Remeber that in charity there is no excess

By PAUL HAIST

article created on: 2009-02-01T00:00:00

In this time of historic economic uncertainty, there is at least one thing of which we can be certain: the vital necessity of reaching out to those less fortunate than us.

One may not feel very fortunate when one has seen one’s net worth, one’s investment portfolio or retirement savings evaporate almost overnight.

The urge to husband one’s resources carefully is understandable as we look across this land and see the equivalent of smoking pyres where once there were the storied towers of great banks and industries that have come tumbling down through their own folly or the far-reaching impact of the folly of others.

What began as the bursting of a housing bubble—more precisely, the mortgage crisis precipitated by unsound lending practices—became a lending crisis that spread like wildfire through dry forestland to the cornerstone institutions and industries of our economy and seared the life breath out of consumer and investor confidence.

Everyone all across this land is worried and most are cautious about opening their purse for more than what is necessary now for their own well-being.

Here in Oregon the personal toll of the crisis is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

As January disappeared into February the state’s unemployment rate hit a 20-year high at 9 percent; and there was and remains no indication that this upward trend is going to stop anytime soon.

The Portland Business Journal called Oregon’s foreclosure rate “nothing short of terrible” with foreclosure action under way against one in every 535 households.

Employment and shelter are not the only troubled sectors. It has come down to a question of hunger. “As unemployment and foreclosures climb, so does the number of people who are hungry,” says Rachel Bristol, the executive director and CEO of the Oregon Food Bank. “Hundreds of new families are walking in the doors of local food pantries—people who have never had to ask for help before.”

So, while we may be motivated in such times as these to keep what we have because, well, you just never know what is going to happen, there are thousands of people out there who already have nothing anymore and who need our help now.

Marian Fenimore runs the Jewish Family and Child Service in Portland where people in need turn for help at all times, but never more so than now.

“Requests for assistance are much greater than our resources,” said Fenimore. “Because the needs in the community are much greater, our needs are much greater as an agency.”

The JFCS is on the front line in the fight against human suffering. It is a constituent agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and benefits from the federation’s Annual Campaign, which is currently under way.

If, in these difficult economic times, we fail to support the federation’s Annual Campaign, agencies such as JFCS that rely on the federation will find that there are insufficient resources available to them at exactly the time that they need more. There will be people who are suffering for whom no help will be available.

As the frontline Jewish agency in this crisis, the challenge facing JFCS is readily apparent. But the crisis impacts every Jewish agency.

When, for example, a retired couple can’t sell their house in the current market, they can’t move into Rose Schnitzer Manor, which is a revenue source for the Robison Jewish Health Center, a federation constituent agency.

The Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Portland Jewish Academy—every Jewish agency—is vulnerable now.

It is more important than ever that the Annual Campaign succeed for all our Jewish agencies.

Laurie Rogoway is the federation’s director of financial resource development. She expressed cautious optimism about the federation’s current Annual Campaign, noting that, with some exceptions, individual gift levels are about the same as last year, although coming in at a slower rate.

In ordinary times, fund-raising campaigns routinely fluctuate from year to year. Over the past several years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has had a long string of campaigns that topped each preceding year’s gift total. Even in the worst of those ordinary times, they have never done worse than to match the preceding year’s gift total.

These are not ordinary times, and matching last year’s campaign simply won’t be enough. Ask Marian Fenimore.

“We provide home-care services to the elderly; we provide gift cards or vouchers for clothing and school supplies for children; we provide help for families who have lost their home to foreclosure, help in moving; we have people who are facing very difficult times who need emotional and mental health support or who need help finding a job, putting a resume together, people who are not familiar with emergency services,” she said.

Will we turn our backs on them? Will you turn your back on them?

None of us can be sure what the future holds for us. Those of us who still have our homes, our jobs and something in the bank can see the very frightening prospect that all of that can disappear. It’s happening all around us.

If you lost your job and your home and there was no place to turn for help, what would you do? What would you do if those who are there to help could not help?

We are here to help and it is our responsibility to make sure that those who are left with little more than despair do have a place to turn, that there is help and hope.

Over many years we have built institutions whose central purpose is to save people from despair, to give them hope and to help them to survive.

In ordinary times we may forget that what we have created in these institutions is a mechanism to help real people survive. Now is the time to remember that.

In the Jewish community, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and its Annual Campaign are the central repositories of hope.

We must not ignore the need. We must not turn our back on those who are suffering. Now is the time to be more generous than we ever have before. Now is the time to step forward for our shared values and, more to the point, for the lives and well-being of our neighbors.

Now is the time more than ever before to support the federation’s Annual Campaign.

You should do it now. Make that pledge or write that check and make it bigger than last year’s.