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Friday September 5, 2008

Give more, not less, in a time of struggle

While America has endured its share of recessions, our country appears headed into the choppiest economic waters in recent memory.

We’re seeing the effects right here in the Bay Area Jewish community. The state budget impasse has left California agencies, both governmental and nongovernmental, scrambling for resources.

As our cover story points out, among the affected are essential Jewish social service agencies such as the Jewish Home of San Francisco, Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville, and three area Jewish family services organizations.

While the governor and state legislature bicker about tax hikes and spending cuts, our most vulnerable populations — the poor, the sick, the elderly — must make do with fewer vital services.

That is a disgrace.

“Who is responsible for our most vulnerable?” asks Anita Friedman, executive director of the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services. “Isn’t fighting for them still a Jewish priority?”

We want to say that Jews accept responsibility and that helping our most vulnerable is still a priority. But it’s hard to know if this is true. Meanwhile, Friedman and her colleagues at other agencies have had to make tough, cost-cutting decisions that directly impact the needy.

The call has gone out to donors to give more than ever to make up the shortfall.

But some jobs are just too big to be adequately addressed by charitable giving alone. That’s why on the state and national levels, society has erected the social safety nets we have counted on since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.

In the case of JFCS and the Jewish Home, Medi-Cal has long provided the financial backbone to keep these agencies standing tall. Because of the budget crisis, Medi-Cal has retrenched, imposing cuts to agencies such as Friedman’s. Factor in that creeping recession has caused the JFCS caseload to spike by 25 percent, and you have the agency helping more people with fewer dollars. And that’s just one agency.

The debate over taxes and the size of government is a legitimate one. At one extreme, we have the so-called Nanny State, not unlike the Scandinavian model of sky-high taxes and cradle-to-grave services. On the other is the model offered by groups such as the Club for Growth, in which government shrinks drastically.

We urge a compromise. Taxes are not evil. They are the price we pay to live in a society where bridges don’t fall and the cops come when you call. On the other hand, individual choice is an American ideal, including the choice to give or not give charitably.

But we are Jews. We are commanded to give tzedakah. We must help the needy among us as a righteous mitzvah.

So until the state gets its act together, please give more — not less — to our struggling agencies

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