IN MEMORY OF LOU & RUTH JEROME A”H
SARINA ROFFÉ
IF YOU HAVE EVER HAD A LOVED ONE IN THE HOSPITAL WITH AN ILLNESS, YOU KNOW HOW TRAUMATIC AND LIFE-ALTERING IT CAN BE. A FAMILY’S WHOLE WORLD CAN BE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN. THEY SPEND DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL BY THE BEDSIDE OF THE ONE THEY LOVE, LISTENING TO DOCTORS OR NURSES TRANSMITTING COMPLEX MEDICAL INFORMATION AND OPTIONS.
The family often has to make life and death decisions, and it’s not unusual for them to sleep in the hospital each night, as well. All of this can leave many families feeling overwhelmed and lost, especially when there’s a need for support which hospitals are not equipped to provide.
Stepping in to fill that need, in over 20 hospitals throughout the metro NY region, is Chesed 24/7. Yes, that’s the name of the organization, and true to its name, it operates 24/7 to help both patients and their overwhelmed families throughout their entire hospital stay, night and day. Chesed 24/7 has dedicated hospitality rooms, which are there for Jewish families regardless of their level of observance or religious affiliation. They’re open around the clock, 365 days a year, providing hot kosher meals, sandwiches, and snacks, Shabbat meals and services, siddurim, Tehillim, refrigerators, microwaves and more. The rooms serve as de facto places to recharge, and to find support from other people going through similar struggles, from a broad range of Jewish backgrounds and often from around the world. They also offer sleeping accommodations within walking distance of hospitals for those who need them, and patient liaisons who know how to help families navigate the challenging hospital systems. Their legendary patient liaison at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Mrs. Sima Bacharach, has helped many families from our community surmount the most challenging circumstances.
This tradition of giving, of being there for whomever needs support, and helping in any way they can, was embodied in the Jerome family for generations. Joey Jerome, remembering his parents Lou and Ruth Jerome A”H, owners of the famous Lou’s Deli on Kings Highway near East 2nd Street, said that while they were not wealthy people, they took care of people, providing food, jobs, and a surrogate home away from home, for many individuals and families.
Delicatessens ran through Lou’s blood, as his father owned a deli as well. When Lou’s opened in 1960, everyone in Ruth’s extended Missry family came to help. They filled ketchup and mustard bottles, set up chairs and tables, helped with meal preparation, and more. Together, Ruth and Lou worked side-by-side, almost 24/7, from the early morning lunch preparation, to the late-night, after-dinner clean up.
Ruth and Lou Jerome learned early on that if they couldn’t afford to donate a lot of money, they could feed people. There was a homey warmth to the deli that many community members called their second home.
Chesed was steeped in the Jerome family. Lou’s father Abraham fed anyone who came into his deli hungry, regardless of whether they could pay for a meal. He also reached out to people who needed food but didn’t come to the deli, by delivering sandwiches, soups, and other items to them unsolicited. It was in the Jerome blood to want to help those in need. He didn’t want any recognition or attention given to him for this. He simply wanted to help.
“My father wouldn’t stop anyone from ordering and eating, if they didn’t have money to pay,” said Abe Jerome. “He would take the check and write their information on the back. Most of the time people would come back, or their parents would come in and settle the bill, but not all the time. In his top drawer at home, he had an envelope filled with all the checks from people who never paid their balances—from opening day until the day they closed—but he never asked for payment.”
According to their daughter, Esther Haber, “If someone in the community was sick, my father would send them chicken soup. And my parents hired everyone who needed a job. Many of my cousins worked there, as well as many newcomers.”
“Often someone might come into the deli, and if my mother knew the family was struggling, the check would somehow disappear,” said Esther. “Or if she saw a student couldn’t scrape up the money for the bill, she would say, ‘don’t worry, I’ll get you next time.’ She never wanted someone to feel uncomfortable at the restaurant. My parents were very generous that way, even if they didn’t have a lot, they had a kind and giving nature.”
It is in their parents’ honor that Joe and Ester Jerome are hosting this year’s 6th Annual Chesed 24/7 Deal Summer Event. When Ruth was in the hospital at Cornell, the Chesed 24/7 hospitality room provided her three children and their families with a haven filled with kosher food and snacks, while she was getting much needed care. When Lou was ill and hospitalized in Columbia Presbyterian, the Chesed 24/7 hospitality room in the Milstein Pavilion was their lifeline, providing kosher meals and everything needed for Shabbat.
Previous hosts of the annual event have been Ken and Lillian Cayre (2016); Chaby and Nicole Orfali (2017); Joseph and Victoria Sutton and the Sutton Family, in memory of Mr. Alfred Sutton A”H (2018); David and Monique Haddad (2019); Tunie Missry and Family, in memory of Eddie Missry A”H (2020); and Morris and Linda Missry, in memory of Mrs. Priscilla Sutton A”H (2021).
In 2013, Jack Gindi A”H spent a significant amount of time in New York Cornell Hospital undergoing treatments. He did not have much of an appetite, so when he requested ice cream late one evening, his family went on a desperate search for some. It was 2 A.M., the cafeteria was closed, and the vending machines were sold out. When his family found the Chesed 24/7 hospitality room, they found more than just the ice cream Jack wanted—they found a home.
“That hospitality room was an oasis in the desert. It was a place where I knew what it meant to be a Jew anywhere in the world,” said his wife, Debbi. “It offered the comfort of home.” Debbi and her children generously sponsored the Jack M. Gindi Chesed 24/7 Hospitality Room in Cornell Hospital as a zechut for Jack. Several years later, she and her siblings sponsored the Pauline and Maurice R. Cohen Chesed 24/7 Hospitality Room in Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, in memory of their father.
Chesed 24/7 has 18 similar Chesed Rooms located in hospitals throughout the New York Tristate area. Each room contains a refrigerator fully stocked with fresh food, two microwaves, chairs and a table to eat on, a Shabbat food warmer, a hot water urn, cabinets filled with paper goods, cell phone chargers, prayer books and anything else that can make a hospital stay bearable for a Jewish family. The Chesed 24/7 Rooms provide an incredible source of comfort—even when you might not think you need it, but especially when you do.
Every week, Chesed 24/7 volunteers deliver families a Shabbat in a Box, complete with electric candles to light for Shabbat, Kiddush, as well as other items needed to bring in the Sabbath and food to eat.
Rabbi Eli Mansour, upon the opening of the Chesed 24/7 Hospitality Room at Columbia Children’s Hospital in 2017, spearheaded by Ken Cayre and Harry Adjmi, praised the work of Chesed 24/7. “When one visits a sick person in the hospital, usually the one in the bed gets the attention,” he noted. “But the family members are also sick. The spouse, the children, the parents, the siblings, they are not sick enough that they require medicine, but they are drained physically and they are drained emotionally. Chesed 24/7 takes care of them too. Chesed 24/7 takes care of everybody, and this is the perfect and purest way to fulfill the mitzvah of bikur cholim.”
Chesed 24/7 has seven areas in which they provide assistance to families with someone in the hospital.
Food and Respite: Chesed 24/7 Hospitality Rooms: located on-site at more than 20 hospitals are oases of refuge in a time of challenging illness, a place to receive support from others undergoing similar issues.
Shabbat Services: Chesed 24/7 provides Shabbat meals, sleeping accommodations within walking distance of hospitals, and Shabbat religious needs for families, caregivers and friends who spend Shabbat and Jewish holidays assisting in the care of a hospital patient.
Shabbat Meals: Chesed 24/7 stocks each hospitality room with hot meals for patients/family who arrive at the hospital unexpectedly on Shabbat or the Jewish holidays. Passover Seders are prepared as well. Meals can also be ordered from Chesed 24/7 and delivered to the patient’s hospital room.
Sleeping Accommodations: Chesed 24/7 provides sleeping accommodation in apartments located within walking distance of the New York Presbyterian—Columbia University campus, at Mt. Sinai Hospital, at Weil Cornel and at NYP Queens. Additional accommodations are planned to respond to growing need.
Lou Jerome A”H was in the US Navy during World War II and was so proud to have served his country, and later, his community. The Jerome family continues in their parents’ footsteps, supporting many charitable causes, and so many people in need. Chesed 24/7 is honored to remember Lou and Ruth Jerome A”H, whose love and care for the community lives on.
A journalist, genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017). She holds a BA in Journalism, MA in Jewish Studies and an MBA.
