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mosaic. i am honored to be your host this morning. faith communities across our country have very serious conversations about their own economic health and vitality. we invite you into a wonderful conversation with the executive director of hebrew free loan. welcome, cindy. let's jump in and ask you, what is hebrew free loan? >> to discuss it is to talk about its history. we are 120 years old. and that is a very special time for us. we have been celebrating all year. we were created by a group of people that were studying the torah because the mission of our agency comes directly from the torah. 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 it is really important not to benefit from another person's troubles. based on that they decided to make it a reality and made this and it later became known as the hebrew free loan. and what they did was they each agreed to donate $.25 into a pot until they had enough money to make their post -- first loan. and the loans are still 120 years later, interest-free. and the loans are paid back over time. we have in amazement repayment rate at 99.75% 120 years later. >> we are going to talk a little more about concrete programs and a few people that will talk in a personal way about how they elevated their economic health and 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 had these visionaries say, we need to do this on behalf of our own community for our future. because it is quite a vision and a legacy. >> it is is. i am proud to usher it into this century and beyond. when you think of the california gold rush, we had a lot of new immigrants that were part of the community to pave of better path for their families. and there was a lot of anti-semitism and it was difficult for jews to get any financial support . 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. i think there were some very real economic hardships they were all facing at the time and felt this would make it a little easier. >> wow. so, 1897 to 2017, it is just interesting no matter what the political structures are in the san francisco bay area, our state, the nation or the world, that issues around how people become a new to a place, whether an immigrant or a transplant. but you may have the energy which is not the money. that is the marriage. and if you could just comment on that kind of, if i can call it in economic marriage, how you bring human capacity to an economic support system and what that does to build

resilience in a community. >> thank you for the question. our mission is to really 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 family member might. especially for immigrants who are living in an environment where they don't have family support to provide the necessary financial means. we are like extended family, offering that key to their future. whether it is to help them get back on track financially, we offer personal loans, emergency loans, unemployment loans. debt consolidation. where people are having financial troubles. we also provide loans, much like a family would, for people trying to really fulfill their dreams. it might be education loans or business loans. adoption and

fertility loans. a range of economic vitality. we will take a quick break and come back with cindy 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 and i'd like to reintroduce you to cindy rogoway, the executive director of hebrew free loan. and with her is a business loan recipient from hebrew free loan. greg, let's jump in and ask you, what is your experience 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 decided to start something fresh and new and wanted to build one myself and got the approval but the only caveat was that i had to find it and build it and design it. i was really excited about it until i got to a point where i was not able to find the funds and was running into all kinds of problems with banks and so forth because i had no prior experience in owning a business. i was told that there was such a program as hebrew free loan, from my mom . she used to work for an agency with cindy and she said, go ahead and check it out. i went in, met cindy, told her about my concept, idea and passions about what i wanted to do. cindy was very supportive and we went through the whole process of making it happen. >> it will be interesting to talk about the process of doing

this and hebrew free loan sees its role in it. we live in a part of the country in a stereotypical way and certainly not just typically but in light of truth day-to-day. it is filled with this notion of the human spirit and ideas in entrepreneurialism it. and i'm just wondering, as you were thinking through your dream of doing things, what was it about this dream, sort of, how did you come to this concept so you could go into hebrew free loan and ask basic questions about what i would assume would be the basic questions. so can you give us a little bit of your entrepreneurial spirit? >> i always wanted something that was my own and always wanted to work for myself and stand something behind something that is bigger than

me. i always believed in our company and what we tried to do. and it gave me an opportunity to do something i can call my own and it came in the form of a food truck. i was passionate and excited about it and i was determined to do what it took to make it happen. i wanted to help him grow the company in other ways and still have something i could call my own. that was really the whole idea. to have a start in a business and grow it and make it happen. that is how it came to be. >> it was that drive eyewitness when greg came into the office. i could tell he had that passion. that is something i'm looking for when i am betting our business loan applicants. he had an idea and a path and knew exactly what he needed to do to make it successful. his financials were all together and organized and i could see it was a viable business and i

have a committee of very successful business people that were able to evaluate it. i saw that he had the drive to see the plan through and 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 the hebrew free loan comes to a yes. passion, business plan, other elements. >> there is a lengthier process for business loans than other loan requests that come our way but it really is meant to vent the business and viability of the business plan. we look at financials and projections for the coming year. we look at assumptions that are made behind those productions -- projections, we look at how well the person is situated, what kind of advisers he or she has and the kind of support, financial and otherwise, around

them, to make sure they can weather any storm's. would like to see that our funds , we will provide up to $50,000 for a business loan. sometimes that is all a person needs and sometimes it is a piece of the puzzle. we want to understand how our money will fit into their overall plan. >> we have to take a quick break. but before we do, greg, can you give us sort of what keeps you going in your business. what drives you and feed you as you move forward? >> that is a great question. when you own a business, there are a lot of ups and downs. good days, fun days and some dandies. what really keeps me going is that we are part of community and every day we show up and have people that love us and support us and have for many years. i'm doing this because we have built a great team and we are offering people jobs and it is something that i've always believed in. if you can grow a business and you

are helping that only yourself, you're helping people around you. it is also being there for the clientele and those people who really are with you. it is something to thrive on. it is the nature of growth. i want to keep pushing and growing. >> we will say goodbye to greg in just a moment and return to mosaic and have the conversation continue with cindy rogoway.

good morning, and welcome back to mosaic. i am honored to be your host. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about how the jewish community looks at economic vitality and resilience. i'd like to introduce you again to cindy rogoway, the executive director of hebrew free loan. and also terry, who was also a recipient. why don't you let us know what your experience with hebrew free loan has been. >> i received an employment loan about five years ago. i was laid off from my job. it was in 2012 and we were coming out of the recession and i was laid off. that is always a hard challenge. for me, it happened at a time when all these other

things were in -- going on in my life. i was diagnosed with breast cancer and i had to put my house up for a short sale. i had a teenage son that was 15 and he went through a serious dental health crisis. i was dealing with all of these things at one time and i did not know how we were going to survive . friends suggested hebrew free loan to read >> you got what is called an unemployment loan? >> the name of the program is recent unemployment. someone has to have been unemployed sometime in the last year. it is meant to be, we call a jewish unemployment . it was supposed to supplement whatever they might get from the state but it is very difficult for people to survive with just receiving that small amount that you can get through normal unemployment programs through the state. >> i'm wondering if you can

also talk a little bit about your experience with terry, and terry, you can chime in. talk about the ways in which you use the loan. because that is a different way of understanding coming through an economic challenge. i'm wondering if you could talk about how you came through that unemployment and the ways in which the financial systems helped you and kind of help you bridge your life to the next place you would land better. >> the way the unemployment loan works is that you are allotted a certain amount of money every month for six months if you remain unemployed. you also have to check in with cindy or your loan officer once a month to let them know how it is going with your job search, et cetera. that was a big form of support. cindy would ask me how might job search is going, she

would connect me with people. it was a practical support and also helped me pay the bills. and even more, it was a big emotional support. who else but your family will give you a loan. i don't have a job, i've got all these expenses and i'm not sure when i can repay you but i'm sure i can. but with the unemployment loan, you don't have to repay it for up to like three months after you've gotten the last loan check. so nine months, interest-free with no loan payment. >> terry story reminds me, looping back to greg's story that if you go to a financial institution like a bank or credit union, typically the way you get a loan is on an economic filter. the relationship from the financial institution perspective is that

we just want to have by x date and x amount of dollars and that is the limit of the relationship. but through hebrew free loan it seems that you are engaging the whole person. so whether it is a business loan or other kinds of loan programs, there is a certain kind of assistance you are getting, so it is actually a kind of emotional assistance, economic assistance and consultation. they are all the different human elements that go into building resilience. i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what that more holistic approach is all about in the sustainability of finances. >> to me, it is essential. as you mentioned and as terry described her situation, there were so many more things going on in her life then simply needing an infusion of cash. we see ourselves somewhere between a family, a social service agency and a financial

institution all rolled into one. we try to meet people where they are at. every person who comes in and has an initial need for some kind of cash, we get to know them as a person. we believe that we believe in a self-serving way that is why we have a high repayment late. we build those connections with people's lives. every loan recipient, we get to know them as people and they get to know us and 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 will take a quick break and come back in just a moment. r to the next level. - we can show not juhat's happening at ground level, but we can show what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. let's lift the clouds off of ground level and talk... - it really spotlights how unique the geography is here.

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for more information about hebrew free loan, please visit their website at hflasf.org or

call them at 415- 456-9902. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of the wonderful conversation about the economic viability of the jewish community in the bay area. i would like to reintroduce you to the executive director of hebrew free loan and terry, who was an unemployment loan recipient. i understand there is just a wonderful revolution in your particular story. >> there is. it is not what happens with most of our loan recipients are the unemployment loan recipients. do you want to tell what happened? >> it was a few years after she received the employment loan that we posted that we had a job available and terry contacted me and said do you think i might be appropriate for this job? she was already

working and had resolved a lot of her financial woes and other troubles and i said, you would be perfect for this job. she had really impressed me during the interview period and beyond and i was delighted to bring her on board. who better to interview potential loan recipients but someone who had been through it on the other side. today terry is a loan officer with us as well as a development associate in helping to raise funds for the agency. >> that is wonderful. it reminds me that every agency has lots of different components that makes it viable. i wonder if you could talk a little more about this broader come a holistic approach. how does a hebrew free loan receive funds to distribute back to the community. you mentioned in 1897 that a few men gave quarters and created that initial pot. can you talk about what that initial pot now looks like and if you can also tie in this way that we talked about the holistic approach. i would

imagine as people become more economically viable, they do start to give back. i am wondering if you have any sense in the ways in which people of hebrew free loan become philanthropists themselves. >> sure. we are still dependent on donations from the community. our numbers look a little different. our first loan was $10 back in 1897. 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 the money forward to help others. we are always trying to grow that part because the more we have in assets, the more we can give out to members of the community. the rest is invested. that is a large part of what terry is helping us

with. you can tell a little bit about the full circle club. we have a program to help people who have been loan recipients and come full circle from being a borrower to becoming a donor. >> can you stay in a moment how people me contact hebrew free loan to support its work in the community? >> they can contact us through our website. we have a brand-new website with a very user-friendly donation page. they can call us and we have the full circle club that has periodic gatherings. >> thank you so much for being with us for this wonderful conversation. we encourage you to think about this issue in our community and at large and thank you for joining us here on mosaic.

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from cbs news bay area, this is the morning edition. evacuation orders near los angeles as fire crews struggle