Archives for 2009

It was twenty years ago when Bob Housman, a Boston-area resident, came to realize that many Jewish people in that city were in distress and no agency, private or public, could step in to provide them with significant help for their emergency needs. People were, indeed, falling through the cracks and serious short-term, immediate needs […]

By 7am this morning I had already opened four emails, two from programs in the US and two from Israel, each discussing situations that can best be described as tragic and incredibly sad. One involved needs for soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious issues that are not being met by government […]

Last May we shared the story of House to House, a small Israeli organization that provides for the needs of many elderly people in Jerusalem. In that diary entry we explained that Darla Oz, House to House’s founder, had visited a former hotel which now houses elderly survivors who rarely celebrate birthdays. We immediately committed […]

Last week we returned from a three day trip to the tiny town of McRoberts, Kentucky, located in what is commonly referred to as Appalachia. McRoberts has a population of about 800 people, drastically reduced from the thousands who once populated this former coal mining community which thrived until the 1950’s when coal production started […]

Randi Cairns is a military wife. Not the kind who lives on a military base amid other wives and families who share the common thread of a spouse who has been called to duty in Iraq or Afghanistan or some other far-off post. No–Randi and her husband and four children live in a suburban New […]