September 10, 2024 • 44 mins
Welcome to Generous Impact. In this episode, Bret and Amanda Brummitt are joined by Ira Kaufman, a rabbi, social worker, and healthcare executive. Instead of focusing on a single organization, this episode delves into how Ira spends his life serving his community in various impactful ways.
Ira shares his journey from New Jersey to Cincinnati, exploring his background in rabbinical school, social work, and healthcare. Amanda discusses his work with Halcyon IV and how their approach to caring for people with dignity and hope left a lasting impression. The conversation reveals how Ira's dedication to meeting the needs of his community has shaped his life and that of his family, who are all deeply involved in community service.
The episode highlights several of Ira's initiatives, including the Bikur Cholim of Cincinnati, which provides kosher meals and support to hospital patients, and the soon-to-be-launched volunteer emergency medical service service, Hatzalah of Cincinnati. Additionally, Ira talks about his involvement with the local Burial Society and ritual baths. Other organizations where Ira humbly spends his time include Congregation Zichron Eliezer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and Mesivta of Cincinnati.
They also discuss that having a healthy business while also doing good is possible. Really caring for the team is vital and Ira mentioned the book Patients Come Second by Britt Berrett and Paul Spiegelman that really inspired him. And, small world moment. Amanda had the joy of working for Britt earlier in her career!
Ira also offers valuable insights on balancing a demanding career with a commitment to community service, emphasizing the importance of seeing the beauty in others and fostering a supportive work environment. This episode is a powerful reminder of the impact one person can have through dedication, compassion, and a genuine desire to help others.
It’s a family affair in the Kaufman household with the whole family giving back to the community from meal prep to transportation to just being there for people. We hope you’ll be inspired to be there and care for your own community and see the beauty in other people.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Generous Impact. This is Bret Brummitt. And this is Amanda Brummitt.
We are joined today by Ira Kaufman, a rabbi, social worker, and healthcare executive.
Today's episode isn't about a particular organization, but rather how Ira spends
his life serving his community.
Ira and I met through his day job, Halcyon IV, and I often thought about their
(00:21):
approach to caring for people after we spoke.
Their language around healing people with dignity and hope was so kind that
it always stuck in my head.
So when I reached out to Ira to dig into possibly doing an episode around that
and how they care for patients, I learned that it's a much bigger story than just one organization.
When Ira sees a need in his community, he seeks to meet it, or rather,
(00:44):
as you'll hear, is often tapped to figure it out.
And this has crafted a life for him, his wife, and children of beautiful service to the community.
In addition to his day job, he serves seven other organizations in the community.
We'll only cover a snapshot today, but I hope you find it as inspiring as we do.
Well, Ira, we normally lead off with our guest's background,
(01:06):
but I would literally need an entire eight-episode Netflix documentary to do
that with yours because it is so impressive.
Can you give us kind of the movie trailer version of your background and education,
and then we'll dive into what we're actually here to talk about, your volunteer work.
Okay yeah absolutely so i
guess my world started as a as a
(01:30):
typical jewish orthodox boy going
through judaic school and going
and going through you know obviously we had secular studies i i went to high
school in new york and then moved on continuing on in rabbinical school and
got my ordination in the largest school in New Jersey, which is Beth Medrash Kavoa.
(01:55):
From there, I joined the Cincinnati community called Doing More Outreach and Rabbinic Work,
thinking that my world's going to end up in congregational rabbi world,
which it did for a little bit, which we'll probably discuss at some point.
And that was where I thought I was I was pretty much at.
(02:15):
Through Beth Meshkovo, I got my bachelor's in Talmudic literature.
And I was moving on to get my master's from them as well.
When I moved to Cincinnati, I did my chaplaincy education through Emory University
in Atlanta, Georgia, and then I continued on to a master's program,
(02:40):
a master's of social work with Wurzweiler School of Social also worked in New York.
I guess that's where my education world, my background was a boy growing up in New Jersey,
thought that I would live there forever, living the regular New Jersey life,
not knowing that there's much more out of the New York, New Jersey world.
(03:02):
And then finding that there's suddenly a Midwest and there's a larger country
out here that there's a lot to do.
Yeah, I had always wondered how a New Yorker, New Jersey person ended up in Cincinnati.
Natty oh yeah like i mean there's just
been a lot of mistakes in my my world but like i enjoyed
(03:22):
summers going going to different communities
every summer i would i would choose a different community and
there was a program a seed program that that connected us to different communities
it was much more of like a scholarly work of of being able to do outreach within
different communities and being able to offer some of the studies within within
(03:43):
different communities but But that suddenly opened my eyes to seeing so many
different communities.
And then there was a program where I was living that was made for rabbis that
were thinking of moving out.
And they asked me to join. And I said, absolutely not. You know that I'll never leave.
I'll never be leaving New Jersey. My wife's from New York. I'm from New Jersey.
(04:06):
Don't ever think that we'll leave.
And they just pushed me. And they were like, well, there's no commitment.
And even though for most people, it was a commitment.
And they were like, you know, we just want you part of the program.
And once they did, you know, like then there was different interviews coming,
different people coming from different, different communities.
And when Cincinnati came up, honestly, like there wasn't the same ring as when
(04:30):
I looked into Palo Alto, California or Phoenix,
Arizona, like those seemed like cooler places to me than Cincinnati, Ohio.
And it didn't have that ring. but there was
nothing that i heard i mean i only heard good things and
i was like okay i'll go check it out just just
to know that we can rule it out that way that way to
(04:51):
check that box that it's not going to happen and i went like a day before my
sister my sister's wedding and i can't i came to cincinnati like and i came
back and my wife said like said to me a couple days later you never even told
me like we were so busy with the wedding you never told me what happened in
cincinnati and i was like oh i was waiting for a good good time to discuss it
because it was actually really nice.
(05:12):
And that's when we came together, we checked it out and like,
and that's, that's history.
Yeah. So from big family in New York, New Jersey area, a large community,
I mean, going into Cincinnati, I'm sure that took, you know,
wanting to make that move.
I mean, how did you see yourself as growing as a person through that transition?
(05:33):
Or was that even something you thought would be happening at that point?
So, oh my gosh, it was like, it was a huge growth. And I, I honestly,
I didn't realize what I was getting into and moving to, to a smaller community.
So there were, there were multiple aspects that like suddenly like came about,
but first of all, going from the large developed community to a smaller community
(05:58):
where there's just so much more opportunity, so much more opportunity.
I would say all the things that I, I got involved with that was,
I would say most of this would never have happened if I was in,
in the larger, more developed, larger infrastructure,
a lot of that is already developed and I would never have had the opportunity.
(06:20):
But another thing that like I suddenly learned was New York, New Jersey.
And I say, I can say this because I'm from there is, you know, is very fast paced.
People are are very fast-paced
in their personalities as well I'm saying that politically
correct and they they
don't always have the space for another person in the same way that a Midwestern
(06:45):
person would would be able to give that consideration to another person and
that was suddenly something so beautiful that I feel like I grew in and I developed
like just being able to recognize the
beauty in every single individual and other people.
And being in a New York, New Jersey, you're not necessarily exposed to everyone
(07:09):
else and the rest of the other communities around you and the other cultures,
which is something so beautiful that I've been able to see since coming to Cincinnati.
So I'm forever grateful for this.
Do you feel like it's like a gift of the interloper? You get to be from two
places, but you could like see them both?
(07:30):
Yeah, because I still know how to drive like someone from New York,
New Jersey. So I'm able to pull both sides of that, I guess.
And I remember Brett alluded to you having a large family. How large is your family?
So I come from a large family and my personal family is quite a large family as well.
We have eight children and so it's quite busy at home.
(07:53):
And I would say that often my work time is my downtime. time.
And then I need to like gear up. And once I get home, that's when it's actually busy.
And I need to be in full swing and be fully alert to help out.
And my wife is taking care of the family, doing an amazing job along with the
other things that she does.
But yes, so there's quite a lot going on in terms of family.
(08:18):
Yeah, definitely. And then one more question before we dive into what we're
actually here to talk about.
Can you tell us a little bit about the Jewish community in Cincinnati,
as it seems like their unique needs have inspired a lot of the projects that
we're going to discuss? Yeah, absolutely.
So Cincinnati is, I would say, quite a large community, a large Jewish community,
(08:39):
and it's an older Jewish community.
But the Jewish community at large, so when I'm saying the Jewish community,
I'm including the Reform Conservative.
That's always been a very stronghold in Cincinnati. The Orthodox community has been much smaller,
and a lot of my work has been within the Orthodox community,
(09:03):
but the Orthodox community is a smaller community.
The Orthodox community has about 400 to 500 families, maybe being a little generous on the 500,
but it's about, I would say about 400 Orthodox families looking at,
and the Orthodox families are often larger families, so the amount of people are quite significant.
(09:27):
There's two Orthodox schools, there's multiple congregations,
and there's just a lot of great things going on.
Well, let's dive into the projects then. So your family started,
and I'll make sure I get this right, the Bikur K'lim of Cincinnati?
First of all, did I get it right? Correct the pronunciations, please.
(09:50):
Pronunciation, it's a little bit of a hard word. It's Bikur,
and I say it with the hard K, so it's Bikur K'lim of Cincinnati.
So there was a Bikur K'lim here before, and I give all the credit for them.
Of all the work that they did before we started, we got involved on their footsteps
(10:12):
of what was going on already.
But honestly, it was quite a challenge when we started. There were families.
And I'll just give a little explanation of what the Bikir Cholm does.
And I'll start with just a little bit of a story. And it's all the credit to my brother-in-law.
He came here, it was just a few months after we got here. And again, I was studying.
(10:36):
I didn't think anything about local medical needs or patient needs.
That was not a focus of mine. It's not something I thought about.
And my brother-in-law was here for a weekend as a visitor, just here with a
patient in Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
And he comes to me after Shabbat ends.
And he says to me, do you know that there's families that are in a hospital
(10:59):
just 15 minutes away from your house that are eating pretzels and and potato
chips because there's limited kosher food.
And I was like, okay, that's horrible, but what do you want me to do about it?
And he was like, well, you have to fix it.
And I was like, well, what do I do?
You're the guy now, right? Right. So he said, that's like, it's like,
(11:21):
it's like he, he tapped me. I was like, okay, you better do this.
But like I said, I said to the mayor, what, what do you think I'm going to do?
Like, am I going to go knock on the front door of Cincinnati children's hospital
and say, okay, now it's time for you guys to have some kosher food.
Like, like, how's that going to happen?
And so, so he responded to me and said, you know, I, I hear that is a problem.
(11:41):
I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
You know, I guess, I guess we don't really have a way of doing it.
And I was like, okay, conversation ended. Like, I don't have to think about this again.
Suddenly Wednesday. So that was Saturday night, Wednesday morning.
He calls me up and he says, can you get, make sure you get a,
a freezer, get the largest freezer you can possibly get and make sure that it's
(12:03):
being delivered by Friday.
And I was like, mayor, what are you up to? And he says to me,
he says to me, just don't ask questions. Just go. I asked you to go get a freezer.
And I was like, it doesn't go like that. You can just go get a freezer on Wednesday
and make it delivered by Friday morning.
Like you need to order it. Like in wherever I'm going, whichever store I'm going
to go to, it's going to like, it's a two week delivery and whatever it is.
(12:25):
And so he was like, just, just figure it out, go do it.
So anyways, I walked in, like, I'm trying to like, I'm calling multiple,
multiple appliance stores and they all like, okay, it's a two week delivery
kind of, kind of turn around, like even expedited.
Like I would have it like the beginning of the following week.
Like, so I just walked into Lowe's and I was like, okay, what can I take off the floor?
So they showed me a freezer I can take off the floor. And I was like,
(12:47):
okay, can I have it delivered by tomorrow?
So it was Wednesday afternoon. They delivered the freezer the following day.
And I'm still not sure what I'm going to, what what's happening.
Suddenly on Friday, Friday morning, I have FedEx shows up with these five boxes of frozen food.
Food so my brother-in-law mayor he
had he had a caterer in muncie new
(13:09):
york prepare it was over 100 meals
he had them prepare prepare these meals they froze it overnight wednesday night
and then they shipped it to me overnighted with dry ice and it came pretty frozen
still on friday morning so i called him up i was like mayor i send him a picture
i have this full freezer now of over a hundred kosher meals.
(13:30):
I was like, but I still don't have any access to the hospital.
Like, what am I going to, what, what do you want me to do now?
And he was like, I get the problem, but now any family that you see that's in
town, if they come to service, if you see it, if you see them,
just let them know that you have kosher food for them.
And make a long story short, that's really the way it started was I would just
(13:52):
go over to the families and say, you know, I know that there's limited kosher food in the hospital.
I have food for you. Can I give you a bag of a few meals?
And then the following day and like and then word spread throughout the hospital
like, oh, if you need kosher food, then go to Rabbi Kaufman.
He has he has food for you and hope and he'll get you set up.
Friday afternoon starts Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath and Friday at sunset.
(14:18):
So I would, I would show up to the hospital and so I had no access to the hospital anywhere.
And like, I would just show up on Friday afternoon and say, either call the
chaplain on call, call social work, ask security to help me to just get up, up to a patient room.
And we, I just need to deliver this kosher food for them.
And I became the consistent nudge of someone coming on a Friday afternoon,
(14:41):
running against the clock and trying to
bring food until like room one
thing to let to the next started with that the hospital
started asking me to do there were different different there were
different cultural cultural aspects that the hospital
was was very interested in learning but less aware because they didn't have
(15:02):
have an orthodox person on staff so they would they would loop me into to different
cultural sensitivity trainings and different and different things that were
going on and i was doing these trainings one after another because they were
really interested in learning.
And at one point judy ragsdale the director of pastoral care at the time asked
(15:24):
if we can go out for coffee after one of our one of my one of my trainings and
she was like would you ever think about joining our staff and i was like at
that point like i had i was ready i had moved over to to congregational work.
I was like, no, I'm, I'm totally, I have a, I have a good gig.
I'm not thinking of hospital world's not my world right now,
but she planted that seed.
(15:46):
And that's when a little bit after that, I learned about this program in Emory
university of, of doing online chaplaincy training, doing, doing CPE online,
which was, which was incredible education as, as a chaplain,
like, I mean, I think anyone in public service,
(16:06):
should have some level of chaplaincy training.
And for sure, anyone in congregational work, I think it was just an incredible, incredible education.
And I did all my education through Emory University doing my clinicals at Cincinnati Children's.
And then I ended up joining their staff for about five years,
(16:31):
I do want to back up a little bit because I'm real curious, because I just don't
know, like reading through some of the services and the pastoral care and guiding
families through the healthcare system and coordinating with the Jewish law.
What is different? And are you the one involved mainly doing that?
So I am the one that's mainly doing that, yes. So what's different is there's, I mean,
(16:56):
there's different ethical ways of looking at things things that sometimes can
be different than Western culture medicine,
especially around decision-making, medical decision-making, the way of family.
Families will often want to consult with a rabbi either for prayer or in addition to that,
(17:18):
there is a cultural aspect of sometimes it's a trust and sometimes it's being
able to hear it from someone within the community.
And I'm not going to do my whole culture, cultural sensitivity training now,
but I do, I do look at that.
There is an element of, I would say it, I say a communal trauma around the medical world.
(17:43):
And there's often a family that's going to hear it from one of,
one of their people then.
So there's, there's also within, within the Jewish community,
there's, there's been referral agencies that really
really delve into and some of them are are medical
professionals and some of them are even lay people that really
(18:03):
delve into researching different medical medical outcomes between different
physicians different different medical centers where where they specialize in
specific medications where they specialize in specific treatments and.
And families will often consult with one of these referral agencies just to
(18:27):
hear, like, am I going to the best place? Am I going to the place that can really help my child?
Am I going to the best place that can help my loved one?
And I had this one morning. It must have been 6 a.m.
Patty Manning, at the time she was the chief of staff of Cincinnati Children's
Hospital, she called me one morning. She's calling me on my cell at 6 o'clock in the morning.
(18:50):
It was, like, a little weird. So I answer and I said, Patty, what's going on?
And she says, well, there's a family here that's rejecting and they're refusing
to go to surgery because you didn't sign off on it.
And what in the world is a rabbi need to sign off on the medical treatment for?
(19:10):
And I was like, well, I don't know what that means. Let me, let me talk to the family.
It turns out the family came for a specific doctor. They knew a specific doctor, doctor's name.
That's why they arrived at the hospital and they were technically willing to do the surgery.
But because the surgeons were changed on them last minute, they were like,
we don't know that surgeon.
We're going to do our research. and the way they
(19:32):
were going to do their research is by asking me so they said
until they hear from me they're not willing to go
into surgery and i was like you know it's it's it's a
shame that the hospital doesn't always understand that of like it's not that
they need a rabbi to sign off and i'm not holding back anything it's just it
gives a certain level of comfort that they heard it from me that yes he's one
(19:53):
of our top physicians yes he's
an excellent surgeon and which sometimes Sometimes keeps me on my toes,
like making sure that I'm up on knowing who the medical professionals are locally.
Yeah, you've got to know everything at that point. Yeah, somewhat.
And it sounds like a lot of times you may just be delivering peace of mind that,
(20:17):
yes, this is okay. Yes, you can trust these people. Right.
So a lot of that is that peace of mind.
There's another element is, I would say, and again, I'm focusing on families
that are coming from larger communities, but even not, the Jewish community
is very community-oriented.
(20:39):
Represented, and I would say especially the Orthodox families that if you look
at any the Orthodox population, they're always living together.
And the reason for that is just a very simple reason, is because there's no
driving and there's no use of electricity, no activating electricity.
(21:00):
We're allowed to have lights on, but we would have lights go on before Shabbat,
so we're not turning them on so nor are we driving
to a congregation so everyone needs to be within a
walkable distance so everyone's usually within a 20-minute
walk of of any given congregation so that it just populates those areas people
know each other and it's a very community-based kind of kind of feeling so when
(21:25):
someone is suddenly in a larger hospital system they're not connected with their community,
that they really feel isolated. They feel disconnected.
And having someone that's going to be coming around, checking on them,
seeing how they're doing is just giving them that comfort of what they're familiar with.
And it's a very strong feeling when everything else is, they lose their autonomy
(21:54):
in the hospital and they lose control.
And suddenly you have someone that you can connect with, it just gives that
sense of comfort in a huge way.
Definitely. I mean, most things in a hospital are scary. So let's take the things
that we can control, like giving them access to food they're comfortable with
(22:15):
and let's control those pieces because those don't have to be scary.
Right. No one chooses to be in a hospital. And even when a hospital worker,
and this has been challenging for me, is like
to constantly look back is the the
small surgeries which the hospital
doesn't look at as any any any level of
(22:36):
crisis and everything is totally like they
know the outcomes they've done this thousands of times it's totally
okay and but for a family going through it that's a crisis anything in a hospital
they're coming in right and it's all crisis for them and that's And it's always
like reminding yourself that there's a heaviness that the families are walking
(23:00):
around with in a hospital.
Yeah, definitely. Okay. So, and you're still a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's, right?
And now your wife actually runs the program dealing with meals and things like that. Yeah.
So my wife is the one running all the coordination of the meal programs.
There's months that we're putting out.
(23:21):
Right now, we can hit 500 meals in a month.
There's hundreds of rides a month based on people coming in and out of Cincinnati.
If people that flew in that are wanting to go to services, if they're wanting
to go to a kosher restaurant,
just assisting families So yeah, my wife does all of that it's,
(23:46):
it was too much for me to, to be doing everything and she's amazing at coordination.
So she's really running, running the whole program.
I'm still, I'm still on the staff at Cincinnati children's and I'm there.
I'm there PRN now. Some there as needed generally Friday afternoons before Shabbat,
I'm doing the education for staff, making sure that they're aware that they're
(24:10):
aware of Shabbat's coming, that this family is coming.
Family is going to be observing Shabbat and what that entails of how to navigate
within a hospital system that everything is electric and the family is not going
to be activating electricity and incredible that because we had this awareness,
the local hospitals here.
Have really moved to such a strong hearing and understanding place and working
(24:36):
through protocol to make it work for families.
Beautiful. I love to hear that. Well, let's jump to a different program.
Can you talk to us about the Hatzalah of Cincinnati?
And as I understand, this is a volunteer ambulance service for everybody,
not just people of a particular faith.
So yeah, can you tell us about it? So here's the first time it's being spoken about.
(24:59):
Oh. It's not announced to the community just yet.
So Hatzala Cincinnati, so there's many communities that have a Hatzala organization.
Hatzala is the largest volunteer EMS organization in the world.
And there's many branches in many different communities. And we're excited to
be opening one here in Cincinnati.
(25:21):
It is all staffed by all volunteer staff.
So all the EMTs dispatchers are all, are all volunteer.
One thing we're excited about is we have a medical director that's volunteer now.
And, and so that's like, it's quite incredible to have like a full staff of people.
(25:43):
What's, what's incredible about Hotsala is really two aspects.
It's people that are trained as EMTs or paramedics that are,
are regular people that that are holding regular jobs.
So it can be an attorney in one place, myself being a healthcare executive director.
(26:05):
It can be a nursing home administrator. It can be an Uber driver.
That is is running their
day-to-day life and when suddenly there's
an emergency it's stopping what they're doing and responding to that emergency
so there's it's regular people people are going about their regular day but
(26:29):
suddenly when that when that emergency comes is that they're they're here to
help another person and what what it does is that we're we're staffed with many people within
the community, around the community, and Hatzalah is not,
is not set up the way the typical EMS is go that you're, you're just waiting
(26:51):
for that call and go run and get, get an ambulance and come and come back.
If the person's in your congregation that, that needs, needs medical assistance,
person's your neighbor, the person's on your block, then it's,
you have all the equipment in your personal vehicle,
run over and be that first responder until 911 shows up, until more.
(27:14):
And you have everything, you have your full jump bag ready to support that patient
until more and higher level of service is able to arrive.
So it's really bridging that gap. What we're doing is bridging that gap.
We're not starting with any ambulance services.
There are hot salas that are more developed that have ambulances as well and will respond.
(27:37):
But there's always those first responders that are arriving with everything
to help that patient right away.
That's incredible. And I assume it's free for patients?
It's free for patients. There are some Hatsalas that when they're able to bill
insurance, then they do.
But it's not something that we're looking at right now Now, for multiple reasons,
(27:59):
it's just an easier setup not to do that.
And especially while we have EMT basic legalities, it's not really realistic
if we're not doing transport.
So that's, yes, entirely free for patients.
And it's mostly it's fundraising within and around the community to be able to support it.
(28:19):
And once families feel that that's an important need, need.
The 911 system that we have here is a really good system.
At the same time, they're not based necessarily within our congregation,
within our few blocks, and within our immediate area.
(28:39):
And their response time is a typical 911 response time, which takes some time
until they're able to get there.
So we're hoping to be able to bridge that gap and to be able to provide provide
for patients much, much quicker until the 911, and then be able to work with them simultaneously.
So will the 911 actually dispatch you guys?
(29:01):
No, we'll have our own dispatchers and we'll coordinate with 911. Yeah. Wonderful.
Okay. And then ignorant question, how does that work on Saturdays?
So that's not an ignorant question. Okay, good.
So when it comes to any medical emergency, then Shabbat is lifted.
(29:24):
I wouldn't say Shabbat is lifted shabbat is it's part of the respect for shabbat
and part of the respect for for everything that we do is to ensure that this
person that's in a medical emergency should be able to observe,
many more weeks of shabbat and to be able to have that permit for a future time
(29:44):
so it's it's absolutely like when there's a medical emergency then that's then
everything gets done and if it means activating any electricity,
driving, and using whatever is needed to be able to assist that patient.
That makes total sense. Thank you so much for explaining that.
Well, Ira, while I want to talk about every single organization you're involved
(30:06):
with, I know we've only got a limited amount of time.
So the last two that I'd like to cover, if you can, are the Burial Society and
the the ritual baths that you ever see. Yeah, absolutely.
So the Burial Society is a, so this is, I got involved pretty much,
this was my first volunteer thing that I got involved with when I joined the community.
(30:30):
I was asking how, like what there is that I can do for the community and Rabbi
Spettner advised me that I can look at the Burial Society.
And I was like, that's not something I do.
But I tried it once and it was, there was really something really meaningful
about being Being able to both, I mean, what we do is be able to wash the deceased
(30:52):
and saying some prayers and preparing them.
What we consider is the journey for the world to come. And sometimes people
don't know that the Jews also have a world to come.
That there's a heaven. But yeah, what we're doing is we're preparing the deceased
and assisting families through end-of-life decisions and a lot of very, very difficult times.
(31:20):
So that's something that we assist with.
The ritual bath is referred to as the mikvah, and that's something that people use for spirituality.
And so that was just near the congregation that I was working with.
So I was often on site, and when there was something that needed to be done,
(31:41):
I was the guy that was around.
So somehow that suddenly
became became my my i don't
call it responsibility and opportunity to be able to be involved in and so right
now i assist them quite a lot but it's so that's something that it's it's a
(32:01):
spiritual aspect of our community and and something that we take pride in it
seems like this is a theme there's a need and somebody goes and finds you.
Well and you are also still the assistant rabbi of your congregation correct
yes so so saturdays it's not an off day for you oh no that's that's what is not a day of rest,
(32:27):
yeah shabbat's supposed to be a day arrest but no it's i i run our early morning
service starts It starts at 7.15, and then I have my Saturday morning class afterwards,
and then I give a Saturday afternoon class.
So yeah, Saturday is not an off day for me in any way.
(32:49):
How did you come to see this as a lifestyle for you that you wanted to choose?
How did you decide you wanted to be on 24-7 and then on one and a half times
when you're home with the family.
So I guess I came to that realization at some point is I guess,
I guess what, what makes me feel, feel accomplished is when I'm overwhelmed, if I have to say that.
(33:16):
So, I mean, that's, I, the answer is, I don't know.
It's, it's just been, been the way of life and, you know,
it's, but at the same time, it's, I strongly carve out family time and date
night with my wife and making sure that we have strong family time as many things that are happening.
(33:36):
I mean, there are times, I'm not going to say I'm a great boundary person,
there are times that we've been on vacation and I'm on the phone with doctors
in the hospital, that happens.
At the same time that that happens, there's also great family time and a strong
focus on making sure that I'm present.
(33:56):
And often my wife needs to remind me that I need to be present,
but that's, yeah, it's, it's, it's busy.
It's hectic, but it's, uh, I don't know another way right now.
And is that anything, did you see anybody that did that growing up or is that
just something that you found along the way? I was inspired by the people that
(34:18):
were really there and present helping community.
And that was something that always inspired me.
And that's something that I look at and say, okay, those people were in larger
communities and their one thing that they're doing took up all of that amount of time.
(34:39):
And that to me, to me, I look at that and say like, okay, I have,
I still have a little bit more room to be able to give.
And I want to be able to help the community in another way.
And to be honest, like, like for Bikir Cholim, like my wife is running it.
Like I take a strong pride in that.
I did that work and I started it, but at the same time she's running it.
(35:00):
And that, that frees me up to be able to do a little bit more.
A beautiful partnership.
So Ira, let's switch a little bit more to the business side,
which is actually how you and I met.
Usually when I talk to somebody about their company, you know,
the short version is show me the money.
But when I spoke with you and your team, it was super clear that you guys cared
(35:21):
a lot about humans and taking good care of people.
So my question in all that is that you've managed to weave being a good person
into your work and your personal life.
I want to know what your advice is on running a healthy business that also does right by people.
So, so I think, I think that it works really hand in hand is the more that you
(35:45):
see the beauty in another person, it really,
it really shapes who you are at work and what, and really what just.
What feeds you and your team being able to work as a, as, as a team player,
being able to recognize, you know, obviously, obviously we all need to work,
walk home at the end of the day with a paycheck and we need to be able to do
(36:06):
business has to, has to go well.
But at the same time, it's being able to be there for your staff,
being able to recognize and being a team player if something's going on for
another person, if there's something that's happening.
And we can have a very strong, healthy business, which we do, thankfully.
And at the same time being able to be there for one another and being able to
(36:31):
be caring if there's something going on in their family something going on with them themselves,
someone's having a harder day someone someone's struggling like and just being
there as another support person in their life and it just doesn't have to be
that cold colleague element but rather rather caring so there's i i think not
(36:53):
only that but i think that that creates a healthy
business is when people feel supported, they want to show up for work.
They want to show that they want to be able to produce more.
They want to be able to do and be there for, for one another.
They're not, people are not, I would say the majority of people are not coming
to work just, just to get a paycheck and just to check their box.
(37:16):
They actually want to feel fulfilled at the end of the day.
And I think that what we're learning more and more is people,
not only that, but it's the majority of their day they're at work,
they want to feel cared for. They want to feel that they're respected.
They want to feel that the leadership of their company are not just using them,
(37:39):
but they're part of the team and they care for them.
And that's what I feel that
every element of my life being being
a a rabbi i was just asked this the other day is
like like how can you like be
it you probably not not you can't do well in business because
(37:59):
you're a rabbi and i was like i think it's just the opposite i think that every
every element of my of my my life being a rabbi being in congregational work
my chaplaincy work seeing people in crisis being being a licensed and social worker is,
and being in a healthcare executive works all simultaneously being able to,
(38:23):
both be there for our patients, be there for, and being focused on a mission
to be caring for patients.
And at the same time, being able to be there, be there for the staff.
Yeah, I totally agree. You're making me like, remember there,
I was introduced to a book by Steve Davis.
(38:43):
He's the current CEO of Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
I'm forgetting the exact title of the book, but it was, it was something of
like, put your patients second.
And like, everyone's into that thing of like, put your patients first. Yeah.
And it's like, it's something along that line. Is it Patients Come Second by
Britt Barrett? Patients Come Second. Okay. Yeah.
(39:05):
Great book. I actually had the joy of working for Britt early in my career.
But that's something that really spoke to me so loud, that people will only
cure for their patients,
and it doesn't matter what business it is, if they're supported and they're cared for.
(39:27):
And that's really the way I look at it. Definitely.
Well, super cool. From all we've talked about, I want to keep going,
but I know we can't go on forever.
So I want to ask the big question is, what can our community do for the organizations you serve?
How do you get support and what can our community do for your communities?
(39:51):
So i would say i would
say there's the cliche answer but it's
but it's really real and really true and then
there's then there's the practical i would
say the the real thing that i i would
love to see in communities is other communities being there for one another
(40:11):
being able to show up for one another I'm just saying that there's the focus
(40:55):
of community-minded, a focus on what can I do for one another?
What can I do for another person? is
and often i look
at it and when when someone's someone says thank you to me
for for assisting them and i'm like no like i don't look at it as that you shouldn't
(41:16):
be saying thank you to me what the greatest thanks is is if you do that for
another person or if i know that if i was in crisis that you would do that for
me and i think that that's really the greatest thing that someone can absolutely do.
Like that's really being there, caring, and every person has a strength in whatever way it is.
(41:37):
And there's some element of strength that a person can see beyond themselves.
And it can be a small thing. It can be an online thing. It can be a support program.
It doesn't have to be starting a whole organization. It doesn't have to be something
large or it can be volunteering for and assisting something bigger than themselves.
(41:57):
Every community has something but practically
i mean many of these organizations that that we
run do work with with fundraising
and and assistance from our community and that's always a practical thing but
that's that's not why i'm on today is to come with a fundraising gig what i
(42:19):
would love listeners is if they go out to their communities think how they can
invest and branch out to do more yeah i mean.
Money does help, helps things get funded, help things get moved forward.
Does, and I'm curious, does most of the commodity, yeah, most words jumbled words.
Does most of the money, the money for your projects come from within your communities?
(42:44):
Is it, I would say, do you have to outside? So we do have to go outside.
It's, it's not all able to sustain itself. It's, it's not all able to sustain itself.
We do have certain donors that are really passionate about each one of the different
projects, but it's often that we have to look beyond the community.
(43:04):
And there's different ways that we think about it, and that's always a focus.
But a message that I sent someone yesterday, they were messaging me about the ritual bath.
And so we do have a membership for
people that are using it and they were like they're struggling and my
(43:25):
response was it's not it's not
the it's not it's our focus
is the mission that we're here for our focus is not can you come through with
the membership and the numbers at the end of the day although they're essential
and they're necessary for us to function it's that's that's not that's not the
(43:45):
mission the mission is that we should be able to be there for for other people in the the community.
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us and for giving us
some insight into a community that we don't participate in.
So it's really fun for us to learn some more and then thank you for all you
do for your communities and really with the decency and love and just seeing
(44:10):
the good in others that you do. And so I appreciate that in you.
Okay. Thank you, Bret. Thank you, Amanda.
Wow. I am so inspired by the way that Ira, his wife, and children give back to the community.
It's a family affair in the Kaufman household with the whole family giving back
to the community from meal prep to transportation to just being there for people.
(44:32):
I hope you'll be inspired to be there and care for your own community as well
as see the beauty in other people.
Check out the show notes for links to all the amazing organizations where Ira
and his family give their time and energy.
Welcome to Generous Impact. This is Bret Brummitt. And this is Amanda Brummitt.
We are joined today by Ira Kaufman, a rabbi, social worker, and healthcare executive.
Today's episode isn't about a particular organization, but rather how Ira spends
his life serving his community.
Ira and I met through his day job, Halcyon IV, and I often thought about their
(00:21):
approach to caring for people after we spoke.
Their language around healing people with dignity and hope was so kind that
it always stuck in my head.
So when I reached out to Ira to dig into possibly doing an episode around that
and how they care for patients, I learned that it's a much bigger story than just one organization.
When Ira sees a need in his community, he seeks to meet it, or rather,
(00:44):
as you'll hear, is often tapped to figure it out.
And this has crafted a life for him, his wife, and children of beautiful service to the community.
In addition to his day job, he serves seven other organizations in the community.
We'll only cover a snapshot today, but I hope you find it as inspiring as we do.
Well, Ira, we normally lead off with our guest's background,
(01:06):
but I would literally need an entire eight-episode Netflix documentary to do
that with yours because it is so impressive.
Can you give us kind of the movie trailer version of your background and education,
and then we'll dive into what we're actually here to talk about, your volunteer work.
Okay yeah absolutely so i
guess my world started as a as a
(01:30):
typical jewish orthodox boy going
through judaic school and going
and going through you know obviously we had secular studies i i went to high
school in new york and then moved on continuing on in rabbinical school and
got my ordination in the largest school in New Jersey, which is Beth Medrash Kavoa.
(01:55):
From there, I joined the Cincinnati community called Doing More Outreach and Rabbinic Work,
thinking that my world's going to end up in congregational rabbi world,
which it did for a little bit, which we'll probably discuss at some point.
And that was where I thought I was I was pretty much at.
(02:15):
Through Beth Meshkovo, I got my bachelor's in Talmudic literature.
And I was moving on to get my master's from them as well.
When I moved to Cincinnati, I did my chaplaincy education through Emory University
in Atlanta, Georgia, and then I continued on to a master's program,
(02:40):
a master's of social work with Wurzweiler School of Social also worked in New York.
I guess that's where my education world, my background was a boy growing up in New Jersey,
thought that I would live there forever, living the regular New Jersey life,
not knowing that there's much more out of the New York, New Jersey world.
(03:02):
And then finding that there's suddenly a Midwest and there's a larger country
out here that there's a lot to do.
Yeah, I had always wondered how a New Yorker, New Jersey person ended up in Cincinnati.
Natty oh yeah like i mean there's just
been a lot of mistakes in my my world but like i enjoyed
(03:22):
summers going going to different communities
every summer i would i would choose a different community and
there was a program a seed program that that connected us to different communities
it was much more of like a scholarly work of of being able to do outreach within
different communities and being able to offer some of the studies within within
(03:43):
different communities but But that suddenly opened my eyes to seeing so many
different communities.
And then there was a program where I was living that was made for rabbis that
were thinking of moving out.
And they asked me to join. And I said, absolutely not. You know that I'll never leave.
I'll never be leaving New Jersey. My wife's from New York. I'm from New Jersey.
(04:06):
Don't ever think that we'll leave.
And they just pushed me. And they were like, well, there's no commitment.
And even though for most people, it was a commitment.
And they were like, you know, we just want you part of the program.
And once they did, you know, like then there was different interviews coming,
different people coming from different, different communities.
And when Cincinnati came up, honestly, like there wasn't the same ring as when
(04:30):
I looked into Palo Alto, California or Phoenix,
Arizona, like those seemed like cooler places to me than Cincinnati, Ohio.
And it didn't have that ring. but there was
nothing that i heard i mean i only heard good things and
i was like okay i'll go check it out just just
to know that we can rule it out that way that way to
(04:51):
check that box that it's not going to happen and i went like a day before my
sister my sister's wedding and i can't i came to cincinnati like and i came
back and my wife said like said to me a couple days later you never even told
me like we were so busy with the wedding you never told me what happened in
cincinnati and i was like oh i was waiting for a good good time to discuss it
because it was actually really nice.
(05:12):
And that's when we came together, we checked it out and like,
and that's, that's history.
Yeah. So from big family in New York, New Jersey area, a large community,
I mean, going into Cincinnati, I'm sure that took, you know,
wanting to make that move.
I mean, how did you see yourself as growing as a person through that transition?
(05:33):
Or was that even something you thought would be happening at that point?
So, oh my gosh, it was like, it was a huge growth. And I, I honestly,
I didn't realize what I was getting into and moving to, to a smaller community.
So there were, there were multiple aspects that like suddenly like came about,
but first of all, going from the large developed community to a smaller community
(05:58):
where there's just so much more opportunity, so much more opportunity.
I would say all the things that I, I got involved with that was,
I would say most of this would never have happened if I was in,
in the larger, more developed, larger infrastructure,
a lot of that is already developed and I would never have had the opportunity.
(06:20):
But another thing that like I suddenly learned was New York, New Jersey.
And I say, I can say this because I'm from there is, you know, is very fast paced.
People are are very fast-paced
in their personalities as well I'm saying that politically
correct and they they
don't always have the space for another person in the same way that a Midwestern
(06:45):
person would would be able to give that consideration to another person and
that was suddenly something so beautiful that I feel like I grew in and I developed
like just being able to recognize the
beauty in every single individual and other people.
And being in a New York, New Jersey, you're not necessarily exposed to everyone
(07:09):
else and the rest of the other communities around you and the other cultures,
which is something so beautiful that I've been able to see since coming to Cincinnati.
So I'm forever grateful for this.
Do you feel like it's like a gift of the interloper? You get to be from two
places, but you could like see them both?
(07:30):
Yeah, because I still know how to drive like someone from New York,
New Jersey. So I'm able to pull both sides of that, I guess.
And I remember Brett alluded to you having a large family. How large is your family?
So I come from a large family and my personal family is quite a large family as well.
We have eight children and so it's quite busy at home.
(07:53):
And I would say that often my work time is my downtime. time.
And then I need to like gear up. And once I get home, that's when it's actually busy.
And I need to be in full swing and be fully alert to help out.
And my wife is taking care of the family, doing an amazing job along with the
other things that she does.
But yes, so there's quite a lot going on in terms of family.
(08:18):
Yeah, definitely. And then one more question before we dive into what we're
actually here to talk about.
Can you tell us a little bit about the Jewish community in Cincinnati,
as it seems like their unique needs have inspired a lot of the projects that
we're going to discuss? Yeah, absolutely.
So Cincinnati is, I would say, quite a large community, a large Jewish community,
(08:39):
and it's an older Jewish community.
But the Jewish community at large, so when I'm saying the Jewish community,
I'm including the Reform Conservative.
That's always been a very stronghold in Cincinnati. The Orthodox community has been much smaller,
and a lot of my work has been within the Orthodox community,
(09:03):
but the Orthodox community is a smaller community.
The Orthodox community has about 400 to 500 families, maybe being a little generous on the 500,
but it's about, I would say about 400 Orthodox families looking at,
and the Orthodox families are often larger families, so the amount of people are quite significant.
(09:27):
There's two Orthodox schools, there's multiple congregations,
and there's just a lot of great things going on.
Well, let's dive into the projects then. So your family started,
and I'll make sure I get this right, the Bikur K'lim of Cincinnati?
First of all, did I get it right? Correct the pronunciations, please.
(09:50):
Pronunciation, it's a little bit of a hard word. It's Bikur,
and I say it with the hard K, so it's Bikur K'lim of Cincinnati.
So there was a Bikur K'lim here before, and I give all the credit for them.
Of all the work that they did before we started, we got involved on their footsteps
(10:12):
of what was going on already.
But honestly, it was quite a challenge when we started. There were families.
And I'll just give a little explanation of what the Bikir Cholm does.
And I'll start with just a little bit of a story. And it's all the credit to my brother-in-law.
He came here, it was just a few months after we got here. And again, I was studying.
(10:36):
I didn't think anything about local medical needs or patient needs.
That was not a focus of mine. It's not something I thought about.
And my brother-in-law was here for a weekend as a visitor, just here with a
patient in Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
And he comes to me after Shabbat ends.
And he says to me, do you know that there's families that are in a hospital
(10:59):
just 15 minutes away from your house that are eating pretzels and and potato
chips because there's limited kosher food.
And I was like, okay, that's horrible, but what do you want me to do about it?
And he was like, well, you have to fix it.
And I was like, well, what do I do?
You're the guy now, right? Right. So he said, that's like, it's like,
(11:21):
it's like he, he tapped me. I was like, okay, you better do this.
But like I said, I said to the mayor, what, what do you think I'm going to do?
Like, am I going to go knock on the front door of Cincinnati children's hospital
and say, okay, now it's time for you guys to have some kosher food.
Like, like, how's that going to happen?
And so, so he responded to me and said, you know, I, I hear that is a problem.
(11:41):
I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
You know, I guess, I guess we don't really have a way of doing it.
And I was like, okay, conversation ended. Like, I don't have to think about this again.
Suddenly Wednesday. So that was Saturday night, Wednesday morning.
He calls me up and he says, can you get, make sure you get a,
a freezer, get the largest freezer you can possibly get and make sure that it's
(12:03):
being delivered by Friday.
And I was like, mayor, what are you up to? And he says to me,
he says to me, just don't ask questions. Just go. I asked you to go get a freezer.
And I was like, it doesn't go like that. You can just go get a freezer on Wednesday
and make it delivered by Friday morning.
Like you need to order it. Like in wherever I'm going, whichever store I'm going
to go to, it's going to like, it's a two week delivery and whatever it is.
(12:25):
And so he was like, just, just figure it out, go do it.
So anyways, I walked in, like, I'm trying to like, I'm calling multiple,
multiple appliance stores and they all like, okay, it's a two week delivery
kind of, kind of turn around, like even expedited.
Like I would have it like the beginning of the following week.
Like, so I just walked into Lowe's and I was like, okay, what can I take off the floor?
So they showed me a freezer I can take off the floor. And I was like,
(12:47):
okay, can I have it delivered by tomorrow?
So it was Wednesday afternoon. They delivered the freezer the following day.
And I'm still not sure what I'm going to, what what's happening.
Suddenly on Friday, Friday morning, I have FedEx shows up with these five boxes of frozen food.
Food so my brother-in-law mayor he
had he had a caterer in muncie new
(13:09):
york prepare it was over 100 meals
he had them prepare prepare these meals they froze it overnight wednesday night
and then they shipped it to me overnighted with dry ice and it came pretty frozen
still on friday morning so i called him up i was like mayor i send him a picture
i have this full freezer now of over a hundred kosher meals.
(13:30):
I was like, but I still don't have any access to the hospital.
Like, what am I going to, what, what do you want me to do now?
And he was like, I get the problem, but now any family that you see that's in
town, if they come to service, if you see it, if you see them,
just let them know that you have kosher food for them.
And make a long story short, that's really the way it started was I would just
(13:52):
go over to the families and say, you know, I know that there's limited kosher food in the hospital.
I have food for you. Can I give you a bag of a few meals?
And then the following day and like and then word spread throughout the hospital
like, oh, if you need kosher food, then go to Rabbi Kaufman.
He has he has food for you and hope and he'll get you set up.
Friday afternoon starts Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath and Friday at sunset.
(14:18):
So I would, I would show up to the hospital and so I had no access to the hospital anywhere.
And like, I would just show up on Friday afternoon and say, either call the
chaplain on call, call social work, ask security to help me to just get up, up to a patient room.
And we, I just need to deliver this kosher food for them.
And I became the consistent nudge of someone coming on a Friday afternoon,
(14:41):
running against the clock and trying to
bring food until like room one
thing to let to the next started with that the hospital
started asking me to do there were different different there were
different cultural cultural aspects that the hospital
was was very interested in learning but less aware because they didn't have
(15:02):
have an orthodox person on staff so they would they would loop me into to different
cultural sensitivity trainings and different and different things that were
going on and i was doing these trainings one after another because they were
really interested in learning.
And at one point judy ragsdale the director of pastoral care at the time asked
(15:24):
if we can go out for coffee after one of our one of my one of my trainings and
she was like would you ever think about joining our staff and i was like at
that point like i had i was ready i had moved over to to congregational work.
I was like, no, I'm, I'm totally, I have a, I have a good gig.
I'm not thinking of hospital world's not my world right now,
but she planted that seed.
(15:46):
And that's when a little bit after that, I learned about this program in Emory
university of, of doing online chaplaincy training, doing, doing CPE online,
which was, which was incredible education as, as a chaplain,
like, I mean, I think anyone in public service,
(16:06):
should have some level of chaplaincy training.
And for sure, anyone in congregational work, I think it was just an incredible, incredible education.
And I did all my education through Emory University doing my clinicals at Cincinnati Children's.
And then I ended up joining their staff for about five years,
(16:31):
I do want to back up a little bit because I'm real curious, because I just don't
know, like reading through some of the services and the pastoral care and guiding
families through the healthcare system and coordinating with the Jewish law.
What is different? And are you the one involved mainly doing that?
So I am the one that's mainly doing that, yes. So what's different is there's, I mean,
(16:56):
there's different ethical ways of looking at things things that sometimes can
be different than Western culture medicine,
especially around decision-making, medical decision-making, the way of family.
Families will often want to consult with a rabbi either for prayer or in addition to that,
(17:18):
there is a cultural aspect of sometimes it's a trust and sometimes it's being
able to hear it from someone within the community.
And I'm not going to do my whole culture, cultural sensitivity training now,
but I do, I do look at that.
There is an element of, I would say it, I say a communal trauma around the medical world.
(17:43):
And there's often a family that's going to hear it from one of,
one of their people then.
So there's, there's also within, within the Jewish community,
there's, there's been referral agencies that really
really delve into and some of them are are medical
professionals and some of them are even lay people that really
(18:03):
delve into researching different medical medical outcomes between different
physicians different different medical centers where where they specialize in
specific medications where they specialize in specific treatments and.
And families will often consult with one of these referral agencies just to
(18:27):
hear, like, am I going to the best place? Am I going to the place that can really help my child?
Am I going to the best place that can help my loved one?
And I had this one morning. It must have been 6 a.m.
Patty Manning, at the time she was the chief of staff of Cincinnati Children's
Hospital, she called me one morning. She's calling me on my cell at 6 o'clock in the morning.
(18:50):
It was, like, a little weird. So I answer and I said, Patty, what's going on?
And she says, well, there's a family here that's rejecting and they're refusing
to go to surgery because you didn't sign off on it.
And what in the world is a rabbi need to sign off on the medical treatment for?
(19:10):
And I was like, well, I don't know what that means. Let me, let me talk to the family.
It turns out the family came for a specific doctor. They knew a specific doctor, doctor's name.
That's why they arrived at the hospital and they were technically willing to do the surgery.
But because the surgeons were changed on them last minute, they were like,
we don't know that surgeon.
We're going to do our research. and the way they
(19:32):
were going to do their research is by asking me so they said
until they hear from me they're not willing to go
into surgery and i was like you know it's it's it's a
shame that the hospital doesn't always understand that of like it's not that
they need a rabbi to sign off and i'm not holding back anything it's just it
gives a certain level of comfort that they heard it from me that yes he's one
(19:53):
of our top physicians yes he's
an excellent surgeon and which sometimes Sometimes keeps me on my toes,
like making sure that I'm up on knowing who the medical professionals are locally.
Yeah, you've got to know everything at that point. Yeah, somewhat.
And it sounds like a lot of times you may just be delivering peace of mind that,
(20:17):
yes, this is okay. Yes, you can trust these people. Right.
So a lot of that is that peace of mind.
There's another element is, I would say, and again, I'm focusing on families
that are coming from larger communities, but even not, the Jewish community
is very community-oriented.
(20:39):
Represented, and I would say especially the Orthodox families that if you look
at any the Orthodox population, they're always living together.
And the reason for that is just a very simple reason, is because there's no
driving and there's no use of electricity, no activating electricity.
(21:00):
We're allowed to have lights on, but we would have lights go on before Shabbat,
so we're not turning them on so nor are we driving
to a congregation so everyone needs to be within a
walkable distance so everyone's usually within a 20-minute
walk of of any given congregation so that it just populates those areas people
know each other and it's a very community-based kind of kind of feeling so when
(21:25):
someone is suddenly in a larger hospital system they're not connected with their community,
that they really feel isolated. They feel disconnected.
And having someone that's going to be coming around, checking on them,
seeing how they're doing is just giving them that comfort of what they're familiar with.
And it's a very strong feeling when everything else is, they lose their autonomy
(21:54):
in the hospital and they lose control.
And suddenly you have someone that you can connect with, it just gives that
sense of comfort in a huge way.
Definitely. I mean, most things in a hospital are scary. So let's take the things
that we can control, like giving them access to food they're comfortable with
(22:15):
and let's control those pieces because those don't have to be scary.
Right. No one chooses to be in a hospital. And even when a hospital worker,
and this has been challenging for me, is like
to constantly look back is the the
small surgeries which the hospital
doesn't look at as any any any level of
(22:36):
crisis and everything is totally like they
know the outcomes they've done this thousands of times it's totally
okay and but for a family going through it that's a crisis anything in a hospital
they're coming in right and it's all crisis for them and that's And it's always
like reminding yourself that there's a heaviness that the families are walking
(23:00):
around with in a hospital.
Yeah, definitely. Okay. So, and you're still a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's, right?
And now your wife actually runs the program dealing with meals and things like that. Yeah.
So my wife is the one running all the coordination of the meal programs.
There's months that we're putting out.
(23:21):
Right now, we can hit 500 meals in a month.
There's hundreds of rides a month based on people coming in and out of Cincinnati.
If people that flew in that are wanting to go to services, if they're wanting
to go to a kosher restaurant,
just assisting families So yeah, my wife does all of that it's,
(23:46):
it was too much for me to, to be doing everything and she's amazing at coordination.
So she's really running, running the whole program.
I'm still, I'm still on the staff at Cincinnati children's and I'm there.
I'm there PRN now. Some there as needed generally Friday afternoons before Shabbat,
I'm doing the education for staff, making sure that they're aware that they're
(24:10):
aware of Shabbat's coming, that this family is coming.
Family is going to be observing Shabbat and what that entails of how to navigate
within a hospital system that everything is electric and the family is not going
to be activating electricity and incredible that because we had this awareness,
the local hospitals here.
Have really moved to such a strong hearing and understanding place and working
(24:36):
through protocol to make it work for families.
Beautiful. I love to hear that. Well, let's jump to a different program.
Can you talk to us about the Hatzalah of Cincinnati?
And as I understand, this is a volunteer ambulance service for everybody,
not just people of a particular faith.
So yeah, can you tell us about it? So here's the first time it's being spoken about.
(24:59):
Oh. It's not announced to the community just yet.
So Hatzala Cincinnati, so there's many communities that have a Hatzala organization.
Hatzala is the largest volunteer EMS organization in the world.
And there's many branches in many different communities. And we're excited to
be opening one here in Cincinnati.
(25:21):
It is all staffed by all volunteer staff.
So all the EMTs dispatchers are all, are all volunteer.
One thing we're excited about is we have a medical director that's volunteer now.
And, and so that's like, it's quite incredible to have like a full staff of people.
(25:43):
What's, what's incredible about Hotsala is really two aspects.
It's people that are trained as EMTs or paramedics that are,
are regular people that that are holding regular jobs.
So it can be an attorney in one place, myself being a healthcare executive director.
(26:05):
It can be a nursing home administrator. It can be an Uber driver.
That is is running their
day-to-day life and when suddenly there's
an emergency it's stopping what they're doing and responding to that emergency
so there's it's regular people people are going about their regular day but
(26:29):
suddenly when that when that emergency comes is that they're they're here to
help another person and what what it does is that we're we're staffed with many people within
the community, around the community, and Hatzalah is not,
is not set up the way the typical EMS is go that you're, you're just waiting
(26:51):
for that call and go run and get, get an ambulance and come and come back.
If the person's in your congregation that, that needs, needs medical assistance,
person's your neighbor, the person's on your block, then it's,
you have all the equipment in your personal vehicle,
run over and be that first responder until 911 shows up, until more.
(27:14):
And you have everything, you have your full jump bag ready to support that patient
until more and higher level of service is able to arrive.
So it's really bridging that gap. What we're doing is bridging that gap.
We're not starting with any ambulance services.
There are hot salas that are more developed that have ambulances as well and will respond.
(27:37):
But there's always those first responders that are arriving with everything
to help that patient right away.
That's incredible. And I assume it's free for patients?
It's free for patients. There are some Hatsalas that when they're able to bill
insurance, then they do.
But it's not something that we're looking at right now Now, for multiple reasons,
(27:59):
it's just an easier setup not to do that.
And especially while we have EMT basic legalities, it's not really realistic
if we're not doing transport.
So that's, yes, entirely free for patients.
And it's mostly it's fundraising within and around the community to be able to support it.
(28:19):
And once families feel that that's an important need, need.
The 911 system that we have here is a really good system.
At the same time, they're not based necessarily within our congregation,
within our few blocks, and within our immediate area.
(28:39):
And their response time is a typical 911 response time, which takes some time
until they're able to get there.
So we're hoping to be able to bridge that gap and to be able to provide provide
for patients much, much quicker until the 911, and then be able to work with them simultaneously.
So will the 911 actually dispatch you guys?
(29:01):
No, we'll have our own dispatchers and we'll coordinate with 911. Yeah. Wonderful.
Okay. And then ignorant question, how does that work on Saturdays?
So that's not an ignorant question. Okay, good.
So when it comes to any medical emergency, then Shabbat is lifted.
(29:24):
I wouldn't say Shabbat is lifted shabbat is it's part of the respect for shabbat
and part of the respect for for everything that we do is to ensure that this
person that's in a medical emergency should be able to observe,
many more weeks of shabbat and to be able to have that permit for a future time
(29:44):
so it's it's absolutely like when there's a medical emergency then that's then
everything gets done and if it means activating any electricity,
driving, and using whatever is needed to be able to assist that patient.
That makes total sense. Thank you so much for explaining that.
Well, Ira, while I want to talk about every single organization you're involved
(30:06):
with, I know we've only got a limited amount of time.
So the last two that I'd like to cover, if you can, are the Burial Society and
the the ritual baths that you ever see. Yeah, absolutely.
So the Burial Society is a, so this is, I got involved pretty much,
this was my first volunteer thing that I got involved with when I joined the community.
(30:30):
I was asking how, like what there is that I can do for the community and Rabbi
Spettner advised me that I can look at the Burial Society.
And I was like, that's not something I do.
But I tried it once and it was, there was really something really meaningful
about being Being able to both, I mean, what we do is be able to wash the deceased
(30:52):
and saying some prayers and preparing them.
What we consider is the journey for the world to come. And sometimes people
don't know that the Jews also have a world to come.
That there's a heaven. But yeah, what we're doing is we're preparing the deceased
and assisting families through end-of-life decisions and a lot of very, very difficult times.
(31:20):
So that's something that we assist with.
The ritual bath is referred to as the mikvah, and that's something that people use for spirituality.
And so that was just near the congregation that I was working with.
So I was often on site, and when there was something that needed to be done,
(31:41):
I was the guy that was around.
So somehow that suddenly
became became my my i don't
call it responsibility and opportunity to be able to be involved in and so right
now i assist them quite a lot but it's so that's something that it's it's a
(32:01):
spiritual aspect of our community and and something that we take pride in it
seems like this is a theme there's a need and somebody goes and finds you.
Well and you are also still the assistant rabbi of your congregation correct
yes so so saturdays it's not an off day for you oh no that's that's what is not a day of rest,
(32:27):
yeah shabbat's supposed to be a day arrest but no it's i i run our early morning
service starts It starts at 7.15, and then I have my Saturday morning class afterwards,
and then I give a Saturday afternoon class.
So yeah, Saturday is not an off day for me in any way.
(32:49):
How did you come to see this as a lifestyle for you that you wanted to choose?
How did you decide you wanted to be on 24-7 and then on one and a half times
when you're home with the family.
So I guess I came to that realization at some point is I guess,
I guess what, what makes me feel, feel accomplished is when I'm overwhelmed, if I have to say that.
(33:16):
So, I mean, that's, I, the answer is, I don't know.
It's, it's just been, been the way of life and, you know,
it's, but at the same time, it's, I strongly carve out family time and date
night with my wife and making sure that we have strong family time as many things that are happening.
(33:36):
I mean, there are times, I'm not going to say I'm a great boundary person,
there are times that we've been on vacation and I'm on the phone with doctors
in the hospital, that happens.
At the same time that that happens, there's also great family time and a strong
focus on making sure that I'm present.
(33:56):
And often my wife needs to remind me that I need to be present,
but that's, yeah, it's, it's, it's busy.
It's hectic, but it's, uh, I don't know another way right now.
And is that anything, did you see anybody that did that growing up or is that
just something that you found along the way? I was inspired by the people that
(34:18):
were really there and present helping community.
And that was something that always inspired me.
And that's something that I look at and say, okay, those people were in larger
communities and their one thing that they're doing took up all of that amount of time.
(34:39):
And that to me, to me, I look at that and say like, okay, I have,
I still have a little bit more room to be able to give.
And I want to be able to help the community in another way.
And to be honest, like, like for Bikir Cholim, like my wife is running it.
Like I take a strong pride in that.
I did that work and I started it, but at the same time she's running it.
(35:00):
And that, that frees me up to be able to do a little bit more.
A beautiful partnership.
So Ira, let's switch a little bit more to the business side,
which is actually how you and I met.
Usually when I talk to somebody about their company, you know,
the short version is show me the money.
But when I spoke with you and your team, it was super clear that you guys cared
(35:21):
a lot about humans and taking good care of people.
So my question in all that is that you've managed to weave being a good person
into your work and your personal life.
I want to know what your advice is on running a healthy business that also does right by people.
So, so I think, I think that it works really hand in hand is the more that you
(35:45):
see the beauty in another person, it really,
it really shapes who you are at work and what, and really what just.
What feeds you and your team being able to work as a, as, as a team player,
being able to recognize, you know, obviously, obviously we all need to work,
walk home at the end of the day with a paycheck and we need to be able to do
(36:06):
business has to, has to go well.
But at the same time, it's being able to be there for your staff,
being able to recognize and being a team player if something's going on for
another person, if there's something that's happening.
And we can have a very strong, healthy business, which we do, thankfully.
And at the same time being able to be there for one another and being able to
(36:31):
be caring if there's something going on in their family something going on with them themselves,
someone's having a harder day someone someone's struggling like and just being
there as another support person in their life and it just doesn't have to be
that cold colleague element but rather rather caring so there's i i think not
(36:53):
only that but i think that that creates a healthy
business is when people feel supported, they want to show up for work.
They want to show that they want to be able to produce more.
They want to be able to do and be there for, for one another.
They're not, people are not, I would say the majority of people are not coming
to work just, just to get a paycheck and just to check their box.
(37:16):
They actually want to feel fulfilled at the end of the day.
And I think that what we're learning more and more is people,
not only that, but it's the majority of their day they're at work,
they want to feel cared for. They want to feel that they're respected.
They want to feel that the leadership of their company are not just using them,
(37:39):
but they're part of the team and they care for them.
And that's what I feel that
every element of my life being being
a a rabbi i was just asked this the other day is
like like how can you like be
it you probably not not you can't do well in business because
(37:59):
you're a rabbi and i was like i think it's just the opposite i think that every
every element of my of my my life being a rabbi being in congregational work
my chaplaincy work seeing people in crisis being being a licensed and social worker is,
and being in a healthcare executive works all simultaneously being able to,
(38:23):
both be there for our patients, be there for, and being focused on a mission
to be caring for patients.
And at the same time, being able to be there, be there for the staff.
Yeah, I totally agree. You're making me like, remember there,
I was introduced to a book by Steve Davis.
(38:43):
He's the current CEO of Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
I'm forgetting the exact title of the book, but it was, it was something of
like, put your patients second.
And like, everyone's into that thing of like, put your patients first. Yeah.
And it's like, it's something along that line. Is it Patients Come Second by
Britt Barrett? Patients Come Second. Okay. Yeah.
(39:05):
Great book. I actually had the joy of working for Britt early in my career.
But that's something that really spoke to me so loud, that people will only
cure for their patients,
and it doesn't matter what business it is, if they're supported and they're cared for.
(39:27):
And that's really the way I look at it. Definitely.
Well, super cool. From all we've talked about, I want to keep going,
but I know we can't go on forever.
So I want to ask the big question is, what can our community do for the organizations you serve?
How do you get support and what can our community do for your communities?
(39:51):
So i would say i would
say there's the cliche answer but it's
but it's really real and really true and then
there's then there's the practical i would
say the the real thing that i i would
love to see in communities is other communities being there for one another
(40:11):
being able to show up for one another I'm just saying that there's the focus
(40:55):
of community-minded, a focus on what can I do for one another?
What can I do for another person? is
and often i look
at it and when when someone's someone says thank you to me
for for assisting them and i'm like no like i don't look at it as that you shouldn't
(41:16):
be saying thank you to me what the greatest thanks is is if you do that for
another person or if i know that if i was in crisis that you would do that for
me and i think that that's really the greatest thing that someone can absolutely do.
Like that's really being there, caring, and every person has a strength in whatever way it is.
(41:37):
And there's some element of strength that a person can see beyond themselves.
And it can be a small thing. It can be an online thing. It can be a support program.
It doesn't have to be starting a whole organization. It doesn't have to be something
large or it can be volunteering for and assisting something bigger than themselves.
(41:57):
Every community has something but practically
i mean many of these organizations that that we
run do work with with fundraising
and and assistance from our community and that's always a practical thing but
that's that's not why i'm on today is to come with a fundraising gig what i
(42:19):
would love listeners is if they go out to their communities think how they can
invest and branch out to do more yeah i mean.
Money does help, helps things get funded, help things get moved forward.
Does, and I'm curious, does most of the commodity, yeah, most words jumbled words.
Does most of the money, the money for your projects come from within your communities?
(42:44):
Is it, I would say, do you have to outside? So we do have to go outside.
It's, it's not all able to sustain itself. It's, it's not all able to sustain itself.
We do have certain donors that are really passionate about each one of the different
projects, but it's often that we have to look beyond the community.
(43:04):
And there's different ways that we think about it, and that's always a focus.
But a message that I sent someone yesterday, they were messaging me about the ritual bath.
And so we do have a membership for
people that are using it and they were like they're struggling and my
(43:25):
response was it's not it's not
the it's not it's our focus
is the mission that we're here for our focus is not can you come through with
the membership and the numbers at the end of the day although they're essential
and they're necessary for us to function it's that's that's not that's not the
(43:45):
mission the mission is that we should be able to be there for for other people in the the community.
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us and for giving us
some insight into a community that we don't participate in.
So it's really fun for us to learn some more and then thank you for all you
do for your communities and really with the decency and love and just seeing
(44:10):
the good in others that you do. And so I appreciate that in you.
Okay. Thank you, Bret. Thank you, Amanda.
Wow. I am so inspired by the way that Ira, his wife, and children give back to the community.
It's a family affair in the Kaufman household with the whole family giving back
to the community from meal prep to transportation to just being there for people.
(44:32):
I hope you'll be inspired to be there and care for your own community as well
as see the beauty in other people.
Check out the show notes for links to all the amazing organizations where Ira
and his family give their time and energy.
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