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Celebrating each life like no other.
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AUGUST 26, 2021
Kol Tzedek Aims to Alleviate
Medical Debt in Shmita Year
LO C AL
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
R E C O N S T RU C T I O N I S T
synagogue Kol Tzedek in West
Philadelphia is working on
abolishing the equivalent of $2.5
million in medical debt.
Congregant Adrian Shanker
is asking the temple’s 350
families to help raise $25,000.
According to Shanker, $25,000
can eliminate $2.5 million in
health care bills because hospital
systems sell unpayable debt at
discounted rates. In other words,
if patients can’t pay, hospitals
just try to get what they can.
Shanker says that every $100 is
equivalent to $10,000 in unpaid
health care costs.
Temple members chose a
tzedakah effort that was partic-
ularly appropriate because the
upcoming Jewish year, 5782, is
a Shmita year. According to the
Torah, Shmita is the seventh
year of the agricultural cycle.
During those 12 months, Jews
must take off from working
the land and need to forgive all
debts. Kol Tzedek congregants
believe that medical debts are
especially immoral.
“Health care is a human right,”
Shanker said. “We don’t believe
medical debt should exist.”
Kol Tzedek’s effort is
designed to help low-income
Philadelphians. The synagogue
is partnering with RIP Medical
Debt, a national charity that
works with hospitals.
Penn Medicine is a frequent
RIP partner, and doctors from
Kol Tzedek have contacted Penn
about participating in the effort.
Kol Tzedek has already
raised $20,000, according to
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari. It plans
on continuing the initiative
through the High Holidays and
into October. Also in the fall, it
will reach out to other hospital
systems, like Main Line Health
and the Children’s Hospital of
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Philadelphia. Fornari said the
ultimate goal is to
raise $40,000.
The temple is
asking for donations
as people sign up
for small-group
and virtual High
Holiday services.
Members can also
contribute during
Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur
services. On Aug. 25,
Fornari hosted a
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari Photo by Chris Baker Evans
virtual talk with
RIP co-founder Craig Antico. are hoping to inspire other
The topic was Jewish values as communities. The rabbi said
they’ve already reached out to
they relate to debt abolition.
“A core Jewish value is Reconstructionist synagogues in
economic justice and caring other cities.
The New Synagogue Project in
for those most vulnerable,”
Fornari said. And, the rabbi Washington, D.C., Congregation
added, there is no justice in the T’chiyah in Detroit and Kadima
American health care system, in Seattle are considering their
own drives.
only vulnerability.
Keeping yourself healthy, and
Shmita begins in September
perhaps even alive, is not just and lasts for a full year.
an economic decision, Fornari
“Shmita is often talked about
said. But it’s one that can cost as environmental issues and
thousands or even tens of land stewardship. That’s very
thousands of dollars. You don’t important,” Shanker said. “But
even get to hear the price up part of what happens in a Shmita
front. year is release from debt.”
For a low-income person,
“The vision of the Shmita year
the choice is often impossible: a is environmental and economic
necessary procedure or years of justice,” Fornari said.
The rabbi said the synagogue
debt, according to the rabbi.
is trying
to do its part by asking
“Even with insurance, the bill
for small
donations. But he
can be astronomical,” Fornari
said it
would welcome a bigger
said. “It’s completely predatory.”
contribution. Shanker, who leads an
Shanker’s math problem —
LGBTQ+ community center
a $100
donation equals $10,000
in Allentown, encounters the
medical billing process on in alleviated medical costs —
a regular basis. Often, it’s not can be extrapolated, too.
the bill that gets people; it’s
“If someone writes a check
the collection process from for $10,000, they are elimi-
not paying the bill, which nating $1 million in medical
compounds the debt and hurts debt,” Fornari said. “This is
your credit report, Shanker said. going to make a big difference
And with bad credit, it becomes in individual lives.” l
difficult to rent an apartment, or
to buy a house or car.
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; Fornari
and Shanker 215-832-0740
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Kedma Launches ‘Marking Milestones’ Program
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ISRAEL-BASED nonprofit
Kedma hopes that b’nai mitzvah
and wedding celebrations will
be more than just parties.
Orit Seif, Kedma’s director,
created “Marking Milestones,”
a customizable volunteer
experience and chesed oppor-
tunity for those celebrating
simchas, to help do just that.
Marking Milestones, which
launched last month, gives
Jewish families from across the
globe the opportunity to partner
with an Israeli organization of
their choosing and help design
a volunteer experience that is
personal to the family and will
have a lasting positive impact
on Israeli society.
“Our goal is to tailor the
volunteer experience to the
interest of the family, so that the
family feels that what they’re
doing is adding a lot of meaning
to their celebration,” Seif said.
Founded in 1996, Kedma
has a myriad of programs
geared toward students taking
a gap year in Israel or those
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outside of Israel looking to give
back to the country.
“Our mission is not just to
support Israeli society, but to
really to get to know Israeli society
and feel connected to it through
volunteerism, and to strengthen
the ties between diaspora and
Israeli Jewry,” Seif said.
Th e Kedma Volunteer and
Cohort Programs matched
hundreds of volunteers —
many of whom were gap-year
students from the United
States, Great Britain and France
— to Israeli organizations such
as Leket Israel and Girls Town
Jerusalem. Volunteers helped
organize food donations and
plan parties for immigrants
and disadvantaged youth.
Marking Milestones emerged
as an organic next step for
Kedma, as it provided a way for
more personal bonds to be made
between volunteers and Israeli
organizations. For Sharon Weinstein’s
family, Marking Milestones
gave them the opportunity
to connect more deeply with
Israeli society. Th ey made
aliyah from New Jersey to
Ma’ale Adumim fi ve years ago,
when their son Ayal was 8.
Th e program’s inaugural
participants decided to work
with Th e Michael Levin Base
for their son’s bar mitzvah
chesed project.
“He naturally connected to
the idea of lone soldiers who,
like him, immigrated to Israel
and had to fi gure out how to
acclimate to society here,”
Weinstein said.
The Weinstein family
attended Th e Base’s draft party,
where soldiers received essen-
tial supplies. Th e family helped
organize and distribute the
supplies, with their children
personalizing each package with
a thank-you note to the soldiers.
Th ey asked friends and family
attending the bar mitzvah to
bring supplies to customize and
distribute to soldiers.
Because it was a way of
integrating into Israeli society,
having a chesed project for the
bar mitzvah was important to
the family, Weinstein said.
“Having some help in
craft ing a chesed component
helped ensure that this integral
aspect didn’t get lost in the
shuffl e,” she said.
Though the Weinsteins
held their Marking Milestones
event in Israel, olim aren’t the
only ones who can volunteer
through Kedma.
Kedma’s remote programs
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JEWISHEXPONENT.COM helped pave the way for
Marking Milestones,
which is available remotely
and for those living in
Israel. When
COVID-19 began, Kedma expanded
its mission to help those
isolated by the pandemic,
initiating a host of remote
volunteering oppor-
tunities. It launched
Dial-A-Savta, encouraging
volunteers to connect over
Gap-year students volunteer at Leket
the phone or Zoom with Israel and learn about the importance of
seniors and those who were food rescue in Israel. Courtesy of Orit Seif
immunocompromised. It
also created Homework Helpers, aft er the transition to remote
a remote tutoring program for learning. According to Afriat,
gap-year students to assist young the program was a success.
students in the U.S.
“Th e volunteers are just
In December,
Kedma lovely, helpful, eager people
connected with the Torah who really have a heart in
Academy of Greater Philadelphia helping these kids,” Afriat said.
through Homework Helpers, a
Seif hopes that Marking
school to which Seif has personal Milestones will bolster Kedma’s
connections. A Philadelphia impact of helping those in need
resident for 12 years, Seif had and growing local relationships
some of her six children attend to Israel, particularly as the
the school.
pandemic continues to hinder
Seif reached out to Nicole international connections.
Afriat, the school’s coordinator
“We see Marking Milestones
of student needs, and they as a way to reignite that fi re,”
partnered volunteers in Israel Seif said. ●
with students at the Torah
Academy who were in danger srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
of falling through the cracks 215-832-0741
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AUGUST 26, 2021
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