Most charities tend to raise money for a particular cause or have volunteers help out at fundraising events. Chai Lifeline, though, is a bit different, say the nonprofit’s leaders.
“Other organizations are like the cheering squad behind you,” said Tzvi Haber, director of programming at Chai Lifeline’s Mid-Atlantic office in Baltimore. “Chai Lifeline is the organization in front of the family holding their hands, saying, ‘We will help you.’”
Chai Lifeline specializes in helping children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. The organization does whatever it can to ease families into this new and often scary situation, creating a network they can rely upon. Families are assisted from all backgrounds and branches of the Jewish community.
Chai Lifeline was founded in New York by Rabbi Simcha Scholar in 1987. There are 10 regional Chai Lifeline offices around the world, including Israel, Africa and the United Kingdom.
Baltimore is a part of the Mid-Atlantic region, covering Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. It is also the newest of the Chai Lifeline offices, largely thanks to Haber.
A Baltimore native, Haber first learned about Chai Lifeline seven years ago when while visiting Israel. A friend invited him to a Sukkot event, and from there Haber increased his participation with the organization. He returned home and realized how little of a presence Chai Lifeline had in Baltimore.
He organized activities to get the group into the public eye, pushed for more volunteers and families to join, and made Chai Lifeline Mid-Atlantic what it is today. Rivky Flamm, case manager for the Mid-Atlantic branch, was hired by the organization in 2016 when Chai Lifeline officially recognized the region.
Flamm describes the work conducted by the Mid-Atlantic chapter as all-encompassing. Not only do they provide a support network to families, but they also teach local communities how to work best with Jewish families in their times of crisis. This includes holding cultural-sensitivity training sessions at hospitals and for social workers; recruiting volunteer attorneys to help families with medical expenses; and even meeting with schools to teach faculties how to handle a situation in which a student gets diagnosed with a serious illness or a parent passes away.
“I love being able to work with the Jewish population,” Flamm said. “The difference that Chai Lifeline makes for the families on a daily basis adds a fulfilling component to the work we do.”
However, none of these events have such a powerful effect on kids and their families as Camp Simcha. Camp Simcha can be best described as a hospital disguised as a summer camp, giving campers the chance to forget about being sick and feel like kids again. There is a one-to-one volunteer counselor to camper ratio, making sure that every camper is looked after completely. It is also a great way for parents to relax, knowing that their children will be safe and taken care of for two weeks.
“These kids going through treatment look forward to it [Camp Simcha] all year,” Flamm said. “It keeps them going through treatment all year. They just want to talk about it and think about it and plan for it.”
The Mid-Atlantic office currently has around 180 volunteers to help approximately 100 families with children dealing with serious illnesses. But Haber said there are ways to help beyond donating one’s money and time.
One of these programs is “Simcha University,” a way for sick children to learn certain skills. As an example, instead of having a juggler perform for a sick child for an afternoon, a volunteer could meet with a sick child regularly and teach them how to juggle. All volunteer “professors” get added to a Simcha University brochure that “students” are free to peruse and select from.
Haber also stressed the importance of reaching out to Chai Lifeline if one has a sick child or knows of a family dealing with a new diagnosis.
Chai Lifeline was there when Devorah and Michael Teichman’s son, Yitzi, was diagnosed with clival chordoma, a rare form of cancer that affects the base of the skull. Chai Lifeline made sure that everyone in the family was taken care of.
“Until our son was diagnosed, to us Chai Lifeline was a tzedakah [charity] that we contributed to,” said Devorah Teichman.
The Teichman family still makes Chai Lifeline a part of their lives, even now that Yitzi’s cancer is in remission. He and his mother are part of Team Lifeline, a division of the organization that raises money through biking and marathons, while one of his sisters is a volunteer.
“Chai Lifeline has made sure that our house was filled with simcha [joy],” Devorah Teichman said. “Whether it was during surgery, recovery, treatment, Camp Simcha and beyond.”
Said Haber: “Chai Lifeline means to me that the world is becoming a more wholesome place. A world without it is a much darker place.”
On May 9, Chai Lifeline Mid-Atlantic will present “Trivia Panoply,” a fast-paced multimedia trivia contest, at Beth Tfiloh Synagogue, 3300 Old Court Rd. in Pikesville. For information call 410-205-2085 or email midadlantic@chailifeline.org.
For information, visit chailifeline.org.
Photo of “Simcha University” by Uri Arnson
Jordan Loux is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
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