Living on Long Island, N.Y., where the rates of breast cancer are considerably higher than the rest of the United States, Rabbi Shimon and Chanie Kramer have met their share of women dealing with the disease.
“There are a lot of people who, unfortunately, are coping with breast cancer, and there were people in the community who wanted to do something to help,” explains Chanie Kramer, co-director with her husband of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Merrick, N.Y. “We thought there was a need for it because we kept hearing about people getting diagnosed.”
In 2011 alone, some 2,600 local women were diagnosed with the disease, the year the idea for a support group started germinating. Further, certain parts of Long Island have breast-cancer rates that significantly exceed the New York state average or expectations of breast-cancer rates.
While a number of studies have been conducted to determine why the incidents of breast cancer are so high on the island, on a more personal level, there just didn’t seem to be enough being done to support Jewish women, emotionally and practically, as they battled the disease.
Teaming up with local residents—in particular, Cindy Knoll and Lisa Fessler—the Kramers created the “Circle of Hope Merrick,” a support group for women currently facing breast cancer (whom they refer to as “previvors”) and, of course, survivors of the disease.
But just as the group started to get off the ground, their plans were waylaid by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, which hit the town of Merrick “pretty badly,” says Kramer. “We had to stop and deal with the hurricane.”
Once they got over the bulk of that recovery, it was full-speed ahead. Today, the organization runs support groups, educational programs, a wig bank, visitation to those facing treatment and more.
Its official description states that the Circle of Hope, a project of the Maimonides Educational Center, provides awareness, emotional support and hands-on help to individuals and their families coping with breast cancer and other illnesses.
“I think ‘Circle of Hope’ is unbelievable,” says Fessler, a breast-cancer survivor whose own mother died of the disease. “It’s a wonderful thing because there are a lot of women who just can’t handle it, and they need something and someone to believe in.”
Now entering its third year, the group held its annual “Journey for a Purpose” dinner last month, honoring several local women, including Sheri Fisch, who received the Community Service Award, and Melanie Rubin, who was presented with the Survivor Award.
‘Overwhelmed by the Response’
An avid cook who has been compiling her own recipes for years, Fisch spearheads the group’s “Cooking for Hope” program. The initiative, launched a year ago, brings teens together once a month for an evening of Jewish learning and community activism as they cook meals for women facing cancer challenges. The meals are then packed in containers and frozen so they can be delivered to families that need them.
Fisch, the mother of several teens herself, says she got involved at the behest of Chanie Kramer, who is originally from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., and has been serving the Merrick area as a Chabad emissary since 2002 (Rabbi Kramer is also from Crown Heights). That, however, is not why she continues to do all the preparing, shopping, organizing, planning and packing that goes along with cooking dozens of meals one night each month.
“I think it was just my love for cooking and doing something that would be community-oriented that attracted me, but I was overwhelmed by the response,” she explains. “I didn’t realize the need was so great, and that just by doing something so simple to me is so important to someone else. It just makes me feel wonderful.”
Instruction and knowledge are also tools in the work of the “Circle of Hope Merrick.”
“We want to educate everyone in the community about prevention and how one can take measures” to thwart the disease, explains Kramer. “Everything is in G‑d’s hands, but there are things we can do on our part to help with prevention. We held a health seminar last year with a genetic counselor and a doctor. Someone also came in and showed the women how to do breast self-exams.”
They even had a medical van with a portable mammogram parked outside to provide exams to women who needed it.
“People hear the word and think, ‘I’m going to die,’ but this isn’t like years past. It’s not a death sentence. They’ve come so far with medication and chemotherapy,” insists Fessler, adding that women should know and feel that “they can get past it.”
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