AVRUM'S BLOG is hosted and authored by me, Avrum Rosensweig, the founder and president of Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian & Relief Committee. I am also a writer, artist and a father.
AVRUM'S BLOG is here to create a community where people can express wondrous ideas, thoughts, stories and comments. I can do the same.
At AVRUM'S BLOG people can challenge one another, debate and schmooze about humanitarian issues, peace, war, Israel, the Jewish people, slices of life and perceptions.
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B'shalom, Avrum (avrum@veahavta.org) 
I have been on the streets now for close to three days.
It’s Friday and soon I’ll head over to Trinity Square to conduct a memorial for the homeless. We will then say Kaddish for those men and women, our fellow citizens, who have been found dead in local dumpsters or in the hills of Rosedale Valley on a cold winter day.
As you probably know I am the streets with Jacqueline Stein and Alvaro Castellano. Alvaro’s brother, Boris, has spent some time with us as well. Since coming out Wednesday we have sponsored a beautiful BBQ at Evangel Hall, a downtown drop-in, and Ve’ahavta partner, held an open mic in Regent Park with Theresa Shrader (the winner of our 2005 Creative Writing Contest; and our advisor on the street), and volunteered at the Toronto Friendship Centre (TFC) found at the most ‘challenging crossroads in the city (Dundas and Sherbourne).
In fact I am writing this piece from the TFC that is where we are now and I must say the population of homeless here are dramatically different than at the other shelters/drop-ins we have visited. This place is called ‘the end of the road’ and we recognized why as soon as we walked in the front door. Here many very sad and unfortunate fellow Torontonians come for some fine food (cooked by ‘Mom’ – 20 year volunteer) and a place to close their eyes after a long, friendless night on the street.
I walked up the stairs and a young man looked at me and said, ‘don’t play games’ in a threatening sort of way, or at least what I perceived as such. A woman began to shout very loudly F___ off at nobody in particular. The amazing thing is, the staff and clients thought little of it and one of the professionals calmed her down, quickly and calmly.
I am amazed at the abilities of the individuals who work in such places. Anslem, a Nigerian and his eyes twinkle. He seems to be the ‘man’ here as he has been employed by TFC for six years. Most things cross his desk including: placing clients in homes, running the drop-ins, sweeping the floor after lunch and running a mental health and justice committee. Yes, amazingly his eyes twinkle.
I asked him if he ever wanted to be a millionaire, you know, to make more money enabling him to buy more stuff. He told me his riches come from being known in the street by those people he works on behalf of – the homeless; he feels like a wealthy man when he can help a man or woman sitting on a grating panhandling.
What happens down here is much different than what happens up there – in our community. It is a totally different world, one in which people celebrate little bits of materialism (such as a lunch bag with yogurt, apples and a sandwich), and embrace other individuals, pretty much of any background. Ve’ahavta is unique in this way. We do the same, but most of the Jewish community does not.
While on the streets for close to three days, I have met poets, writers, artists, and heard stories about a man who launched a hospital, and another who was a helicopter pilot until he crashed - in more ways than one. I have interviewed an 18 year old woman who was locked in her basement by her babysitter when she was two years old, over and over, and another who was burned all over her body by her boyfriend, a rider with a biker gang.
My only conclusions so far is that there is little separating you and I from the people playing bingo in front of me right now, and those who live at Evangel Hall. Their humanity is as vivid as ours and while their prospects for a better life may be dimmer, their hope frequently glows and buzzes like a firefly.
My other conclusion is that we need to learn how to love better. Love is a tool and it is all encompassing when the person using it has a soft heart, a good ear and hands that sooth others. It is however destructive and often deathly when operated by someone who has been abused, misused and/or neglected.
My overall conclusion so far is that our world needs a revolution of love. It must start from the top down, and from the bottom up. It must be free-flowing, with direction and spontaneity and louder than evil.
I have been on the streets for close to three days. Our trek will conclude tonight in Kensington market at the Minsk Shul when we will sponsor a Shabbat dinner for the homeless. I will be saddened to leave the street because it is hear where humanity is clearer, not as sterile as institutions have made it. And I will be happy because I will be able to hug and hold my little boy – Noah River – for a long period of time, and kiss him over and over with a commitment to love him well.
Yisha Ko’ach to all of you who played a role in constructing ’3 Days on the Street’. From Alvaro, Boris and Jackie – thank you for this opportunity. Ve’ahavta has just added a layer of understanding to our work. God bless all of us to understand love more so, and give it out as freely as we can to those whom we are close to and those we have not met yet.
Good shabbos,
Avrum
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