While Waiting for a Job, Beatriz Teaches Free Classes

Sweating and tossing a rebellious shock of hair from her forehead, Beatriz steps out of the elevator and into a JDC-sponsored Social Assistance Center. She walks down a now familiar corridor towards the social agency's office. Beatriz is here to collect her food vouchers, a little money from the Bayit Housing program to pay apartment bills and some medicine.

"My grandfather, my father and I always contributed a lot to the Jewish community in this country," says the 59-year-old sociologist and teacher. "Now I need help and I find my community there for me. I won't complain - I have friends, I have two children that help me and I have my fellow Jews. All I need is a job."

Beatriz is a large, humorous woman who has taught Sociology in California, Mexico and Uruguay and stays in touch with former students abroad. Before the economic meltdown, she never particularly worried about money. "My parents always taught me that money is not the most important thing in life," she recalls. "For them it was more important to enjoy life, to use money for other ends and not depend on it, ever. But now I'm really worried about having enough to eat," she says.

Beatriz's companion is Mario, an unemployed executive who had a top managing post in a multinational company that left Argentina.

In the mornings, Beatriz teaches free classes as a volunteer in her Community Center. "It's a way of returning what they do for me," she says simply.

When asked about the possibility of finding work, Beatriz replies, "Work? I've papered this city with my CV, but who needs a sociologist now?"