did morning and welcome to mosaic. am honored to be her house this morning. faith communities across our country have very serious conversation about their own economic health and vitality. we would like to invite you in for a wonderful conversation on this topic with cindy who is the executive director of hebrew free loan. welcome. >> thank you. >> let's jump in and ask what is hebrew free loan? >> to discuss it is to talk about its history. ti've been celebrating all aspec

year. we were created in 1897 by a group of people who were studying the torah because the mission of our agency comes directly from the torah in this group of individuals took a look and said look at this, it shows in the torah that god tells moses not to charge interest basically to his people. that it's really important not to benefit from another person's troubles. based on that they decided to make it a reality and they created, the hebrew free loan. what they did is they each agreed to donate $.25 into a pot until they had enough money to make their first load the

loans are still interest-free 120 years later, primarily two members of the jewish community and their paid back over time, we have an amazing repayment rate 120 years later. it's 99.75%. >> i know we are going to talk about concrete programs and people that elevated their own economic health and vitality but if we rewind to 1897 in san francisco the state of california, can you talk a little bit about what was going one visionaries say we need to do community for our future? it is quite a vision and quite a legacy. >> it is. it is when i am proud to help usher into the century and beyond. what they were facing at the

time when you think of the california gold rush, the had a lot of immigrants who are new to the community who are all part of that effort to pave a better path for their own families. the jewish that were coming here at the time faced a lot of anti-semitism and it was difficult for them to get any kind of financial support that others might be able to avail themselves of so this was an opportunity to provide for their own members community by donating a little bit of money to create that pool of funds. i think there were some very real economic hardships that they were all facing at the time and they felt it would make it easier they did this. >> 1897 to 2017 is interestinhe structures are in the san

francisco bay area, our state, nation or world. issues around how people come to a place where there are and in the grant or transplant. you have a lot of energy but you might not have the money. that is the merit. i am wondering as we turn to folks that would benefit from hebrew free loan, could you comment on that economic marriage of how you bring human capacity an economic support system and what that does to build resilience in the community? >> thank you for that question. our mission is really to help people become and remain self- sufficient at the core of what we do. we do that by means of providing interest-free loans. much like a

especially for immigrants and others when they don't have that family support to provide the necessary financial means. we are like an extended family offering that key to their future, whether it's to help them get back on track financially, we offer personal loans, emergency loans, unemployment loans, debt consolidation loans where people are having financial troubles. we also provide loans much like a family would for people that are trying to really fulfill their dreams. education loans, business loans , adoption and fertility loans. >> a range of issues that influence economic vitality. we will take a quick break and come back to our conversation with cindy and hebrew free loan in just a moment.

good morning and welcome back to .ani would like to rein you to cindy newsy executive director of hebrew free loan with her is greg is a business loan from hebrew free loan.

welcome. greg, let's ask you about your experience with hebrew free loan. >> a while back i had a dream of starting my own coffee truck . i was with a company for many years and decided to start something fresh and new and i wanted to build one myself and i got the approval and the okay but the only caveat was i had to fund it and build it and design it. i was excited about it so i got to a point where i was not able to find the funds was running tokinds of obnkand soh use i had no ioexperience in nia business. i was told there is a program, the hebrew free loan from my mom used to work for an agency with cindy in the past.

she said look it up and check it out so i went in there and met cindy and told her about my concept and idea and passions and what i wanted to do and she was very supportive and we went to the whole process of making it happen. that's how it happened. >> it will be interesting to talk about the process of doing this and how hebrew free sees its loan role in it. we live in a part of the country in a stereotypical way, in lived truce today is filled with this notion of thspan ideas in entrepreneurialism and how do you make a dream come true and i'm just wondering as you were thinking through your dream of doing this, what was it about this dream, the food truck, how did you come to this

concept so you could go into cindy and answer basic questions about the food truck or coffee or why this and that. can you give us some of your entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of what it was for you? >> i've always wanted to have something that is my own. i've always wanted to work for myself and stand behind something that's bigger than me. i always believed in our company and what we try to do and feel it feels coffee gave me this opportunity to have something i can call my own it came in the ssnate about id excited so det do whatever it took to make it happen. basically wanted to help him grow the company in other ways and still have something i

could call my own. that was the whole idea. it was to have a start in business life and grow it and make it happened. >> that is wonderful. >> it was that drive that i witnessed when he came into the office. i could tell he had that passion which is something i look for when i am betting our business loan applicants. i could tell he had an idea, a path will he know what he needed to do to make it successful and his financials were together and organized and clear. was a able. i saw he ha drive to see the plan through. that is what impressed me about greg. >> can you give us a little bit

of a sense of what happens on the inside about how you free loan comes to a yes? >> there is a lengthier process for business loans and other loan requests that come her way it is met to that the business, we look at financials and financials for the coming year and the assumptions behind us projections we look at how well the person is situated, what kind of advisers he or she has and just the kind of support, financial and otherwise around them to make sure they can weather any storm's and we like to see that our funds that we provide up to $50,000 for a business loan, sometimes that's all they need, sometimes it's a piece of the puzzle that we like to understand how our money is going to's into their overall plan.

>> we take aic break t do, can giveust u goinrwwhatdr >> great question. when you go into business there is a lot of ups and downs. you have good days and fun days and then bad days. we are part of the community and everyday we show up and we have people that love us and support us and haven't done that for many years. we have built a great team and we are offering pejo and it is something that always believed in. if you can go into business you not only helping yourself but the people around you.

being there for those clientele of years and those of the people that believin you and the nature of gross, i want to keep on pushing and doing bigger and better things. >> thank you so much. we will survey to greg in just a moment and return to mosaic and have the conversation continue with cindy.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we e wa in which thwico economic vitality and resilience in the community and i'd like to introduce you again to cindy who is the executive director of hebrew free loan

and also terry who was a recipient of a loan also so, terry will you let us know what ebeen. >> i received an unemployment loan about five years ago, i was laid off from my job, it was 2012 we are coming out of the recession and so i was laid off so that's always a hard challenge but for me it happened at a time when all these other things were going on. more things than i could ever imagine, i was diagnosed with breast cancer, i have put my house up for a cert cell so we lost a family homea teenage son. he was 15 and he went through a serious mental health crisis. i was doing with all of those things at one time in did not know how we were going to survive.

a friend suggested hebrew free loan. unemployment loan? recent unemp it had to be in the past year and it is meant to be, jewish unemployment, it is supposed to supplement what they might get from the state but it is very difficult for people in a situation like tarries to survive with just receiving the small amount that you can get through normal unemployment programs to the state. >> i'm wondering if you can also talk about your experience about the ways in which you used the loan because i imagine an unemployment one is different than a business loan and you have a different way of understanding coming through an economic challenge and i'm wondering if you can talk about how you came through that and

how the financial assistance helped bridge your life to the next place you would land debtor . >> absolutely, that is a great question. the way the unemployment loan works is you are allotted a certain amount of money every month for up to six months if you remain unemployed and you also have to check in with cindy or your loan officer once a month to let them know how it's going.t was a big form of support, i would talk to cindy she would ask me how my job search was going and she would connect me with people so it was a practical support and helped me y thbis m a big smallish emotional support. o y

give you a loan? i don't have a job, i have all these expenses and i don't know when i can repay you but with the unemployment loan you don't have to repay it for up to three months after you've gotten your last loan check. nine months interest free no loan payments. >> that story reminds me about greg's and if you go to a financial institution typically the way you get a loan is on an economic filter and the relationship is from the financial institution perspective is we want to have it by a certain day of the month and a certain amount of money in the filament of the relationship but it hebrew free loan it looks like you are engaging the whole person whether it's a business loan or other ere a

certaikind of asanare ing sos k economic assistance and there are different human elements that go into building resilience and i'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about that more holistic approach is about the sustainability of finances. >> it's essential to me. as terry described her situation, there were so many more things going on other than just needinsh. we fa, social agen a ncial n. were all of ted wey to meet people where they are at. every person who comes in and have an initial need for some kind of cash, we get to know a large part, we

believe, why we have such a high repayment rate. we really build those connections with people that are lifelong. i could tell you stories about every loan recipient whose walk through our doors. we get to know them as people and they get to know us. they fill a commitment to repaying us and we fill a commitment to help them in every aspect of their life if we have the ability to do so. >> we are going to take a quick break and come back in just a moment.

for more information about hebrew free loan visit their website at hf la hs.org or call them welcome back. we inthe middle of a wonderful conversation about the economic viability in the jewish community in the bay area and i'd like to reintroduce you to cindy who is the executive director of hebrew free loan and terry who was in and on unemployment loan recipient. i understand there is an evolution in your particular

story? >> there is. this is not what happens with most of our loancipits it was a few years after she received the unemployment loan that we posted that we had a job available and she contacted me and said you think i might be appropriate for the job, she was already working, she had resolved a lot of her financial woes and other troubles and i said she would be perfect, she had impressed me during the interview period and beyond and i was delited to bring he board becauswh interview potential loan recipients but somebody who had been through it on the other side so today she is a loan officer with us as well as a

development associate helping to raise funds for the agency. >> that's wonderful. it reminds me that in the agency has a lot of components that make it viable in and of itself so i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about this holistic approach. how do they receive funds to them to distribute back to the community. you mentioned the quarters to create that first initial pot but can you talk about what that looks like today? can you also tie in the way we've talked about the holistic approach and as people become economically viable they give back, i'm wondering if you have any sense of the ways that recipients become philanthropists themselves in the community and give back at large? >> we are still dependent upon donations from the community 120 years later. numbers look a little bit different. first loan was $10 in 1897 and

today we have over $50 million in assets, most of that is out in the community. almost 10 million out in the community helping over 1000 loan recipients. as they pay that money back we move it forward to help others. we are always trying to grow that pot because the more we have in assets the more we are able to give out to members of the community and the rest is invested. that is a large part of what terry is helping us with. we definitely can hear about the full-circle club. is a program that is for people who've been loan recipients that have been a borrower income to give. >> we have 30 seconds left, can you say how people might be able to ntact can contact us th our website, it's a brand-new website that is very user-

friendly and they can call us and the full-circle club has periodic gatherings. >> cindy and terry, thank you so much for being wonderful co we encourage you to think about this issue in our community and at large and thank you for joining us here on mosaic.

a dangerous spike in youth crime in the bay area after a brazen attack is: camera. how one victim but. and east bay home riddled with bullets, the frightening chaos as people ran for cover. >> i was in shock. >> maybe i should get away from my window.>> good morning it is sunday, april 25th i am emily turner. let's check the weather with meteorologist