Eliezer Project makes progress

Organization expands to meet community needs

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Dec. 26, 2008 / 29 Kislev 5769

In the five weeks the Eliezer Project has been in operation, more than 50 families have sought assistance, a number that is expected to increase as more breadwinners are adversely affected by the ailing economy.

The group, which was founded by lay leaders from the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, works with people who are unemployed or suffer from other economic challenges, and assists them in finding new jobs and otherwise easing their financial burdens.

“We have gone down the road from conceiving the structure of the organization to actually implementing it,” said Sam Bergman, the project’s newly-named executive director. “We are trying to run an organization at the same time that there has been quite a demand for our services, even as we are organizing ourselves.”

The organization’s rapid growth and its recent merger with a similar initiative, Project LIFT, has resulted in a change of staffing. Bergman succeeds Jerry Mann, who was originally hired to work part-time.

“As a result of the merger, the plans for the organization expanded significantly,” Bergman told The Jewish Star. “We had a larger group and larger ambitions, and the decision had been made that this would require a full-time person.

“Mr. Mann had been retained on a part-time basis, and the organization concluded that that was not going to be adequate,” he continued. “We express our appreciation to him for the exceptional organizational structure he set up from the outset.”

With a permanent staff now in place, the Eliezer Project hopes to offer assistance to as many people as necessary. A meeting at Cong. Beth Sholom on Dec. 15 drew dozens of potential caseworkers who have expressed interest in volunteering their professional services to the organization’s clients.

“We had about 40 people who came, with different skills and disciplines such as financial management, debt modification, credit counseling and social services,” said David Pollack, who started the Eliezer Project in memory of his late father. “We’ve gained a strong group of people who will form the basis for the development of our caseworker model, and will help our executive director in evaluating clients to determine how we can best assist them.”

The volunteers will work with Jacob Weichholz, the casework coordinator, who will collaborate with Bergman to develop a training protocol for the caseworkers, giving them guidance on fundamental psychological issues that may come up when dealing with clients. The caseworkers will also serve as advocates on behalf of their clients for professional agencies that can provide additional assistance.

Though the support from the community has been positive, there is still a scarcity of jobs available for those who are seeking new employment opportunities.

“We have an urgent need to get in as many jobs as possible, from entry level to high power positions, of whatever profession,” said Ellen Aronovitz, the project’s employment director. “We have to partner with the community and we need their help to succeed.”

Aronovitz explained that having an inside contact is often the key to getting hired, and she urges community members to let the Eliezer Project know of any leads they can pursue. So far, she has successfully matched up one client with a new job, with several more opportunities in the works. She stressed that job searching is often a long process; between submitting resumes, multiple interviews and the communication with employers, it can take months to produce results.

“I interview each client about their skills and see what type of flexibility they have,” she said. “Sometimes they need to scale back and see how their skill set can be applied to other professions.”

In an effort to expand their influence and discover new opportunities for their clients, members of the Eliezer Project attended a conference at the Young Israel of Flatbush in Brooklyn on Dec. 16. There they met with representatives of several communal organizations including the National Council of Young Israel, the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel and the Metropolitan Council, among others, who all assembled with the intended goal of sharing their resources to reach out to broader segments of the population.

“The meeting’s purpose was to attempt some coordinating effort in the growing economic crisis,” said Bergman, who came as part of a group of representatives from the Eliezer Project, which included Rabbi Hershel Billet and other community leaders. “They want to tackle the issue in a unified fashion. People were very attentive to us because these other organizations are very large and provide for the larger populace, but we are providing services to our own indigenous Jewish population in need.”

Bergman explained that the meeting was helpful in terms of hearing about other resources that are available — through these organizations and separately — that the Eliezer Project had not tapped into before because they were unaware of them.

Another purpose of the conference was to educate community Rabbis as to how to channel their own membership to help as well, in terms of providing leads for jobs and helping to make contacts in various professional fields. The meeting was recorded to allow for Rabbis who were not present to hear what transpired, and to make the information more accessible to a wider audience.

In the next few months, the Eliezer project hopes to set up seminars to teach people how to look for jobs on their own and utilize other resources that may be available to them, not necessarily through the organization. They are also working on expanding their web site to include job listings and other useful tools. Though the site is now under construction, it will be up and running within the next few days.

As a privately funded organization, the Eliezer Project looks to community members to donate to the cause.

“We have received assistance from several shuls and individuals, but a fundraising committee is being established for the purpose of raising the necessary funds for the program,” Pollack said.

“We would appreciate any financial help,” Aronovitz added. “We haven’t really asked as this point... but we are looking for volunteers to help with fundraising efforts.”

To contact the Eliezer Project, to become a client or to volunteer your professional services, please call (516) 284-2942.