From Our CEO
Neediest in the Time of Covid
December 4th, 2020

With public health officials warning of dire weeks ahead, we’re all feeling the weight of the pandemic.

While hard on all of us, it’s difficult fully to grasp how exponentially harder it's been for the huge number of New Yorkers who were economically vulnerable before the pandemic ever hit. Today, for many who’ve gotten sick or been laid off, basic needs are increasingly out of reach and homelessness is an ever-looming threat. For those who’ve lost loved ones to the virus, grief is often compounded by the loss of a paycheck — the difference between just getting by and falling off the cliff, financially and emotionally.      

Giving voice to these lives is The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, which both raises money for people struggling to make ends meet and uses its platform to tell their stories. Since 1911, the Neediest Cases Fund has raised more than $300 million, and UJA is honored to be one of the ten organizations receiving these indispensable funds, which we distribute to our nonprofit partners on the front lines.    

This year, unsurprisingly, The Times focused on lives upended by Covid-19.

We’re introduced to Mayya Gil, 91, a Holocaust survivor from Ukraine who lost her husband to the virus in April. After 68 years together, she had no way of saying goodbye as he lay dying in the hospital.

In the month after her husband’s death, the Marks JCH of Bensonhurst, a UJA partner, provided Mayya with $1,200 from the Neediest Cases Fund to pay for additional hours with her home health aide. When JCH found out that Mayya was avoiding food shopping at stores, but also didn’t want to buy groceries online because she dreaded the added expense, they gave her $200 for food. On top of that, Mayya’s case manager at JCH helped advocate with her insurer for additional hours for her aide’s services, as well as SNAP benefits for food.       

In another article, we meet Maria Quezada who also lost her husband to Covid. His paycheck as a mechanic had kept the family afloat; Maria made minimum wage as a crossing guard, not nearly enough to support two daughters and a baby granddaughter. 

She fell behind on her rent and worried she’d lose their home. UJA’s partner Commonpoint Queens (Central Queens Y) stepped in with $5,876 from the Neediest Cases Fund that paid Maria’s back rent, utility late fees, and helped out with baby supplies.

These are but a few of the thousands upon thousands of stories of immense need across our community during this unprecedented time. Most of us will never hear about, let alone meet, the people living all around us in quiet desperation — which is why it’s particularly important today for The Times to tell these stories. And while the Neediest Cases funds are not intended to be a long-term solution, they are a powerful stopgap to prevent people in crisis from falling deeper and deeper into debt. Nor can we underestimate the psychological benefit to the recipient of feeling the community’s warm embrace.       

We thank The Times for enabling UJA to provide this critical support and for telling these stories with dignity.

And we thank Mayya, Maria, and all those who courageously agree to publicly share their stories, giving a name and nuance to the complexity of poverty in the time of Covid.     

Shabbat shalom