Helping the Neediest Among Us

Dear Colleagues:

The year was 1955. I’d been reading the newspaper daily to follow my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, when The New York Times Neediest Cases caught my eye. I read about people who seemed so desperate. So forgotten. So in need of the basics — food, clothing, a roof over their heads. For years, my parents had ingrained in me an appreciation for our blessings. It was against this backdrop that I turned to my fellow fifth graders and asked them to contribute to the Neediest Cases campaign. After a week, I dispatched with pride a check in the amount of $36.27. My class sent along a note, and behold, it was printed in the paper.

Who would have known that a few decades later, I would be the CEO of one of the seven charities that are beneficiaries of the Neediest Cases fund, now celebrating its centennial. According to the Times, the campaign was conceived after a chance encounter. On Christmas Day 1911, the paper’s publisher, Adolph Ochs, met a shabbily dressed man on the street and handed him a few dollars. The next year, he dispatched a reporter to start collecting stories about people in need. Over these 100 years, the campaign has raised $250 million.

The premise is simple. Provide readers with a window into a second New York, men and women who share our city but live so differently than most of us. In getting a glimpse into their reality, we gain a newfound appreciation for what we have and what we can do. These stories inspire us to both deepen our commitment to these individuals while also focusing on broader, communal approaches to alleviating poverty.

UJA-Federation and our network of agencies function on both levels: providing direct help and studying the larger picture to design and create systemic interventions, such as single stop centers, Partners in Caring, Connect to Care, and far more. These are programs and places where people on the precipice can access multiple services to help them navigate immediate crises and even turn their lives around.

The fifth grader who roused his classmates tries to do the same today. I still seek out others to evoke in them an appreciation for the blessings we share. Reading the Neediest Cases is both a reminder of our impact on individual lives — and how much we still have to do. I am grateful, too, for these courageous people who share their stories with us. In their honesty, they provide us with daily insights into a world we may otherwise never know.

Whether you are lighting a menorah tonight or anticipating Christmas, I hope you will take in the gratitude for what we have and the privilege of doing work that honors our values and does so much good for the neediest among us.

Shabbat shalom.

John