Flushing synagogue outreach director to receive recognition for community service

Souksavat “Souks” Soukhaseum is the director of community outreach at the Free Synagogue of Flushing. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

Souksavat “Souks” Soukhaseum sits in his office inside the Free Synagogue of Flushing on an unusually warm spring day. It’s so warm, he wears a t-shirt and shorts with a bucket hat pulled down just above his eyes. His windows open, chatter can be heard from the busy Downtown Flushing street below.

There, a line of mostly elderly Flushing residents have lined up to receive a bag of produce and other food staples for free. The pantry operation first launched in the fall and now serves between 300 and 350 residents per week, providing them with a service that is otherwise difficult to find in the bustling neighborhood.

“Flushing experiences a lot of deprivation – people come here for the food, but they don't understand how hard it is for a lot of the immigrants,” Soukhaseum said.

Soukhaseum helped organize the pantry alongside a number of volunteers and local organizations in his capacity as the director of community outreach for the Free Synagogue of Flushing, which has been in the heart of Downtown Flushing for over a century.

In addition to the pantry, Soukhaseum has put on a number of educational town halls and forums for residents of Flushing. He’s currently working on a program that will provide residents with information on climate change and flooding.

A little over a year ago, nearly a dozen of the synagogue’s neighbors died when rainwater from Hurricane Ida flooded their basements, trapping them inside.

“Flushing is basically a marsh,” Soukhaseum said. “People died in their basement – they weren't aware of building codes and everything else.”

“It's these small things that improve people's lives,” he added. “I don’t need to go on a grand scale.”

But a grand scale has come to him – on Friday, April 14, Soukhaseum will be presented with a Congressional Commendation from Rep. Grace Meng, in recognition of his service to the community.

Humble about the work he’s done, Soukhaseum had difficulty seeing why he deserves the award.

“Obviously, there's a guideline for who receives the awards,” he said. “I must have ticked off something.”

Soukhaseum immigrated to the U.S. with his family from Laos at a young age. He and his family moved to San Francisco, where Soukhaseum spent most of his childhood.

Like most children of immigrant parents, Soukhaseum and his siblings, at times, served as a bridge between his parents and their new home.

“I remember one of my brothers going to a parent teacher meeting and having to translate to my mother that my [other] brother wasn't doing so well,” Soukhaseum said. “It was always a bridge.”

Eventually, Soukhaseum made his way to New York and took a job in finance shortly after the 2008 financial crisis. The job didn’t last long.

“I just figured, ‘Wow, I need to do something meaningful in my life,’ and serving the community has been one of my passions,” he said.

He found that service in Flushing, where he began to work with the synagogue. Having converted to Judaism at the age of 20, Soukhaseum again found himself serving as a bridge, t this time between the area’s Jewish community and its Asian American community.

“The neighborhood changed – it was once predominantly a big Jewish neighborhood, now it's become what we call Flushing,” Soukhaseum said. “When I started here, it was like the programs weren't really engaging with the community outside of our walls. So, I felt like well, ‘We have to start changing that, right?’”

“It should reflect how it looks inside, which is very diverse,” he added. “It’s my whole approach to the work. ‘What can I do to keep this place relevant for the next 100 years?’ Well, right outside your door is a community that looks like you – do something, make this neighborhood better.”

Soukhaseum said he sometimes sees his own experience reflected in the lives of the people he serves.

“As an immigrant adult, I see children like me,” he said. “Not being able to speak English, always looking for someone to translate a document so we weren't screwed. The need for basic services we take for granted, but for the immigrant community, they don't have it, where do they go?”

“That's what influences some of the things I do in community service,” he added.

Every Thursday, Soukhaseum has been helping to run the pantry, which opened shortly after a separate large pantry was evicted from its NYCHA headquarters just down the block.

Flushing was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. A recent report from the New York State Comptroller Thomas DeNapoli found that the neighborhood, home to the largest Asian American population and one of the largest senior populations in the city, suffered the effects of the pandemic more than most neighborhoods in New York City.

And throughout the five boroughs, food insecurity has been on the rise. Demand for food increased by 93 percent in 2021 in New York City, according to a 2022 report by the Food Bank For New York. The increase in demand comes as food prices throughout the country are also on the rise.

Though Soukhaseum sees the pantry as a needed service, he also sees it as a treatment for a much larger financial problem for Asian Americans living in Flushing.

“The pantry is just a stop gap,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to better serve the community.”

“Even during up times and down times, the community still needs help, whatever shape or form, it comes in,” he added. “You adapt. It's not one service, it's various services that are shaped to fit the needs of the community.”