Mendy Klein z”l didn’t sit around waiting for the perfect moment.
He didn’t see a need and walk past it.
He stopped. He helped.
Every time – for the person in front of him, and for the next one after that.
Today, on his yahrzeit, give tzedakah l’ilui nishmas Mendy Klein z”l by funding the work that is still in motion and saving lives because of how he lived.
Zvi Gluck shares a story about Mendy that truly captures the kind of person he was.
After a long day of work, Mendy and Zvi were leaving an office in Brooklyn when a young woman approached them yelling. She had been in and out of addiction treatment for a while, and she was clearly still struggling.
She was angry and desperate for someone to see her and to step in. Someone who saw hope, when all she felt was pain. Most would have kept walking, hoping someone else would help.
Mendy didn’t. He couldn’t. He saw a need and took action.
He turned to the woman and asked “Are you ready to get help?” and she answered, “Yes, I am ready.”
That was all Mendy needed to hear. He didn’t care that she had been to treatment before or what would be different this time. She was ready to try again and he quickly responded with “Call me tomorrow, whatever it takes, we will get you the help you need.”
The next day, Mendy kept true to his word, and paid for her treatment. Every dollar.
Years later, she is sober, married with a child and has a career she is proud of. She found recovery and built a beautiful life for herself.
This was all possible because one person stopped walking. Mendy didn’t see a drug addict yelling in the street, he saw a woman in pain, and he lived by his word. He knew she had tried many times before, but he had to do more.
That was Mendy. He didn’t wait for things to be presented in a perfect package. He didn’t need assurance of how it would all work out. He saw someone suffering and without hesitation acted.
Every. Single. Time.
When you lead a nonprofit, you are accountable for every step taken. What you do has to match what you’ve been approved to do. And as needs grow and the organization expands, there’s always a paperwork process that has to reflect those changes exactly.
So every time Amudim uncovers a new area of need, we always ask:
Are we allowed to do this? Does Amudim’s original charter give us room to grow in this direction?
And time after time, Zvi goes back and reviews the original bylaws, and the answer is already right there.
Mendy built it in from the start.
It wasn’t just the work Amudim set out to do in the beginning. It was much more than that.
He made room for what was to come – for schools, rehabs, clinics, and programs that no one else had ever considered. He saw needs before most even knew they were there.
But at that time, Mendy received a lot of legal pushback, and getting approval from the IRS seemed nearly impossible. Nonprofit organizations taking on so many different things, each with their own complexities, may have seemed overly ambitious, but he refused to shrink his vision.
Mendy said, “I don’t care. I’m paying the lawyer. Put it all in.”
So they moved forward, keeping his whole vision intact.
And it was approved, Baruch Hashem.
Years later, as Amudim found the needs of the community growing, the next steps were actually very clear. Mendy had the space already waiting.
He didn’t just see what was standing in front of him. He saw the future Amudim had to be ready for, so he created the blueprint.
Mendy believed there is no reach too far when someone is suffering.
Not then, not now, or for the work that has yet to come.
Amudim provides Narcan kits free of charge. You can request one by covering the $3 shipping and handling fee, or email ODPrevention@amudim.org
to arrange free pickup from our office in Inwood, New York.
You may never know when being prepared can help save a life.
Thank you for your Avodas Hakodesh
Yeshuas