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The Jewish Renaissance Foundation opened the nation's first faith-based federally qualified health center, the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center at the Robert Menendez Medical Arts Building at 275 Hobart St., Perth Amboy, Oct 27.

The Jewish Renaissance Foundation is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1996 by Dr. Alan Goldsmith, whose goal was to provide services and assistance for families regardless of their ethnic or economic background.

For Goldsmith, the opening of the $14 million, 48,000-square-foot facility was a dream come true.

"We saw a tremendous need for medical assistance in our Jewish community," Goldsmith told The Jewish State.

Goldsmith grew up in Perth Amboy. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors and immigrated to Perth Amboy, where his parents lived as well. Goldsmith started the First Boys and Girls Club of America in Middlesex County in Perth Amboy; opened Jewish Renaissance children's clinics in Kiev, Ukraine; is a goodwill ambassador and senior adviser to the United Nations; was a volunteer in the Peace Corps; and has also lead medical missions to Cuba, Jamaica, Israel, Hungary, India, and the Dominican Republic.

"I was born and raised in Perth Amboy, it was 30 to 35 percent Jewish, and there were five orthodox synagogues," he said.

During the 1950s, Perth Amboy had a thriving Jewish community, until eventually most of them moved away, he said.

Goldsmith said he first started the foundation because one of his relatives went blind in one eye and had no insurance. His relative then saw a neurologist, had an MRI, and saw a neurosurgeon, but then a miracle occurred, he said: "The blindness went away on its own."

Immediately after this occurred, Goldsmith saw the need to create an organization that helped people that didn't have insurance, and started Operation Lifeline USA, he said.

"We would recruit doctors within the community area and treat five patients a year," Goldsmith said. "We were looking to do a federally qualified healthcare center."

He said in order to create a federally qualified healthcare center in Perth Amboy, he and the board of the foundation surveyed the town to see how many doctors accepted Medicaid, how many people had insurance, and charity care.

"In 2001, we applied for status as a medically qualified healthcare center," Goldsmith said.

Goldsmith said the foundation was rejected at first, but in January 2002 they were accepted and the medical center was started. Additionally, he said, because it is a federally funded medical center, the grant from the government helps with costs and enhances the rate on Medicaid.

"Sixty percent of the clients are uninsured, 30 percent is Medicaid, and 10 percent is Medicare and self-pay," he said. vGoldsmith said originally the center started off as two small buildings, one right across the street from the center and the other on Amboy Ave., in Perth Amboy.

"There is pediatrics, OB/GYN, internal medicine, women's health, elder care, urgent care, and dental," he said. "It is not an emergency room."

Goldsmith said on average doctors at the center see about 220 patients a day.

"Every day I go downstairs to see how the patients are doing," he said. "The most important thing is I don't want the patients to wait long."

The center contains a dentist's office, with three dentists and 10 rooms with advanced technology, he said.

"In January 2009 there will be a dental van with supplies and two dentists that goes to different locations," Goldsmith said.

Currently, a pharmacy is under construction on the first floor, where people will get 30 to 40 percent off the medicine, he said.

Goldsmith said helping others has always been important to him.

"A life is only worth living if it's used to help others," he said. "Perth Amboy is still ripe to have a Jewish community like Highland Park."

The residents of Perth Amboy were very enthusiastic about the foundation and the new medical center, Goldsmith said.

Goldsmith said he and the board saw there was huge void in Perth Amboy for people without medical insurance, and the center would fill that void.

"It is a Kiddush Hashem," he said.

Goldsmith said when the medical center first started people thought it was only for Jews.

"When we first started, we wanted something Jewish, and as for Renaissance, we wanted something that serves and helps everyone and a renaissance in Perth Amboy," he said.

He said his goal was to help the working poor and the uninsured not just of Perth Amboy, but of Middlesex County and anywhere else in New Jersey as well.

He said the board of the medical center is comprised of people of varied backgrounds and ethnicity.

"It's amazing, it's a dream come true for me," Goldsmith said. "The almighty gave me a derech Hashem."

Because of his roots in Perth Amboy, the town was Goldsmith's first choice for the location of the medical center.

"I didn't want it to go anywhere else," he said.

He said many people don't know about the medical center, and the center is reaching out to the Jewish community.

"My enthusiasm and my goal was to serve people, and the most important thing was to help people," he said. "The almighty has blessed us, from my dad's shoe store to this."