Editor's Letter

Last Resort, First Lifeline

M

ost are now out of work or toiling with minimum
pay. As a result, they're uninsured or under-
insured. Some can't pay their rent or mortgage. All
are juggling one monthly bill against another to protect their
credit rating. Just meeting basic living costs is a challenge, let
alone Jewish costs like synagogue dues. The cost of a wedding,
a funeral, a bar mitzvah or an emergency is out of reach.
This scenario echoes through the
Detroit Jewish community.
So thank God for the lifelines
extended by our Hebrew Free Loan
Association (HFLA), not one of our
best-known communal agencies but
one of our most essential. The Jewish
community funds it. Its loan portfolio
is $1.12 million for 671 clients – the
highest number in the agency's 111-
year history. The portfolio has spiraled
458 percent in five years!
No one should be surprised by
that, given Michigan's depressed economy exacerbated by the
crisis state of the auto industry. The professional, service and
retail sectors of our economy alike are affected. Blue-collar
workers aren't the only ones on the HFLA doorstep. Laid-off
executives are there also, wanting loans to acquire new skills.
Against this backdrop, it's no wonder that education-related
loans to enhance landing a good job have climbed 75 percent
since 2004. New Americans seeking new homes and job train-
ing over the past 15 years also have tapped into HFLA loans.
Many loan recipients are caught in the throes of divorce,
apartment eviction, home foreclosure, illness, alcoholism,
spouse abuse, tax penalties, legal fees, car loans, leaking roofs,
infestation or broken furnaces. Family and friends are unable
or unwilling to help. It's disheartening to hear about a couple
living apart because the husband had to move out of state to
find work; a loan gave them a financial bridge until his wife
and kids could relocate.
HFLA visitors who arrive hun-
gry, without shelter, short on skills
or especially troubled may get a
loan, but they also are referred to
Yad Ezra, Jewish Family Service,
JVS or other service providers to
address underlying issues.
Given where most Jews live, I'm not surprised that most
clients come from West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills and
Southfield.

A 98.5 percent loan repayment rate protects HFLA expo-
sure. It also spurs a sense of fulfillment: HFLA evaluators like
the good will they foster and doing what is right to help keep
less-fortunate Jews whole. In deference to the partnership,
most borrowers who can't make a full monthly payment pay
something.
Interest-free loans derive from the Torah. Teachings corn-
mand that it's a higher calling to grant a loan than give a gift.
European Jewish immigrants brought to America the tradi-
tion that no matter how poor you may be, someone is always
poorer and you should help them however you can.
HFLA roots go back to 1895, when 10 Detroiters met in the
back room of Selig Koploy's shoe store on Hastings, the Jewish
enclave on Detroit's near east side. The men pledged $1,000
and then filed papers with the Wayne County clerk to create
a corporation to serve the Jewish community's needy and
distressed.
Today, Hebrew Free Loan also manages the Sarah and
Harold Gottlieb Jewish Educational Loan Service college loan
program ($2.1 million) as well as Federation's Neighborhood
Project home purchase and renovation loan program and its
Resettlement Service loan program (together $200,000).
Only their imaginations limit prospective HFLA clients.
Adoptions, in-vitro fertilization, medical school fees, school
tuition and parolees seeking a new life all have passed muster
for loans.

Overwhelming Need

"Based on my experience over eight years of interviewing:'
HFLA President Michael Banks told me,"the depth and inten-
sity of our client problems have never been greater."
Federation's Annual Campaign allots 36 percent of HFLiks
$287,000 operating budget. With Federation demands more
intense, Hebrew Free Loan formed a Friends group three
years ago. It has yielded $211,000 in gifts and $1.5 million in
capital pledges, both robust totals in tough economic times.

Teachings command that it's a higher
calling to grant a loan than give a gift.

Holiday Reflection
This High Holiday season, it's important for the Detroit Jewish
community to hear the story of Hebrew Free Loan — how it
helps vulnerable, forlorn or desperate Jews regain their dig-
nity. Hebrew Free Loan's volunteer board members dispense
badly needed money with a big dose of compassion after
verifying need based on interviews, documents and urgency.
I call these folks "angels of mercy" for the discreet, caring way
they go about rescuing, resettling or just helping.
Two qualified co-signers are required per loan. Decisions
may come down to what evaluators feel in their hearts. The
average loan is up to $4,000; payment terms stretch three to
four years. Shockingly, loans to meet simple living expenses
are up 50 percent over the past two years. Loans for medical
and dental care are up 40 percent from a year ago.

Hebrew Free Loan makes 300 new loans a year. The most
famous recipient is Spencer Partrich, who paid for law school
with a loan. The Farmington Hills attorney now is a benefac-
tor of Wayne State University in Detroit.
Detroit Jewry's Hebrew Free Loan has the largest percent-
age of loan capital committed of any Hebrew Free Loan
worldwide, says Executive Director Mary Keane, who works
from the HFLA office in the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building in Bloomfield Township.
Serving Hebrew Free Loan as a volunteer isn't easy. You
work long and hard — and are spent emotionally. But you
find humbling fruits of self-satisfaction through a lending
process that boosts the self-esteem of borrowers because it
allows them to pay the loan back; it's not charity.
Hebrew Free Loan is a loaner of last resort. Loan seekers
must have no other means of relief. Let us affirm together this
Rosh Hashanah that the precious loan pool never goes dry.

SAC POSEN

FOR

TENDER

271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212

❑

Call Executive Director Mary Keane at Hebrew Fee Loan:

(248) 723-8184.

SUNDAY 12-5
MONDAY-SATURDAY 10-6
THURSDAY EVENINGS 'TIL 9

10 793

September 21 • 2006

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