surance policies, and some, like
Ms. Gold and Mr. Grinblat, go
on to get licensed to sell secu-
rities, mortgages and annuities.
The company's cadre of sales
leaders go out and show the
PFS plan on money manage-
ment, and in the meantime, try
to sell them term life insurance.
Successful sales representa-
tives bring others into the fold,
becoming their "upline" and
taking a percentage of their
commissions. Those "down-
lines," in turn, become the "up-
lines" for their own recruits.
The only investment trainees
make initially is $225 for a
state license, and that's reim-
bursed. Voila. They are in busi-
ness for themselves. Depending
on their skill, they can become
franchisees, opening their own
offices under the auspices of the
national organization.
"This company is wider than
just a job; it's a way of life. You
can't separate the way you live
from this business," Mr. Grin-
blat explains. "This is a good
place where we can apply what-
ever we brought here. By de-
sign, we knew in [the former
Soviet Union] that we couldn't
grow."
Ms. Gold and Mr. Grinblat,
along with his son Vitaly, have,
naturally, recruited in the
Russian community. While
they have found some success,
language can be a barrier.
Some of them stuck it out; oth-
ers are known as "inactive
agents."
"We believe that we're doing
a great job for the Russian com-
munity," Ms. Gold says. "[PFS]
teaches us how to make mon-
ey. Russian Jews are very
much hard workers. We help
those people put their money
to work for them."
With the assistance of Jew-
ish Vocational Service, Ms.
Gold landed her first job at
Maccabee Life Insurance Co. A
Russian woman in the compa-
ny told her about PFS four
years ago, and today Ms. Gold
is a senior regional leader on
the way to becoming a region-
al vice president, which would
entitle her to open a franchise
and hire her own staff.
Unlike Ms. Gold, Mr. Grin-
blat continues to work full time
as a computer analyst, putting
in 10 hours a week toward his
PFS business. He doesn't know
when he'll join PFS full time,
but it could be as early as a
year.
"Everyone can find some-
thing for himself in this busi-
ness. We can all have different
dreams," he says. ❑
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-
hile a recent Supreme
Court decision has na-
tional Jewish figures
up in arms, local lead-
ers have adopted a hang-tight
attitude, hoping Lansing legis-
lators will create new law to pro-
tect religious freedom.
Their reaction to last week's
Supreme Court invalidation of
Congress' Religious Freedom
Restoration Act (RFRA) is in-
dicative of how the view of reli-
gious protection has shifted as
a result — from national legis-
lation to potential future state
law. The act, created in part in
response to a Native American's
right to smoke peyote in a reli-
gious ritual, made governmen-
tal entities place higher scrutiny
on law that may infringe upon
the right to observe religion.
In reversing the act, the
Court said Congress had gone
too far in its lawmaking to in-
terpret the Constitution to that
level. The action also forces
W
states to consider formulating
their own legislation to set the
level of scrutiny. It is in this
measure that Rabbi Marla Feld-
man of the Jewish Community
Council finds some measure of
comfort.
"That ruling has nothing to
do with what the states can do,"
she said.
Rabbi Feldman said the JC-
Council has been watching the
formulation of legislation at the
state level which will be intro-
duced to committee this week.
She pointed out that the basic
rights under the Constitution
remain.
"There is still the Constitu-
tion and those freedoms have
not changed," she said. "The
rights are still there, but now
the courts will have to weigh
each case individually."
David Gad-Harf, executive di-
rector of the JCCouncil, said the
introduction of new legislation
will once again assemble a coali-
tion of different religious groups
who pursue the same goal of
protecting religious freedoms.
"We had a chance to work
with fundamentalist Christians
to humanists and the whole
gamut in between," he said.
"And we will work with them
again, I am sure."
But while some were opti-
mistic of the potential of the
state legislation, others were
pessimistic about any measure
to protect religious freedom.
Rabbi Herschel Finman, a lo-
cal Orthodox rabbi who counsels
Jewish inmates, said even the
far-reaching RFRA had no bear-
ing on conditions in prison. De-
spite the law, prisoners were
denied the right to light a meno-
rah or hold a Passover seder this
year, he said.
"Nothing will change," he
said. "It is not going to get any
worse because it can't get any
worse." D
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After the Supreme Court invalidates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,
local leaders wait to see what will happen at the state level.
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