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Kesher Israel Members Lend Medical
Help to Uninsured Patients
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
W hile retirement may mark
the end of many profes-
sional careers, for a
cadre of Kesher Israel Congregation
members, retirement is just the begin-
ning of a new chapter of work.

For the past two decades, a group
of doctors and dentists from the
West Chester synagogue have volun-
teered with Community Volunteers
in Medicine, a Chester County
nonprofit providing medical services
to uninsured and low-income patients.

For the Jewish volunteers, provid-
ing medical care at CVIM is a way
to continue practicing medicine while
giving back to the community.

“I did not want to walk away from
my 45-year career and not continue to
provide what I could to the needy, to
the community,” said Dr. Morrie Gold,
a gynecologist and CVIM volunteer.

“The word ‘tikkun olam’ is what we all
talk about, but it’s something that I can
do to better people’s lives.”
Gold became involved at CVIM
nearly 20 years ago after a partner in
his practice helped initiate the organi-
zation. Since then, about six or seven
other doctors and dentists who belong
to Kesher Israel have joined Gold. Most
learned from the opportunity by word
of mouth. Other volunteers provide
support services, such as interpret-
ing between Spanish and English and
driving patients to the clinic.

CVIM is operated almost entirely by
volunteers, save for a small core staff.

The volunteer medical staff provides
care in primary care, dentistry, endocri-
nology, gynecology and psychiatry,
among other areas. The organization
partners with nearby hospital systems
to refer patients to specialists if needed.

In 2022, 329 volunteers worked with
more than 4,200 patients at CVIM.

Most volunteers, like the Kesher Israel
congregants, are retired medical
professionals. “Chester County is one of the
wealthiest counties in the state and,
by public health standards, one of the
healthiest counties in the state,” CVIM
Vice President of Development Julie
Rusenko said. “So one of the reasons
this model that we have works here in
Chester County is because we have
both ends of the spectrum. We have
people with time and money to donate,
and we also have a population that
needs the services.”
To be eligible to be treated at CVIM,
patients must be uninsured and live
300% below the federal poverty level.

About 70% of CVIM’s clientele speak
Spanish as their first language, most of
them immigrants.

Many who are new to the country
don’t qualify for government assis-
tance, such as Medicaid. Others may
work jobs such as landscaping or
bartending, which oftentimes don’t
offer insurance to employees.

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CVIM volunteers, many of whom are retired doctors, work with patients who
are uninsured and live below the poverty line.

“They kind of fall through a gap in
our health care system,” Rusenko said.

While CVIM works with underserved
populations, the nature of the clinic
— devoid of insurance policies and
bureaucracies — means that doctors
get to practice medicine in the ideal-
ized way they often imagined at the
beginning of their careers.

“When you remove the money from
the equation, the payment and all that
stuff , it just removes a whole layer of
stressful interactions that you have,”
said Dr. Glenn Paskow, a CVIM volun-
teer from Kesher Israel who had a
40-year dental practice in Kennett
Square. “You can just do your best to
work and treat people the best.”
“It allows me to do what I’m good at,”
he added.

Paskow believes that the highest
level of mitzvot is helping an individual
help themselves. Through his volun-
teer work at CVIM for the past years,
he feels he’s been able to do that.

“If they’re in pain … it’s hard for
them to be self-suffi cient, to function,”
Paskow said of patients.

Kesher Israel is not the only faith-
based group with members who
volunteer at CVIM. But in the larger
community, the synagogue tries to
remain active in doing mitzvot, said Dr.

Anna Schetman, a pediatrician of 33
years who recently started volunteer-
ing at CVIM.

Kesher Israel’s Tikkun Olam
Committee helps organize opportuni-
ties to cook meals for those living in
shelters and deliver challah, electric
candles and grape juice to Jewish
patients at Chester County Hospital on
Shabbat, among other opportunities.

Spending a day or so a week volun-
teering at CVIM is just another way for
Kesher Israel congregants to complete
a mitzvah.

“Volunteerism is a natural extension
of Judaism in general,” Schetman said.

“Many of us who become physicians
are interested in helping the commu-
nity, giving back to the community,
so I think that and that’s a big part of
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srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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