MONTREAL — Thousands of Montreal Jews are “in crisis” due to the economic downturn, and the hardest hit are those in the prime of their working lives and raising families, volunteers attending the launch of the 2009 Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) were told.
General chair Ian Karper and Sandy Martz, women’s division chair, help pack back-to-school and Rosh Hashanah packages for the needy at the launch of the 2009 Combined Jewish Appeal. [PBL photo]
“This is an extraordinary time, unlike any we have faced before,” said CJA general chair Ian Karper. “We are seeing a new group of poor among the lower middle class. These people are unaccustomed to seeking community assistance.”
At the same, the slump means fewer people are able to donate to the campaign, he said, urging everyone who can to give more.
More than 300 campaign volunteers who had gathered at the Gelber Centre for the kick-off were shown a video of Federation CJA agency clients testifying how they are having difficulty even buying food, due to job loss or illness.
One single mother of a child with special needs described how she lived in a cockroach-infested apartment, while another with five children, whose father suffers from multiple sclerosis, spoke of how she and her five children are struggling. A 55-year-old woman “who never asked for help before in her life” reluctantly now turns to charity to survive.
Barry Pascal, chair of the CJA entrepreneurs division, emphasized that “these are our neighbours” who are in trouble.
The most affecting testimonial of the evening was a live one from a woman identifying herself only as Merav. She related that she grew up in a very Orthodox family in Israel and came to Montreal after an arranged marriage.
Her husband soon became abusive and violent. “I found him scarier to live with than being in the army,” she said. Sobbing, she recalled how “he was hitting the two children and threatening me with a knife. He was terrorizing us.” The kids were placed under youth protection.
She said he withheld money from the family, which lived in tiny basement apartment. With little French or English and minimal education, Merav’s chances staking out on her own were slim.
“I was ashamed and had no one to talk to,” she said. Then she learned of Jewish Family Services (now Agence Ometz, a federation agency). It would change her life. She was able to leave her husband, from whom she has been divorced for almost two years, and start working.
She got vocational training and improved her language skills. Ometz paid for her children’s daycare, and provided food, clothing and assistance with rent and utilities.
The children, traumatized by the stress, were helped through Ometz’s play therapy program. The community helped them go to Jewish schools and camps.
For a while, Merav worked two jobs, at a daycare and then cleaning at night. Eventually, she would become a teaching assistant at a Jewish day school.
Although remarried and recently having given birth to another child, her problems are not over. Merav said she is still burdened with debts due to her ex-husband’s lack of financial support.
“It’s too expensive to fight (him) in court. I’m not entitled to legal aid, because I’m just above the line.”
Her second husband, an immigrant, is still waiting for his working papers.
Worst of all, Merav no longer has a job to go back to when her maternity leave ends in November, because of the closing of the department she worked in.
The family eats at Le Café, launched by the federation in March in response to growing poverty in the community. Hot kosher suppers, served by volunteers, are provided to people of all ages twice a week in the Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors cafeteria.
“I never thought I would be going to a soup kitchen, but it is like a restaurant. We eat with dignity. Everyone is so friendly; we are very comfortable there,” she said.
Although it was obviously difficult for her to talk about such personal affairs, Merav said: “When I was asked to speak, I immediately said yes. I do not know if I can ever repay the community, but I hope you understand my appreciation.”
Pascal also provided some statistics: Ometz has seen a 25 per cent increase in requests for help in finding employment, a 50 per cent increase in demand for financial assistance from immigrants, and a 40 per cent rise in demand for food baskets. Le Café is now serving 500 meals a week.
Seventeen thousand Montreal Jews are living below the poverty line, of whom 3,700 are children and 3,500 are elderly, including 1,000 Holocaust survivors. Some 2,900 students at Jewish day schools, nearly half the total enrolment, have their tuition subsidized.
The federation’s new executive director, Andres Spokoiny, presented himself as an example of someone who was helped by the community when he was young, enabling him to be where he is today.
Spokoiny, a native of Argentina, and his brother were raised by a mother on her own. Community assistance allowed him to go to a Jewish school and take a trip to Israel.
“I am here today because people I didn’t know, people who did not know me – people like you – helped me.
“Campaign is all about hearing those who cry…When (Jews) see suffering we revolt, we ask why. Campaign is about those who offer hope. It is the embodiment of Jewish responsibility, it is the idea of Jewish peoplehood made concrete,” said Spokoiny, who assumed the post in June, after working for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Paris, as director for northeast Europe.
The launch concluded with the packing of over 300 backpacks with basic school supplies and more than 250 Rosh Hashanah baskets that will be distributed to the needy in the community.
Karper noted that more than $700,000 in corporate funding is offsetting campaign costs.
CJA’s major telethon, Super Sunday, takes place Sept. 13. The campaign officially concludes Nov. 25.
No dollar goal was announced; last year’s campaign netted $32.45 million, of which $22.1 million was allocated in Montreal.
