(upbeat music) good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss. faith communities across our country have very serious conversations about their own economic health and vitality. we would like to invite you into a wonderful conversation on this topic with cindy who is the executive directory of uber free loan. welcome cindy. so let's jump in and ask you what is hebrew free loan. >> to discuss it is to really

talk about its history. we are 120 years old. which is a very time for us. we have been celebrating all year that we reached that point. we were created in 1897 by a group of people who were studying the torah. because really the mission of our agency comes directly from the torah. and 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. and that it is really important not to benefit from another person's troubles. so based on that, they decided to make it a reality. and they created, initially it was called acts of lovingkindness. later became known as the hebrew free loan. and what they did is they each

agreed to donate $.25 into a pot each month until they had enough money to make their first loan. and the lows are always still, 120 years later, interest free. i merely two members of the jewish community. and the loans are paid back over time. we have an amazing repayment rate. still, 120 years later our repayment rate is 99.75%. >> i know we are going to talk more about concrete programs and people who are going to talk in a personal way about how they elevated their own economic vitality. but if we rewind to 1897 in san francisco, in the state of california, can you talk a little bit about what was going on that actually had it these visionaries say, we need to do this on behalf of our own community for our future.

because it is quite a vision and quite a legacy. >> it is one that i am proud to help us into this century and beyond. what they were facing at the time, when you think of the california gold rush, we had a lot of immigrants who were new to the community. they were all part of the effort to pave a better path for their own families. and jewish people who were coming here at one time waste a lot of anti-semitism. it was difficult for them to get financial support that others might be able to avail themselves of. and so, this was an opportunity to provide for their own members of the community. by donating a little bit of money to create that pool of funds. so, i think there was a very real economic hardships that they were all facing at the time. and they felt this will make it a little bit easier. >> 1897 to 2017 is interesting,

no matter what the political structures are in this emphasis go bay area, our state, or the nations of the world. the issues of how people come to a place. whether you are an immigrant or a transplant. the way you come to a place with a new vision. and you have a lot of energy, but you may not have the money. and that is the marriage. and i am just wondering, as we sort of turned to folks who benefit, can you comment on that kind of economic marriage of how you bring human capacity to an economic support system. and what that does to build resilience in the community. >> well thank you for the question. our mission is to help people

become and remain self- sufficient. at the core of what we do. and we do that by means of providing interest-free loans. is like a family member might. especially for immigrants and others who are living in an environment where they don't have that family support to provide the necessary financial means. we are like an extended family, offering the key to the future. whether it is to help them get back on track financially, we offer personal loans, emergency loans, unemployment loans. debt consolidation loans, anything where people are having financial troubles. and we also provide loans, much like a family would, for people who are trying to really fulfill their dreams. so mib education loans, it might be business loans. adoption infertility loans. >> a range of issues that influence economic vitality. we are going to take a quick break and come back to our conversation in just a moment.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about issues of economic vitality and resilience and faith communities. i would like to introduce you to cindy who is the executive

director of hebrew free loan. and with her is a recipient of the hebrew free loan. let's just jump in and ask you what your experience is with hebrew free loan. >> a while back, i had a dream of starting my own food truck. i was with the company for many years and started to think about something fresh. i wanted to build a truck myself and i got the okay from phil. the only caveat is i had to find it and build it and design it. i was excited about it until i got to a point where i was not able to find the funds. i was running into all kind of problems with tanks and so forth. because i had no prior experience in owning a business. and so, i was told that there

is such a program as a hebrew free loan actually from my mom who used to work for an agency with cindy in the past. and so she said go ahead and look it up and check it out. so i went in there and i met cindy and told her about my concept, my passions of what i wanted to do. and cindy was very supportive. and went through the whole process of making it happen. >> it is going to be interesting to talk about the process of doing this. and how hebrew free loan sees its role in it. but we live in the part of the country, and a stereo typical way, but also in lived the truth day today, is filled with the notion of the human spirit

and 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 things, what was it about this dream? how did you come to this kind of a concept so that you can go into cindy and hebrew free loan. and answer basic questions about how about this, why this, why that. can you give us a little bit of your entrepreneurial spirit to give you a sense of what that was like for you. >> i always wanted to have something that was my own. i wanted to work for myself. and i wanted to have something that is bigger than me. i always believed in our company and what we try to do. and feel of phil's coffee gave me this opportunity to have something i can call my own. and he came in the form of a food truck. i was passionate about it.

i'm excited about it. so i was determined to do whatever it took to make it happen. i basically wanted to help him grow the company in other ways, yet, still have something i can call my own. and that was really the whole idea. it was to kind of have a starting business life. and make it happen. so, >> that's wonderful. >> it was really that drive that i witnessed when greg came into the office. i could tell he had that passion, which is something i look for when i'm venting our business loan applicants. i can tell he had an idea, he had a path, he knew exactly what he needed to do to make it successful. his financials were all together and organized in clear i could see that it was a viable business. furthermore have a committee of very successful business people who were able to evaluate it. and i saw that he had the drive to really see the plan through.

and that was really what impressed me about greg. >> cindy, can you give us a little of a sense of what happens on the inside about how hebrew free loan comes to a yes. passion? business plan? other elements. what gets to a yes? >> first of all, there is a lengthier process for business loans than other loan requests that come our way. but it is meant to look at the financials, we like and projections for the coming year. we look at the assumptions that are made behind those projections. we look at how well the person is situated. what kind of advisors he or she has. just the kind of support financial and otherwise, to make sure they can weather any storm's. we like to see that our funds that we provide, will provide under excuse me up to $50,000

for a business loan. sometimes that's all they need. sometimes it is a piece of the puzzle. but we like to understand how our money is going to fit into an overall plan. >> we are going to have to take a break. but before we do, greg, can you give us a sense of what keeps you going in your business? what drives you and feed you as you move forward? >> that's a great question. when you own a business there are a lot of ups and downs. are you going to have your good days and down days. but what keeps me going is we are part of community and every day we show up and we have people that love us, support us and have done it for many years. so i'm doing this because number one, we have built a great team and we are offering people jobs. it is something that i've always believed in. so if you can grow the business

, you are helping not only yourself but also the people around you. and of course being there for those clientele of yours. those people who really believe in you . and the nature of growth. i want to keep on pushing and growing and doing bigger and better things. >> thank you so much. we are going to say goodbye to greg in just a moment and return to mosaic and have a conversation continue with cindy and hebrew free loan.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about ways in which the jewish community looks at building

economic vitality and resilience in the community. and i would like to introduce you again to cindy who is the executive director of hebrew free loan. also terry lowe who was the recipient of a loan. terry, let us know what your experience has been. >> so i received an unemployment loan. it was about five years ago. i was laid off from my job. it was during 2012 when we were coming out of the recession. so that is always a hard challenge. but for me, it happen at a time when all these other things in my life, i was diagnosed with breast cancer, i had to put my house up for a short sale so we lost our family home. and i had a teenage son, he's older now. he was 15 and he went through a serious mental health conference

. i did not know how we were going to survive. and a friend suggested hebrew free loan. >> and so you got what is called an unemployment loan? >> officially the name of the program's recent unemployment. somebody has to have been unemployed sometime in the past year. and it is meant to be, we call it jewish unemployment. it is supposed to supplement whatever they might get from the state. but it is very difficult for people in a situation like terry's to survive with just receiving this small amount that you can get through normal unemployment programs through the state. >> cindy, i'm wondering if you can also talk a little about your experience with terry are also terry you chime in about

the ways in which you use the loan. because an unemployment loan is different than building a business loan. you have a different way of understanding coming through an economic challenge. i'm wondering terry if you can talk about how you came through that unemployment and the ways in which really the financial assistance help, i think kind of bridge your life? >> that is a great question. the way the unemployment loan works is that, 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 is going and your job search et cetera. that was actually a big form of support. i would check in with cindy and she would ask me how my job search is going. she will connect with people saying have you talked with this or that person? so it was a practical support. and it helped me pay the bills during that time. even more felt like a ve

waa big emotional support. who else but your family is going to give you a loan? i don't have a job, i have all these expenses, i'm not sure when i can repeat repay you but i'm sure i can. the other thing about an unemployment loan is you don't have to pay it until three months after you got a new job. >> terry story reminds me, looping back a little bit, to greg's story who got a business loan. if you go to financial institution like a bank or credit union, typically the way you get a loan is really on and economic filter in the relationship is, from the financial institution perspective is that we want to have x dollars to pay every month. that is the limit of the relationship.

but through hebrew free loan, it also seems you prrams, certainly would terry's perspective, is there is a certain kind of assistance that you are getting. so it is kind of emotional assistance, consultation, economic. all the different human elements that go into building resilience. and i'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit about what that more holistic approach is all about and the sustainability of finances. >> to me it is essential because, as you mentioned, as terry described her situation, there were so many more things going on in her life than simply leaving an infusion of cash. and we see ourselves as somewhere between a family, a social service agency and a financial institution.

we are all of that rolled into one. and we try to meet people where they are. every person who comes in who has an initial need for some kind of cash, we get to know them as a person. it is a large part, we believe, and a self-serving way, why we have such a high repayment rates. because we really build those connections with people that are lifelong. i can tell you stories about every loan recipient whose walk through our doors. we get to know them as people they get to know us. they feel a commitment to repaying us and we feel 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 to mosaic in just a moment.

for more information about hebrew free loan, please visit their website at letter hflasf.org or call that met 415- 546-9902. welcome back to mosaic i'm rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the economic viability of the jewish community in the bay area. and i would like to reintroduce you to cindy who is the executive director of hebrew

free loan and terry who is an unemployment loan recipient. terry, i understand there is just a wonderful evolution in your particular story with hebrew free loan. >> this is not what happens with most of our loan recipients or the unemployment loan recipients. >> it was actually a few years after she'd received the unemployment loan that we posted we had a job available and terry contacted me. she said do you think i might be more appropriate for this job? she was already working. she already resolved her financial woes and other troubles. and i said you would be perfect for this job. she had really impressed me during the interview and beyond . and i was delighted to bring her own board because who better to interview potential loan recipients, but someone who had been through it on the other side. so today, terry is a loan officer with us. as well as a

development associate helping to raise funds for the agency. >> that is wonderful. it reminds me any agency has lots of different components to make it viable in and of itself. i'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about this broader holistic approach. how does hebrew free loans itself receive funds to been distribute back to the community. your room mansion in 1897 man gave quarters. can you talk about what the pot looks like for the hebrew free loan? if you can also tie in in this way that we talked about a holistic approach, i would imagine that as people become more economically viable, they also start to give back. i'm wondering if you have any sense of the ways in which they become philanthropists themselves. >> we are still dependent upon donations on the community. 120 years later. our numbers look a little bit different. our first loan was $10 in 1997.

today, we have over $15 million in assets. most of that is out in the community. we have almost him in a we have almost 10 million in the community helping loan recipients. as they pay money back we move the money forward to help others. we are always trying to roll the 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. to answer your question, you can tell a little bit about the full circle club. we have a program to help people who have been loan recipients who come full circle from being a borrower to being a donor. >> believe that we have just 30 seconds left for can you say in a moment how people might be able to contact you to support the work in the community. >> they can get onto our website.

we have a user friendly donation page, they can call us. the full circle club has periodic gatherings. >> thank you so much for being with us for this wonderful conversation. we encourage you to think about this issue and thank you for joining us here on mosaic.

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