Jeffrey Hoos, President: All Jews are Responsible for One Another

by Dr. Jeffrey Hoos, Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven President

Most of us think of money, business or negative experiences when we think of the “timing is everything” phrase. The timing of any decision can make the difference between being happy, sad, rich, poor, or even life and death. Most people make decisions based on personal choices and experiences. Although “timing is everything,” the decisions sometimes get put on us.

When making decisions, we ask ourselves what could possibly happen as there are risks and rewards in the decisions we make. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control and just “bad luck.” Our “timing” has little to do with those personal decisions, except if we put ourselves at extreme risk.

So what “gets put on us” can really affect our daily lives and controlling events can really change everything. Our constant is our attitude of how the things put upon us affect our thoughts. Timing is everything; it has a way of making us stop and think about things.

Imagine we are all out on Long Island Sound, enjoying the beautiful water and views, on sailboats of all different sizes and shapes. Suddenly, a storm comes up with huge waves and winds. The sailors with lots of experience, strength of character, the right support crew and a “can do” attitude know what to do to ride out the storm. They make it through the storm with some damage. Other sailors cry out in despair and pray as hard as they can, but do nothing. The water comes in, people fall overboard and many are lost. Once the storm passes, some will learn and others will go back to their old ways. What is interesting is that they were all in the same storm, but in different boats.

So many times, people say, “we are all in the same boat.” But it is just not true. We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat. How we react to the storm makes all the difference.

We are in the same Covid 19 storm, but I am certain we have different sizes of boats and resources at our disposal. Some of us were prepared and others had to get prepared as we went along facing the challenge. The event was put upon us and “timing is everything” seems to really be in play.

But there is one thing we all know: we need to help each other as much as we can. We do have a responsibility to help each other while in the storm. “Please consider giving to the Give to COVID- 19/Maimonides Response Fund and Masks for Heroes.” Remove the “give” Fix the name of the fund to “COVID-19 Response/Maimonides Fund.

Most sincerely written,