The Uncashed Check

by Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

While Dovid Deitsch’s parents were perhaps the earliest influence on his generosity toward others, Dovid’s approach to charity was also shaped by his own experiences with business. Success in business, he knew, had little to do with personal skill or experience. Rather, as he said, “Some things work out, some things don’t work out.”

As the owner of several failed businesses, he never took credit for having personal success. He was okay with just giving the profits away. At the same time, Dovid didn’t like to be lied to or taken advantage of. When that happened, his son-in-law Dr. Josh Sandman said, he would grumble for a moment. But it never stopped him from helping the next person who asked. “He knew his clientele.”

Josh recalled one day at the Deitsch Plastic office, when he found a check for three thousand dollars on Dovid’s desk. It was dated from over a year before, and Dovid had never deposited it. It turned out that it was repayment for a loan Dovid had given someone for a business venture. Dr. Sandman asked his father-in-law why he hadn’t cashed the check.

“Nothing worked out for him,” Dovid said. “He’s not going to be able to cover the check.”

Perhaps he could pay it back now, Josh suggested. But the businessman just shrugged. “It is all right.”

Decades later he was still impressed by his father-in-law’s unflappable attitude. “It didn’t faze him at all.”

An excerpt from the new book Yards of Kindness: The Life of Dovid and Sara Deitsch, available at HasidicArchives.com.