Chesed is a team of CBI members who respond to various situations in which other CBI
members might need assistance. As we reach the end of 2025, I thought you might be
interested in hearing about what Chesed has been doing.
Our largest response this year has been sending cards to express sympathy, offer get well
wishes, and extend congratulations for varying occasions. We’ve sent out 49 cards in 44 weeks.
We’ve also been busy making telephone calls. Seventeen people were called throughout the
year for various reasons, mostly to check in with people who were dealing with medical
situations.
We’ve also continued to provide meals for people after an illness, the birth of a baby, or for
families during shivah. We’ve had eight requests for meals this year. Each request involved
multiple people providing food for several days. We’re very good at accommodating dietary
preferences.
In three instances, we helped arrange for people to attend shivah minyans. And we visited
several people who were homebound. We were able to respond to six requests for rides to
medical appointments, but we had several requests to which we could not respond.
In case you’re interested in helping, here’s how the system works. You would let me know
which requests you are interested in responding to. They are making meals, delivering meals,
making calls, visiting, helping to ensure a minyan, and providing rides to CBI programs and/or
medical appointments. When a request comes in, I will send that request to the group of
people who have asked to be alerted for that assistance. If it’s a convenient time for you to
respond, you would let me know. No one is expected to be available to help with every
response.
Of course, this whole approach doesn’t work if we don’t know who needs some assistance. It’s
much easier for most people to offer help than to ask for it. But we will all find ourselves in
situations when a ride, a meal, a visit, or a call would be welcome. You can contact the CBI
office, the Rabbi, or the Executive Director to alert them about what you need and they will
contact me. Or you can contact the committee directly at chesed@bethisraelnc.org. Your CBI
community is here to help you. All you have to do is let us know what you need.
Jewish communities have a rich history of taking care of each other. The Babylonian Talmud
teaches us that All Jews are responsible one for another (Shevuot 39a). The work done by
anyone connected to Chesed is incredibly helpful and important. Be part of this effort to
support this tradition.
Caren Kessler