To paraphrase an overworked expression: When the going gets tough, the federations start giving.

That’s the game plan for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.

While federations are always in the “giving” business, the ongoing economic recession has brought out a new creativity and responsiveness when it comes to helping people in need.

Rabbi James Brandt

Case in point: a new $60,000 initiative from both the East Bay federation and foundation to put money directly into rabbis’ discretionary funds. Rabbis may then put cash in the pockets of individuals and families worried about paying the bills.

Rabbi James Brandt, the CEO of the East Bay federation, knew local rabbis had been hearing from congregants who had never needed help in the past. They were dealing with emergencies ranging from foreclosure to car repossession. He also knew that those congregants would likely confide in trusted counselor like a rabbi.

“I spoke with the East Bay Council of Rabbis,” Brandt says. “I asked if they would submit a grant proposal to provide funding directly to discretionary funds. They were very enthusiastic, and reported they had received unprecedented requests for discretionary funds.”

Jennifer Gorovitz

“The boards both voted to fund this as a special grant separate from the joints process,” Brandt adds. “That sped it up, and also ensured this money would get to the rabbis not only in timely fashion, but in full.”

The funds have been disbursed to rabbis on a per capita basis based on number of synagogue members. The money may be used to help anyone, Jewish or not, member or not, but must go only to those in dire need, and not be used for synagogue dues or religious school tuition. Out of respect for congregants’ privacy, the board imposed no reporting mechanism.

Last month Brandt  handed out the first checks, ranging from $800 to $10,000.

“To be able to make that first gift was, we thought, a very profound communal response,” Brandt says. “Imagine how powerful it was [for congregants] not to get a referral but to get a response from the rabbi:  ‘Yes, I have funds set aside for cases like this.’ ”

At the S.F.-based federation, acting CEO Jennifer Gorovitz is similarly taking stock and seeking ways to get emergency monies into the community quickly.

That’s what the federation’s $7 million Catalyst Initiative, announced earlier this year, was designed to do. Among the beneficiaries of recent Catalyst funding are the Hebrew Free Loan Association and Jewish Vocational Service.

“A lot of families are continuing to fall through the cracks,” Gorovitz says. “[HFLA] has seen an increase of more than 33 percent over last year for loan applications. They are among many agencies continuing to experience increased needs.”

Gorovitz says the federation’s funding priorities right now “are about keeping families and individuals stable.” To that end, she touts the $500,000 synagogue scholarship fund to keep kids in religious schools, as well as assistance to Jewish day schools, preschools and camps.

And, in an act of chutzpah for a recession, she says the federation has launched an aggressive annual campaign this year, with the goal of exceeding last year’s targets. “It is very much a tightrope,” Gorovitz says, “but our job at a time like this is to rally the community.”

Brandt shares the sentiment.

“I’m seeing in our community a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration,” he says. “Institutions that were at one time concerned only for their own well-being are now focusing on our communal mission and the health not only of the East Bay Jewish community but the Jewish people.”