Issie Rabinowitz is determined to spend the little time he believes he has left helping strangers, whether they reside in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada, or halfway around the globe in the third-world.
An active member of the Chabad-Lubavitch community in the Canadian capital, Rabinowitz has been fulfilling a dream he thought up about six years ago, long before the 48-year-old accountant and father of five was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig ’s disease. His free online school known as the NewStart Institute now counts students from the United States, Pakistan, Vietnam and locations in between – anyone needing a hand up in the quest for job skills.
Many people stricken with a devastating disease retreat inward; but in November, 2008, the Israeli-born Rabinowitz was already well underway getting his brainchild up and running. He decided to redouble his efforts in the wake of the diagnosis, creating an institute that offers a total of 16 courses and diplomas in either business administration or accounting. More than 300 people have signed up; a dozen have graduated.
The institute, located online at educationfree.org, is not accredited by the Ontario government, so it can’t confer certified degrees. Rabinowitz hopes to get all regulatory criteria satisfied soon, but in the interim, he’s just trying to cut the costs of education.
“Many people say, ‘I need to know a little bit more about [Microsoft] Word,’ so they take one course and that’s fine,” he says. “The beauty is that it’s on the Internet and automated.”
Rabinowitz funds the venture with his own money – about $8,000 annually. He calls it his way of being a “Righteous Jew,” his own version of a “Righteous Gentile,” the title bestowed on those non-Jews who rescued Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, often at great peril. For Rabinowitz, the experience helps answer a nagging question: If I had been a Pole in Europe, would I have saved others?
“I would want every Jew to be helped,” he explains. “So I have to do something for others.”
A Noble Cause
Rabinowitz figures that making people more employable is one of the noblest of causes.
“Helping people get [jobs] is a very big thing,” he says, referring to his own personal experience.
When he and his wife Abby moved to her native Ottawa 22 years ago, he had a yeshiva education, but no employable skills. At first he packed cans of tuna to pay the bills, and studied bookkeeping on the side. Eventually, he received a degree in accounting, setting up a home-based business that he still runs.
But Rabinowitz’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative condition also known as ALS, is slowing him down. The institute was almost ready when he was diagnosed, and the news struck a terrible blow to a man used to walking two hours to synagogue every Shabbat.
For a while after receiving the news, he thought about quitting.
“Of course I considered it,” he relates. “For a long time, I was saying maybe I’m putting in all this effort and nothing will come of it. But then I decided it’s worth it.”
The once robust Rabinowitz is now confined to a wheelchair and gets most of his nourishment through a feeding tube. He can use the computer a little bit, but at infrequent intervals. He uses a breathing machine, but may need something more invasive later down the line.
Despite the discomforts, he looks for the positive.
“One thing that’s good about this sickness is that there isn’t much pain from the disease itself,” he says. Still, “everything is giving out. It gets harder all the time.”
As for his prognosis, Rabinowitz offers that he’s doing about average. Doctors have given him a year; he hopes for longer.
What he really wants is to expand his school by translating the programs into different languages. Hebrew is especially important to him: He envisions yeshiva students transitioning into the work force, like he once did.
Above all, he wants the institute to outlive its creator.
“I hope someone will finish the project,” he says. “Hopefully, it will be attractive enough for someone to take it over.”
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