Formation | 1987 |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit NGO |
Purpose | Cancer and chronic illness support |
Headquarters | New York City |
Location |
|
Region served | International |
Executive Vice President | Rabbi Simcha Scholar |
Key people | Mordechai Gobioff, Director of Client Services Esther Schwartz, Director of Hospital Services Ari Dembitzer, Head counselor, rabbi of happiness |
Staff | 90 |
Volunteers | 5,455 [1] |
Website | http://www.chailifeline.org https://www.facebook.com/chailifelinepage https://www.twitter.com/chai_lifeline |
Chai Lifeline is a chesed organization founded in 1987 by Rabbi Simcha Scholar to help families with "children battling a deadly disease." [2]
Although they have professional staff, much of their work depends on volunteers, whose ranks include those who, in their younger years, received services and survived. [3] Their goal is to "restore the light of childhood to children whose innocence ended when life-threatening or lifelong illness was diagnosed." [4]
While most Chai Lifeline programs operate year-round, their upstate NY summer program "for children with catastrophic illnesses" helps "Jewish children from around the world." [5]
Scholar's initial guidance was from Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, [2] and the focus was Jewish pediatric cancer patients in the NYC area. [3] By 1990, they had offices in Florida and Jerusalem, with another planned for California. [6]
Subsequent expansion included services to other major Jewish areas such as Baltimore [7] and the West Coast. [8]
Their Los Angeles office was described as "provides services to .. families of all Jewish denominations" and "depends on foundation and individual donations." [9]
Yeshiva University hosted the first university-based Shabbaton to give exposure and training for Chai Lifeline college-age volunteers, under a Fighting Illness With Love banner. [10] As of 2015 their first (2008) [11] Canadian outreach still seemed limited to Montreal, like Federation CJA, with whom they affiliated. [12] By 2018 the Toronto Star had reported the expansion of Chai Lifeline Canada to Toronto and somewhat beyond. [13]
By 2012, small scale Chai Lifeline groups had begun in UK and Belgium, with support from the New York-based main office's professionals. [14] [15]
While not all services were available in all locations as of 2015, some of the programs offered by a blend of professionals [16] and volunteers are:
Camp Simcha [5] is a 125-acre (0.51 km2) campus located in Glen Spey, NY. [17] NY that offers children with cancer a chance to enjoy traditional camp activities.
Besides mini-golf, arts & crafts workshops, modified sports, color war, and talent shows there are helicopter rides and concerts. An innovative swimming pool ramp and water-submersible wheelchairs enables more children to enjoy swimming. They have a motorboat, paddle and bumper boats, and a pontoon boat capable of holding an entire bunk, including wheelchair-dependent children.[ citation needed ]
The camp program is directed by Dr. Peter Steinherz [18] and an entire team of oncologists, pediatric oncology nurses, EMTs, social workers and physical therapists. In case of emergencies, an acute transport ambulance is on-site at all times, and accompanies campers on any trips. A Medevac helicopter is on call, and can reach the camp within five minutes.
Camp Simcha Special was created in 2001 to meet the medical and social needs of children and teens with disabilities, chronic diseases, or genetic diseases. Located on the same campus as Camp Simcha. The program is directed by Dr. Robert van Amerongen [19] with a staff of pediatric specialists, nurses, EMTs, social workers and physical therapists. [20]
Chai Lifeline trains volunteers. [21]
Project C.H.A.I. Crisis Intervention program ensures that children, their parents, teachers, clergy and communities can properly deal with traumatic events, often partnering with organizations such as Jewish Family & Children's Service of Arizona's Aleinu program and Misaskim. [22] [23] [24] Chai Lifeline is funded by Jewish philanthropists and other fundraising receptions. [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] They also receive government funding and grants. [30]
Advocacy and Case Management – a team of case managers that offer emotional support and information. Insurance Support Service – Providing general information including: explaining insurance coverage and helping to complete reimbursement applications. Meal Support – Providing meals to hospitalized patients and their families, many times also supplying food for families with a sick child when cooking is impossible. Transportation Services – Transportation to and from medical centers and doctors’ appointments. Chai House – A house located in the close proximity of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to accommodate family spending periods of time in the hospital. [31]
Chailine Telephone Support Groups – Parents of children with similar prognosis discuss their situations offering support via conference calls facilitated by professional therapists.
Healing Hearts Bereavement Program – Annual weekend retreats and counseling where parents who lost a beloved child are comforted.
Chai Family Centers – Community-based counseling centers help children and parents cope with the impact of illness on their lives.
Short-term counseling – Transient advice for ill children, their parents and/or siblings is available through regional offices. [32]
ChaiNet – A community by and for Chai Lifeline families, Chai Net allows parents to exchange information and support one another in their battles against pediatric illness. Partnering with Susan G. Komen for the Cure Chai Lifeline provides counseling for Jewish women with breast cancer. [33]
ChaiLink – Webcam connections that link hospitalized or recuperating children to classrooms, teachers, and friends, and loans of laptop computers loaded with educational software.
Homebound Educational Learning Program – A tutoring program that enable hospitalized or recuperating children to keep up with their schoolwork.
The New York Times [4] described the organization's Brooklyn Tragedy 24 Hour Crisis Intervention Hot Line and Director of bereavement and intervention services Dr. Norman Blumenthal's made-for-parents video, created after the Murder of Leiby Kletzky in New York. [34]
Helping when the focus was beyond children with illnesses included after:
Trained volunteers offer emotional and professional support. [38]
Chai Lifeline arranges trips for children who spend their days in and out of the hospital. Trips involve sporting events, shows, and special trip such as
Chai Lifeline is a New York City volunteer-based [49] 501(c)(3) non-profit organization [50] that primarily works with children battling cancer.
Fundraising programs include
Events include
Chai Lifeline International is an affiliate. One of its programs is named Chaiuanu, and it provides services in Israel. [65]
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad operates mainly in the wider world and caters to secularized Jews.
Ohr Somayach, Monsey was an accredited men's college of Judaic studies offering both full and part-time programs.
Beth Rivkah, formally known as Associated Beth Rivkah Schools, is a private girls' school system affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
Torah Umesorah – National Society for Hebrew Day Schools is an Orthodox Jewish educational charity based in the United States that promotes Torah-based Jewish religious education in North America by supporting and developing a loosely affiliated network independent private Jewish day schools.
Shloime Dachs is an American Orthodox pop vocalist. He is also the founder of the eponymous Shloime Dachs Orchestra, which plays at weddings, concerts, and benefits.
Jewish education is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah study, from the early days of studying the Tanakh.
Torah Ore is an American Orthodox post-high-school yeshiva and kollel located in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Mattersdorf. It was founded in 1960 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, by Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg. The yeshiva moved to Jerusalem in 1965 and entered its present location in 1971. As of 2013, Torah Ore enrolls approximately 300 undergraduate students and 600 kollel (married) students. It has thousands of alumni, many of whom became prominent rabbis, rosh yeshivas, and lay leaders of Jewish communities around the globe. Scheinberg served as rosh yeshiva of Torah Ore for over 50 years until his death in 2012; he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Simcha Scheinberg.
Colel Chabad was founded in 1788 and is the oldest continuously operating charity in Israel. The institution runs a network of soup kitchens and food banks, dental and medical clinics, daycare centers, widow and orphan support, and immigrant assistance programs. It also provides interest-free loans, camp scholarships, career training and job placement, subsidized weddings for the poor, and many other social-welfare projects.
Bikur cholim refers to the mitzvah to visit and extend aid to the sick. It is considered an aspect of gemilut chasadim. It is traditional to recite prayers for healing, such as the Mi Shebeirach prayer in the synagogue, and Psalms on behalf of the sick. Bikur holim societies exist in Jewish communities around the world. The earliest bikur holim society on record dates back to the early Middle Ages.
Stuart Ditchek is an American author, board-certified Pediatrician, and Professor of medicine, best known as one of the authors of the book on integrative pediatrics, Healthy Child, Whole Child: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine to Keep Your Kids Healthy. A second edition of the book was released in 2009. Dr. Ditchek has a website where he provides information on integrative pediatrics. Dr. Ditchek founded and served as the medical director of Camp Simcha Special, from 2001 to 2009, a camp for children with chronic illnesses, a program of Chai Lifeline and currently acts as the medical director of Kids of Courage, a non-for-profit for children with chronic lifelong illnesses.
Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff is the current Texas Regional Director for Texas Friends of Chabad Lubavitch, Inc. and member of the board and executive committee of Agudas Chasidei Chabad. With the direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, he established Chabad Lubavitch in Texas upon his arrival with his family in 1972.
East Tennessee Children's Hospital is a private, independent, not-for-profit, 152-bed pediatric medical center in Knoxville, Tennessee. The hospital's primary service area includes 16 counties in East Tennessee, and its secondary service area includes counties in southwest Virginia, southeast Kentucky and western North Carolina.
Chona Menachem Mendel (Mendel) Weinbach was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. As the co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach Institutions, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva for newly-observant Jewish men, he was considered one of the fathers of the modern-day baal teshuva movement.
The Children's Art Project at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a non-profit initiative that benefits patients in the Children’s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Marketing and sales of products based on the artwork of these young patients fund programs that support their educational, emotional and recreational needs.
Yehuda Yehoshua Tzadka was a respected Sephardi rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He became a student in the yeshiva after his bar mitzvah, and continued to study and teach there for almost 70 years.
The HAYIM Association for Children with Cancer in Israel is a non-governmental organization that works on a voluntary basis to provide relief and support for pediatric oncology patients in Israel.
Chabad affiliated organizations and institutions number in the thousands. Chabad is a Hasidic movement, a branch of Orthodox Judaism. The organizations and institutions associated with the movement provide social, educational and religious services to Jews around the globe.
SeriousFun Children's Network is a global community of 30 camps and programs for seriously ill children. All camps and programs offer free recreational experiences to children with serious illnesses and their family members. The first SeriousFun camp was launched in 1988 by founder Paul Newman.
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) is a division of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. It offers adult Jewish courses on Jewish history, law, ethics, philosophy and rabbinical literature worldwide. It also develops Jewish studies curricula specifically for women, college students, teenagers, and seniors.
Simcha Eichenstein is an American politician from New York. He is a member of the New York State Assembly.
.. draws on the work of 5000 volunteers
in Toronto and Montreal and has satellite services in Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver.
.. over a dozen Project Chai volunteers who took part in numerous training sessions
There are 10 regional Chai Lifeline offices ...
young Israeli children and teens with cancer .. Chaiyanu "Hope Tour" to South Africa .. generosity of the South African Jewish community.