providing
life-saving relief
The walls of Michael Levin’s small Bethlehem apartment are covered with his own artwork, though he hasn’t created a new piece in years. Photos of his son are prominent on the refrigerator. The set-up is uniquely suited to Michael, and it has to be. It’s where the 56-year-old spends most of his time. His disability and the dozens of medications that he takes daily prevent him from working. In truth, his health continues to fail, though he soldiers on. But he knows he would never be able to manage alone. Fortunately, the staff and volunteers at Jewish Family Service of the Lehigh Valley, a Federation beneficiary agency, are there to provide assistance with food, medication and utility bills that sustain his meager lifestyle. “Where would I be without Jewish Family Service?” Michael ponders from the couch in his living room. “I would still be living in the woods.” Twenty-six years ago, while trying to help another man after a car accident, Michael was hit by a car going 55 miles an hour. When he woke up in the hospital six months later, his few possessions were packed up in boxes. He had nothing and nowhere to go.
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“I went to whoever was the director at that time at Jewish Family Service and the first thing they said to me was what do you need? And I would go back and ask for things and they never said no to me, no matter what it was. If I needed food, they gave me gift cards. If I needed money … to get a rent paid or whatever the emergency was, they always stood up for me.”