One of the most gratifying aspects of my job is hearing our clients, volunteers and staff express how profoundly Bet Tzedek has affected their lives.

Clients from a recent housing case described Bet Tzedek’s staff as “my angels sent from heaven” and explained that, “without them, we wouldn’t have a home, or peace of mind.”

It is not just our clients whose lives are changed by what we do:

Daniel Gryzman, a pro bono volunteer from Manatt Phelps, is just one of many attorneys who have told me their experience with Bet Tzedek was the most meaningful of their professional lives. 

Imagine having that feeling every day.

All of us at Bet Tzedek are so proud to work at the nation’s premier law firm for seniors, low-income families and Holocaust survivors - we’re proud of our results and we’re proud of the quality of our work.

My friend and colleague, Mark Rothman, truly captured the overall spirit of the House of Justice when he said, “At Bet Tzedek, we don’t fail.” 

That spirit of determination and resolve to do justice, to level the playing field, epitomizes the work we do every day at the House of Justice.

Mark was referring to our Hungarian Reparations project, which was indeed a remarkable success.  In the face of overwhelming demand for our services, a complicated application process and only 60 days to work, our effort produced 10% of the applications submitted worldwide. 

It meant so much that you could see in these clients’ eyes, smiles, expressions of gratitude - that they knew someone was on their side.

Bet Tzedek was on their side.  And Bet Tzedek did not fail them.

Our reparations project is a wonderful example of Bet Tzedek’s success in the last year, but there are many others.

Last year, we helped more than 10,000 people. 

We won 90% of our contested cases. 

This included court decisions that benefited thousands of vulnerable seniors as well as individual cases that saved clients’ lifelong homes from fraud, got garment workers paid for their labor and gave families the resources they need to care for elderly loved ones at home.

We provided education and training to more than 1,000 social workers on the legal issues most important to the seniors and low-income families they serve.

And we made major public policy with our bill to overhaul the state’s broken conservatorship system, which the governor signed into law this fall, preventing the further abuse of seniors and developmentally disabled people throughout the state.

We just don’t fail.

And if you consider what’s at stake for our clients and our community, you understand that we don’t fail, because we can’t fail.

Bet Tzedek’s clients depend on us for some of the most fundamental things in life: a safe and affordable place to live, access to healthcare and food, and the means to care for children and elders in their families.

And our community is depending upon us more and more.

The circumstances of families living in slum housing, the plight of low-income seniors, the challenges facing the thousands of low income holocaust survivors living in our community are getting worse, and their need for services and support is increasing dramatically. 

No matter how complicated or insurmountable these challenges might seem, Bet Tzedek will succeed in finding solutions.

We are crafting innovative, collaborative initiatives to meet the dramatic humanitarian needs of low-income survivors; to make L.A. a city where working people have a safe, affordable place to live; to protect the growing numbers of seniors in California from abuse, isolation and poverty. 

Our staff is engaged locally, nationally and in some cases internationally, to ensure that all of our clients have full and fair access to the things that make our country so great - not just a roof over their head and food on their table but also, fairness, opportunity, respect and, of course, tzedek, justice.

The key to Bet Tzedek’s ongoing success is simple: it’s that determination, dedication and commitment expressed by Mark Rothman, and shared by our entire staff.  At Bet Tzedek we simply don’t fail.