BUSINESS

Caught In The Crunch

Unemployed workers swamp Jewish agencies
with requests for food and grants.

Vocational Service, which
offers free job training and
counseling, is equipped to
accommodate everyone.
"The Jewish community is
fighting for one of the first
times because there is not
enough money to do all of
the things it wants to do,"
says JFS Executive Director
Alan Goodman. "With com-
peting demands for funds,
we will have to make do.
There is no easy solution.
We will have a couple of
tough years. Even as the
economy gets better, the im-
pact of the recession will be
there.
"We always thought these
problems didn't affect us,"

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

idney Erlich never
gave much thought
to unemployment.
He had a stable
career, working for
one company for 18 years. He
hadn't noticed any signs of
worry.
Mr. Erlich worked in
maintenance for the property
management company for the
Southfield apartment com-
plex, Franklin Park Towers.
Earning praise from supe-
riors and annual merit
raises, he saved incessantly
and invested in Individual
Retirement Accounts.
Eventually, he was pro-
moted to director of
maintenance, a job which
paid $39,000-a-year and was
sufficient means for the
modest lifestyle he and his
wife, Judith, shared.
Then in March 1990, the
company was sold and
started economizing, beginn-
ing with layoffs. Mr. Erlich,
then 53, was suddenly tossed
into the job market. And
after 11 months of sear-
ching, he still is out of work.
Mr. Erlich is a victim of
the 1990-91 recession, which
agency leaders and economic
analysts say has severely
wounded the Jewish com-
munity.
Michigan is in a budget
crunch, and its unemploy-
ment rate has jumped 48
percent over last year to 10.7
percent for March. A year
ago, unemployment in the
state was 7.2 percent.
Nationally, unemploy-
ment for March was listed at
6.8 percent.
And now, more than ever
before, Jewish agencies,
which are facing cutbacks
from public grants and pri-
vate foundations, are
swamped with requests for
assistance from the unem-
ployed.
Neither Jewish Family
Service, which provides
emergency grants and
counseling, nor Jewish

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34

FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1991

Mr. Goodman says. "We
may have had a false sense
of security in thinking there
always was a way to ra-
tionalize that these things
don't affect the average Jew-
ish family. They do."
Half of those requesting
food in the past few months
from Yad Ezra, the year-old
kosher food pantry, have
been unemployed.
Moreover, community
leaders, for the first time in
many years, are expressing
concern over a likely decline

Sidney Erlich would take a job
at half his old salary.

in contributions to the Allied
Jewish Campaign, the major
fund-raising arm of the
community.
"We will have a down
Campaign this year and the
reason is recession," says
Federation Executive Vice
President Robert Aronson.
"The other reason is percep-
tion. People feel poorer,
become more.frightened and
less optimistic about their
future."
Like the countless others
out-of-work, Sidney Erlich
doesn't know what he will do
next month. Hopefully, he
says, he will land a job.
After he lost his job, Mr;
Erlich received two months'

severance pay, followed by
six months of unemployment
compensation. During this
time, he sought job counsel-
ing from JVS, and he active-
ly searched for work through
a State of Michigan job bank.
His savings are quickly
dwindling. His bank ac-
count, once totaling $26,000,
has diminished to $1,000. He
has cashed in early on an
IRA and owes more than
$5,000 in penalties to the
federal government.
Rent for his Southfield
apartment next month is
$750. He knows he should
move to a less expensive
unit. But where? Leasing
agents run credit checks and
rarely rent to persons
without steady income.
His three children are
grown, yet they are not fi-
nancially equipped to help.
Judith Erlich works part-
time, bringing in only $200 a
month. For now, any job will
do. He will take a job for half
of what he was making as a
director of maintenance.
"I have never been in this
position — never," he says.
"I don't know what to do. It
is disheartening."
Mr. Erlich doesn't want to
ask for help. Yet the choice
may no longer be his to
make.

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ince November, the
number of unemployed
persons requesting
food from Yad Ezra has steadi-
ly increased. Of 472 families
asking for food in March,
more than half were un-
employed.
"When we first opened a
year ago, 95 percent of those
coming to us were Soviet
Americans; 5 percent were
Americans," says director
Jeannette Eizelman. "Now
it is 75 percent Soviet and 25
percent American. Why is it
up? People are out of work.
"These people are dev-
astated," Mrs. Eizelman
says. "They call on the
phone and say they don't
want to come here. They try
to put it of They don't know