Brian Fink has long shown an instinct for social justice issues. Back when he was an undergraduate, he produced an honors thesis with the spookily prescient title "Community Sustainability for New Orleans." During his time at RRC, he has worked with the Jewish Funds for Justice and the Interfaith Hospitality Network, which assists homeless Philadelphia families.
But it is work he did years ago that offers an especially interesting counterpoint to his rabbinical training. After undergraduate school, initially through Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, Fink spent five years working with the Urban Justice Center's Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project in New York City. In that work, conducting clinics in soup kitchens and food pantries, he could offer clients a direct response on life-or-death issues. For two hours at a stretch, he would listen to people as they described their problems, and would identify issues that could be addressed through the law—gaining welfare benefits, food stamps or Medicaid, or stopping eviction.
Although he sees many similarities between that early work and his student work as a chaplain with the Jewish Family Service, he says that in his chaplaincy he has encountered fewer acute issues—and fewer direct solutions. "These people are depressed because they're in a personal-care or boarding home and they're losing abilities, and people they know are dying," he says. "I can’t fix that."
Yet in legal outreach, there were limitations as well. "When people would tell me how depressed they were, I had to respond, okay, now tell me about your welfare case. I can help you get food stamps, and maybe that would make your life better. Chaplaincy is more holistic."
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