the stigma Jews feel about asking for help while also spreading the word about the more than 30 programs and services JFS offers to tackle some of the struggles. In short, JFS is here to serve the entire community, including Jews.
With temperatures dropping and inflation rising, I find myself often thinking about the risk and uncertainty many in our community face. Housing insecurity, inadequate access to food, mental health issues, and the inability to navigate the job market are among the many challenges that JFS helps to address. Without the support of our volunteers, JFS simply could not run many of our programs as optimally (if at all) and extend our reach as far as we do. Only when the JFS professional team partners with its dedicated volunteers can we truly manifest chesed to its greatest potential.
May we continue to do this good work together.