On October 6, 2008 we shared the story of Max Wallack, a young man from the Boston area who had just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. It was Max’s mitzvah project which got our attention. Remembering his great-grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s and lived with Max and his family for a time, Max decided to collect puzzles and donate them to local nursing homes. It seems that after a little research Max learned that for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s doing puzzles can be very helpful – what a great way to honor his great-grandmother’s memory.

Fast forward to December 2009…much has happened to Max and Puzzles to Remember. As he had promised, Max, working on his own, filed for and received federal non-profit status for Puzzles to Remember (in a record 4 weeks!) and has since gone on to win several grants to help him with his work. He has now collected thousands of puzzles, expanded his beautiful web site which we recommend you visit (www.puzzlestoremember.org), is donating puzzles to several veteran’s homes, and just this week was notified that he has qualified as a Giraffe by our friends at the Giraffe Project in Washington State!

Despite our offer to help Max with some of the shipping expenses he incurs he refuses to accept any funding from the Good People Fund. As he has mentioned several times, "there are way too many hungry and sick people who need your help. I will get more grants to help me with my expenses."

We can’t help but wonder what Max will be doing next…

While this photo reminds most people of life on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in past generations, we know that even today, many elderly Jews still call that area "home." One of our favorite tzedakah opportunities comes to us twice each year from Project Ezra which offers social services to more than 400 frail elderly in the area. For so many of these lonely elders, often beset by physical and emotional problems, having sufficient nourishing food on the table, day after day is not always easy. Limited income frequently means that as the end of the month nears, there are fewer dollars to spend on food.

The solution is relatively easy. With the cooperation of the local store, each elder who qualifies receives a monthly allowance of $30 (or $360 yearly) to spend on food when their own funds have been depleted. The $2700 check we sent the market today will cover 15 people for the next six months. (We’ve just added two more people to the list) A pretty good arrangement, we think, and one we would love to expand if the resources were available.

We have written often about Dr. Neal Goldberg and his troupe of professionally-trained medical clowns, Lev Leytzan-Compassionate Clown Alley. This group of young adults has delivered their special clowning talents to many places here in the States, in Europe and in Israel, bringing smiles and a little bit of happiness to lonely, ill or disabled people wherever they travel.

This past October we shared the story of the group’s trip to Eastern Europe and the impact their visits had on many elderly and isolated Shoah survivors. They were so welcome, in fact, that a new invitation to return was on the table if they could get the funding to make it possible. At the time we offered to match up to $1000 of any support they could attract to make the trip possible, and before long Neal reported that he had successfully raised even more than our original $1000 challenge.

Well Рthe clowns departed last week and an email I received from the group this morning confirms that the trip is having the impact they hoped it would have on both the clowns who are traveling with Neal and on the people, both young and old, who are enjoying their antics. In addition to their performance at the local Caf̩ Europa (a social club for Survivors) and a nursing home (for survivors) the group:

…spent the morning at nursing home, an institution with adults with dementia and a senior facility. The boys worked hard – room visits, impromptu shows. The afternoon and evening has been spent working with institutionalized kids…, a shelter for abandoned and abused kids and children’s hospitals … what an incredible day!

We are so happy to have helped make this trip possible. Neal’s group has proven over and over the many benefits of medical clowning.

For 12 kids in Jerusalem, this Hanukkah may be the best ever.

For years, Karyn and Zehava, two friends in the Baka neighborhood have worked in the simplest and quietest way possible, taking on the responsibility of helping to feed and clothe several other families in their area. They lead a group of neighbors who provide monthly food packages for nine needy families, all of whom are vetted by a social worker and all living in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

We were asked if we could help with some Hanukkah gifts this year, and as in the past, we were excited about what we might make possible with Karyn and Zehava’s suggestions. Karyn wrote that they had thought long and hard about buying toys that would no doubt be tossed aside, broken or forgotten, in a short time. They came up with another idea that, after some thought on our part, we quickly agreed to support. So – this morning, there are, we hope, twelve kids sporting colorful safety helmets, riding shiny new bikes through their neighborhood, all made possible by the kindness of our donors and the generosity of the local bike store!

Through our work with Randi Cairns, the founder of Home Front Hearts which provides advocacy on behalf of, as well as awareness of, the needs of military families, we just learned about a young soldier (a 3rd generation military person–even Mom has served!) who was returned to the States from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Found to be suffering from an aggressive brain tumor (Randi tells us this is not so rare among more and more soldiers serving in that region) "Dave" has recently undergone surgery and radiation and is now in the midst of a difficult chemotherapy regimen which will hopefully put his cancer in remission.

What happens to Dave’s family while all of this is going on? He is being treated at a military hospital thousands of miles from home and his illness is not considered an injury so he is dealt with differently than those who have sustained injuries. In this soldier’s case, his Mom has left her home and her job to be at his side, and while she did receive some military benefits (as a "non-medical attendant") those have now ended. She is behind in her rent, her car payment and has nothing left in her savings.

Randi shared the following exchange with Dave’s Mom:

… I also have rent due and a car payment. If you have any funds, those are my needs. If you don’t have any means to help me, then I certainly understand. I know that God will somehow make sure our needs are provided for. After all, he sends people my way just like you! Just when I don’t think I can make it … it happens. No matter what Randi, I’ll never lose my faith and that is important. I’ve quickly learned to put things in their proper perspective. God, family and all the rest! :)"

The Good People Fund has stepped in and paid the overdue rent and next car payment. After all, isn’t it the least we can do on behalf of a soldier and his family?

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 were not met.

As with so many of the "good people" we work with, Bob felt that he just had to "do something". He could not just ignore what was happening around him. Yad Chessed was Bob’s response to this void and since that time the small organization has raised and distributed more than $3,000,000 to provide food, clothing, help with housing, medical needs, interest-free loans…the list is long and often, when such needs are unmet, leads to even more dire circumstances.

Yad Chessed works in the simplest way possible. Other than a recently added part-time social worker, there is no staff, no advertising, and minimal bureaucracy. As referrals come to them they are investigated and if assistance can be offered the needs are addressed quickly and efficiently.

In a conversation we recently shared with Yad Chessed’s board chair, Marc Fogel, we learned that the organization is also laboring with increased emergency needs presented by the current economic situation. When Marc mentioned that in addition to the "usual" demands, they were now dealing with two single parent families, both functioning fairly well until job loss and illnesses took their toll and forced the parent to lose their home(s) and one now finds refuge in his car every night. How could it be, we thought? Both parents were working and yet could not reverse the misfortune that had fallen upon them. We doubt that this is an unusual scenario today.

We have offered Yad Chessed funds to underwrite specific needs for each of these families and hope that by working with them we might actually stop the downward spiral each is experiencing.