Corps member stories

Read a little about some real life stories from AVODAH alumni.

Amy Blumsack

AVODAH 2003-2004

I have been struggling with issues of inequality and power ever since the 9th grade, when the majority of my middle/upper-middle class peers left the public school system to go to expensive, private high schools. Parents and children chose to turn their backs on everyone else, rather than deal with the problems within Oakland, California’s public school system. This led me to realize the ways that privilege skews the distribution of resources and opportunity.

I came to University of California, San Diego, wanting to learn about the way power was structured and maintained and how that affected different groups of people within the United States. I declared the Ethnic Studies major because it addressed all of the things that mattered most to me—it dealt with the inequality that I had seen but could not fully explain.

While I grew up with a strong sense of Jewish identity and became even more connected to Judaism during my study in Israel, I felt incredibly torn between my commitment to the Jewish community and my pursuit of social justice. This dilemma plagued me until I returned to UCSD and spoke with Hillel Director Rabbi Lisa Goldstein. Rabbi Lisa opened my eyes to one of the most beautiful aspects of Judaism—tikkun olam. She made me realize that Judaism is about helping all people in order to heal the world and make it a better place. Suddenly I understood that I did not have to choose between my two passions of Judaism and social justice, because they are inextricably linked.

This link is exemplified by AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. AVODAH was fun and exciting and new and wonderful, but also full of struggles. I was constantly stretching myself to try new things. My work at Neighbors Together particularly defined this year for me. I had been drawn to the organization because it sounded non-bureaucratic, grassroots, and small. I wanted to get dirty, to get into the thick of things, and to really be involved with the community in which I was going to work.

Neighbors Together is located in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area of Brooklyn. Our community consistently has the highest poverty and unemployment rates in Brooklyn. Forty-two percent of the neighborhood is living at or below the federal poverty level, and thirty-eight percent of the residents are currently on government income support. At Neighbors Together, there was no grace period in which I could slowly settle comfortably into my work. Clients couldn’t wait for me to adjust because they needed help immediately, so I had to learn as I went. My Ethnic Studies background was no match for what I saw and experienced on a daily basis there, for the failure of our country to provide equality and basic dignity for all of its citizens looked entirely different face-to-face than it did when reading about it from a textbook.

Work was intense. I struggled with the difficult nature of social work, and debated the merits of direct service, advocacy, and organizing with my housemates, coworkers, friends and family. I spent many months wrestling with the frustration of seeing injustice and continually running into the barriers that keep people isolated in poverty and that prevent others, including myself, from being able to help them.

After an intense year at Neighbors Together, I have learned that each form of social action has its place and is needed for progress towards a better world. Despite my frustration and impatience for immediate change, I have come to terms with the difficulties of this kind of work and realize that it is a slow-going and uphill battle. The knowledge and experience that I have gained through my time at Neighbors Together informs and will continue to inform the work that I do and the way that I live my life.

I am currently working as a case manager with people who are mentally ill, chemically addicted, and/or formerly incarcerated. I chose to continue this work because I believe in a better world; I believe in the possibility of change and see hope for the future. As I leave AVODAH and Neighbors Together and move into that future, I carry with me the wisdom I gained this year along with two lines from Jewish sources. The first is “Justice, justice, shall you pursue” from Deuteronomy, and the second, from Pirke Avot, a centuries old book of ethics, is, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”