Working off the simple but profound idea that a single act of chesed could change the world, Jerry Latinik launched Just One Chesed after a period of financial difficulty showed him just how much impact one person could make on the lives of others, even when they have no money to give.
It all started in 2010 when Jerry arranged a Shabbos of achdus (togetherness) with seven different shuls in his Chicago community. His goal: to lift the spirits of local Jewish families and individuals who were going through a particularly trying time, with much of the country still reeling from the financial crash of 2008. This was despite the fact that neither Jerry, nor most of the other organizers, had much money to work with themselves.
As Jerry put it: “I realized that there are so many more ways that we could give, even without money. We could give the biggest thing of all, which is giving of ourselves.”
Launching off that enormously successful experience, Jerry was energized to create an organization that would work as a central hub to connect those in need with people looking to give back to their community, even with just a single act of chesed. It would take some six years for it to finally see the light of day, but Just One Chesed is exactly what its creator intended it to be: “A platform that is all about chesed; to put multiple chesed opportunities in one place so they are easy accessible to all.”
Today, as the organization begins to making a real impact on real people’s lives, Jerry is highly optimistic, believing fully that the intrinsically Jewish attribute of chesed will invariably cause Just One Chesed to grow and grow, one chesed at a time.
