Chai Lifeline
Chai Lifeline
Main page

Chai Lifeline

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Chai Lifeline

Chai Lifeline is a chesed organization founded in 1987 by Rabbi Simcha Scholar to help families with "children battling a deadly disease."

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. Their goal is to "restore the light of childhood to children whose innocence ended when life-threatening or lifelong illness was diagnosed."

While most Chai Lifeline programs operate year-round, their upstate New York summer program "for children with catastrophic illnesses" helps "Jewish children from around the world."

Scholar's initial guidance was from Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and the focus was Jewish pediatric cancer patients in the New York City area. By 1990, they had offices in Florida and Jerusalem, with another planned for California.

Subsequent expansion included services to other major Jewish areas such as Baltimore and the West Coast.

Their Los Angeles office was described as "provides services to ... families of all Jewish denominations" and "depends on foundation and individual donations."

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. As of 2015, their first (2008) Canadian outreach still seemed limited to Montreal, like Federation CJA, with whom they affiliated. By 2018 the Toronto Star had reported the expansion of Chai Lifeline Canada to Toronto and somewhat beyond.

By 2012, small scale Chai Lifeline groups had begun in UK and Belgium, with support from the New York-based main office's professionals.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.