Unpaid Jewish federal workers get relief

Hebrew Free Loan Association offers help to furloughed

An estimated 50,000 Jewish federal workers are among the 800,000 furloughed across the country who have no paychecks due to the government shutdown.

One Jewish organization, the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Greater Washington, is offering no-interest loans of up to $2,000 to furloughed Jewish workers and waiving a requirement that they provide two guarantors.

“This is addressing a very acute cash flow need for those Jewish federal employees in the greater D.C. area who are encountering problems,” said David Farber, chairman of the association. “We’re there for them.”

Jewish lending groups in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, are also offering such aid,.

Washington, where an estimated 98,300 people are furloughed, feels like a ghost town. All 19 Smithsonian institutions plus the National Zoo are shut down, as are many offices.

Employees receive back pay after the government reopens.

The association was formed in 1909 to help those who came in the great wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe and Russia. It is one of 50 such Jewish lending agencies across the world.

Many are small. The Washington association has between $400,000 and $500,000 in assets, and has so far set aside only $30,000 for the furlough loans, though that pot of money may grow if demand rises.

“The dollars originally contributed in 1909 to start this are still at work today,” Farber said.

It takes its mission from a passage in the Book of Exodus: “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.”

Typically, the Hebrew Free Loan Association issues 30 to 40 loans at any one time, mostly to individuals facing unexpected medical bills or couples wanting to adopt a child. It hasn’t had many furlough loan applications.

Other religious groups are also offering aid to the furloughed. Catholic Charities in the Washington Archdiocese, for example, has an emergency rental assistance program as well as a foodpurchasing program that offers highly discounted groceries.

Last weekend, a group of 30 Ahmadiyya Muslim men fanned across the National Mall with trash bags and gloves to clear litter and empty trash cans. Muslim youth groups nationwide are doing the same in national parks.