Why Don't More Jews Do Foster Care?

There are about 440,000 kids in foster care in the United States right now, about a quarter of whom are awaiting adoption. Almost every state in the country reports a shortage of people willing to care for them. For the past few years, I've spent time traveling around the country meeting people who do. From suburban Denver to rural Arkansas and the urban centers of New Orleans, I have interviewed scores of men and women who have opened their homes to children who have suffered the most devastating kinds of trauma. These children have suffered abuse or severe neglect at the hands of their own family members, and the state has found that the problem is so severe they need to be removed from their homes to keep them safe. Almost all of the foster parents I meet are connected with evangelical churches or other Christian organizations. And more than once during my travels I have stopped to wonder: Where are the Jews?