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What Aleph Can & Cannot Do For You
A Guide From Rabbi Aaron Lipskar
Each month, Aleph accepts approximately 600 emergency collect calls and receives approximately 1,500 letters from Jewish inmates around the country. We are instituting new programs all the time to serve the spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in distress and their families. While we would like to satisfy every request for assistance, we are somewhat limited by our mission statement and budget considerations.
Here is a general overview of what Aleph CAN and CANNOT do for you right now.
Aleph CAN help you get in touch with your heritage. Aleph ships thousands of Jewish publications, videos and religious books to inmates around the country. Inmates also request and receive religious articles such as prayer books, Torah volumes, prayer shawls and Tefillin. All Jewish inmates on our mailing list receive four issues of the “Week in Review” on a monthly basis. The Week in Review is a publication that helps one understand the deeper meaning of the portion of the week. We will only put you on our mailing list and send you books if you fill out our application form in its entirety. Aleph is mailing thousands of issues of this publication every month to inmates who want to get or stay in touch with the spirituality of their Jewishness.
Aleph CANNOT help you with legal advice pertaining to your individual offense. Every month, we receive many requests for assistance with inmates’ cases, motions and appeals that we CANNOT help with.
Aleph CAN try to help you practice your Jewishness while in prison. We have always been in the forefront of pursuing strategies to assist institutions in fulfilling constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. We work to obtain kosher food for Jewish inmates, defend Jews’ rights to own religious articles, books and clothing, and insure that they can observe the sanctity of the Sabbath and holidays. While most prison chaplains and wardens seek to accommodate requests, they often lack the manpower, highly specialized knowledge and resources necessary adequately to meet the complex spiritual needs of Jewish inmates. As a result, religious requests are sometimes rebuffed, delayed in channels, or dismissed out of hand.
To better address these problems, Aleph has taken various steps. Before every holiday, Aleph mails over 2000 copies of our Aleph Advisory to chaplains and institutional staff around the country. Among other things, the Aleph Advisory provides institutions with notice and direction about the religious requirements of Jewish inmate s. Aleph has also developed a Handbook of Jewish Practice and Procedure for institutional staff. The Handbook is designed to be a reference guide for chaplains and institutional staff as to the daily and seasonal religious needs of Jews. Aleph continually meets with senior state and federal corrections officers to assist in the implementation of programs that protect a Jew’s right to exercise his/her religion in an appropriate manner.
Aleph CAN accept your EMERGENCY collect telephone calls from anywhere in the country. Just call (305) 864-5553 collect to speak with any of our coordinators, but ONLY if it is an EMERGENCY that cannot wait a couple of days were you to send us a letter. Aleph CANNOT arrange 3-way calling. Establishing a 3-way connection violates most prison’s policies, and may subject you and Aleph’s programs to sanctions. Please do not ask any of our representatives to arrange 3way calls. We won’t do it.
Aleph CAN try to arrange visitations by a staff or local rabbi. Aleph currently coordinates approximately 60 rabbis who visit approximately 400 institutions per year. We are expanding our network of staff and volunteers every day, and soon hope to be able to provide more visitations even to remote locations. Wherever possible, we reach out to rabbis and Jewish communities close to the institution to provide support services, visitations, religious furloughs, and assistance with job placement.
Aleph CAN sometimes assist with various emergency situations for inmates and their families, including medical emergencies. In every case, Aleph staff contacts appropriate corrections officials and works with them to do whatever can be done to resolve the issues presented.
Aleph CAN ship you materials for each Jewish holiday. We currently supply educational, religious and food materials to about 4,000 inmates and families around the country. Note, however, that prison policies vary around the country with respect to food items. If your chaplain is not already on our mailing list, please mail his/her name and address to Rabbi Menachem M. Katz.
Aleph is dedicated to providing a spiritual and physical “safety net” for Jews in distress. We are constantly looking for new ways to serve. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know.
Rabbi Aaron Lipskar is the Executive Director of The Aleph Institute
THE ALEPH INSTITUTE
9540 Collins Avenue • Surfside, Florida 33154
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