August 15, 2008

Hunger in America

Pick up any newspaper or magazine today, listen to the radio…in fact, ask your local public assistance office or food bank and you will know that with the worsening economy comes hunger and food insecurity–a situation affecting many, many people including those who have never asked for help before. Rising food costs and the general serious downturn in the economy are taking their toll and contacts we have in the non-profit world are confirming the seriousness of the situation on an almost daily basis.

Today’s call came from Ranya Kelly, the dedicated and indefatigable founder of the Redistribution Center in Colorado (http://www.redistributioncenter.org/). Ranya’s work is almost legend. Over 20 years ago while searching through a dumpster for a carton to mail some gifts, Ranya discovered over 500 pairs of brand new shoes discarded by a nearby store. It was that discovery that led to the formation of the Redistribution Center, Ranya’s organization which has rescued, since its founding, over 700,000 pairs of new shoes and millions of dollars worth of brand new, perfectly usable clothing, bedding, building supplies and more from local and national retail outlets. What was destined for a landfill is now filling the needs of impoverished people not only in the Denver area but also other parts of the United States. Ranya has sent two 53′ trailers to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina three years ago and her efforts have also benefited our nation’s soldiers who have returned from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to the incredible importance of recycling all of these hard goods, Ranya began a small food pantry at her facility (located on part of her property) and has been able to fill it with donated food items from both manufacturers and local food stores. There has never been a shortage of needy recipients for the food, but in the past several phone calls Ranya shared that the numbers are increasing and she feared that at some point she would have to turn people away. The need for food was outpacing the available supply. We are certain that this scene is being played out in cities and towns across the country…Denver and its suburbs are not the exception.

Today’s call was just what I had feared–the shelves of her food pantry and walk-in cooler were bare. For the past few days Ranya has been turning away elderly people living on meager incomes, just "ordinary" people and veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan who have sometimes returned home to no job, a family that has deserted them, and many, many physical and emotional scars.(and veterans’ organizations do not always step in–people do fall through the cracks.)

How could we help? If she had the funds would she be able to purchase the food from local sources at greatly reduced prices? The answer was a resounding, yes!

Postscript: We sent Ranya a check on the day she called us and on Tuesday, August 19, 2008, she called to report that she was on the way to purchase as much as she possibly could to fill the shelves and feed hungry people. It was that quick and that simple.

August 14, 2008

The War in Georgia

We have been following the daily updates on the crisis in Georgia and know from both U.S. and Israeli media that this is a major humanitarian crisis and definitely something reminiscent of the 1960’s. As we have done in the past when we do not have any personal contacts on the ground, we are relying on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to allocate our funds to those needs which they identify on an hourly basis. We know that "the Joint" uses its resources effectively and efficiently and are comfortable sending what we can to them when we have no direct representation present. Our donation has been mailed today.

We share the following excerpt from the JDC web site. It is almost as if we are on the scene ourselves.

JDC SOS Van Delivers Humanitarian Aid Packages

The JDC van’s next stop was the almost ruined house of the Frankel family: mother Irina burst into tears when she saw the bus arriving at her door. Having no transportation, Irina and her husband could not leave their house; their 15-year-old developmentally disabled son was in shock and unable to go on foot.

While the father was putting their belongings in the van, a neighbor named Natela was helping her friend Irina prepare to leave. In the conversation with JDC staff, Natela revealed that she and her husband were Jewish. When it was suggested they evacuate, she thanked them but refused: "My husband is a doctor in the local hospital. We just can’t leave when so many people need medical assistance and so few doctors are available. We have decided to stay. . . ." The JDC team left the family with packages of humanitarian aid, enough so that her husband could distribute the packages in the hospital to the neediest patients. "We are facing here every minute dozens of people who desperately need food-today even bread is great deficit! These packages are sure to save the lives of many!" said Natela.

Today’s report is one more example of JDC’s ongoing commitment to ensure safety and security of Jews wherever and whenever they are in need.

http://www.jdc.org/news_press_2008_georgia.html

August 12, 2008

Loose Change

Today’s mail brought a very nice tzedakah check which included a note describing the origin of the donation. We think it bears repeating here so that upcoming Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids who are looking for a meaningful way to celebrate their simcha might duplicate or create their own version of the idea.

Erin Sharfman celebrated her Bat Mitzvah this past Hanukkah and decided that gelt is one of the many things that we think of when recalling this holiday. Who doesn’t remember the gold-covered coins that were eagerly awaited along with a gift or two? (Sometimes just getting the wrapper off of the small coins took all the patience we had as young children.) So–why not collect gelt from her guests?…the loose change kind of gelt that always adds up to something very significant.

When Erin’s guests received her invitation six weeks before the actual simcha, they were asked to collect all of their loose change over the next several weeks and bring it to her party which was held on the Sunday of Hanukkah. Well, collect their loose change they did! On the day of her party Erin was overwhelmed with tons of loose change (and some bills too!) After counting and wrapping it all, (and adding some of her own funds to the total) Erin was able to send us a check which she asked to be split between the good work being done by A Package From Home (http://www.apackagefromhome.org/) and the very famous Clara Hammer who provides Shabbat food for poor families in Israel. Erin learned about Clara while attending Camp Ramah, and her family had heard about Barbara Silverman’s efforts when they received an email that described the packages that Barbara sends to soldiers (many of them chayalim bodedim or lone soldiers who have no family in Israel) serving in the IDF. Along with the donation to A Package From Home, Erin also included several letters to soldiers which were written by her guests at the party. Erin recalled that the letters of support were one of the soldiers’ favorite items to receive in the packages.

Yasher koach to Erin and her family! What a great mitzvah project. There will be many smiling faces in Israel because of your creative ideas.

August 05, 2008

Jews Around the World

"Kulanu", a Hebrew term which refers to "all of us" is also the name of a small, grass-roots organization dedicated to discovering and assisting little-known Jewish communities found in remote corners of the world. (http://www.kulanu.org/)

We have followed Kulanu’s work for many years and can particularly recall their first contacts in the mid-90’s with the now-famous Abuyudaya community in Uganda, as well as urging people to ship Jewish books of interest there and to other isolated regions around the world.

Harriet Bograd has been a part of the dedicated Kulanu leadership for many years and in an email last week, she shared that she had recently become President of the group, taking over for Jack Zeller, one of Kulanu’s founders and a major force in the organization’s success over the years. After our initial contact by email, Harriet and I spent some time on the phone reviewing all of the many places where Kulanu has made an impact in fostering Judaism. Of course, the Abuyudaya community was a focal point and it was particularly gratifying to learn that Gershom Sizomu, a long-time leader among the Abuyudyan community, had just returned to Uganda after completing five years in formal Rabbinic training in the States. At last, the Abuyudaya would have a religious leader recognized by world Jewry, and Uganda would have a Chief Rabbi! Harriet went on to mention that with Kulanu’s help, Alex Armah, a leader in the Ghanaian Jewish community was now spending several months studying with the newly-ordained Rabbi Gershom so that he can return to Ghana with more Jewish knowledge to share with his community. Everything that Harriet was sharing was so exciting. Who knew that there was such a burgeoning Jewish community in Africa and what was being done to help foster their Judaism?

What follows are excerpts from a letter that Harriet shared with us. The writer is Alex Armah, the Ghanaian Jewish leader mentioned above. Alex was in Uganda at the time of Rabbi Gershom’s ordination. After reading the letter I asked Harriet what we could do to help this type of exciting work and with little hesitation and discussion it was agreed that the Good People Fund would offer Kulanu a matching grant of $500 to cover the remaining costs of Alex Armah’s time in Uganda.

Shalom,

Alex Armah
Community Liason

Indeed, it is olam katan-a truly small world in which we live!

August 04, 2008

A Little Bit of Help Can Make All of the Difference

From time to time we learn of a situation where a little bit of help can make a truly profound difference in someone’s life or in the life of an entire family. Such was the case when we heard from Avshalom Beni, founder of HAMA, and one of Israel’s best when it comes to animal-assisted therapy. In the course of his work Avshalom often encounters such situations, and so he was writing recently to tell us about the G. family. The husband and wife in this Ethiopian family arrived in Israel several years ago as teens and since that time married and started a family which now includes four children, the oldest of whom is 13. Both parents work for minimum wages as caretakers in Israeli hospitals. For this work they receive no benefits of any kind and no job security whatsoever. They are dedicated, highly intelligent workers, so proud that they would never apply for any public assistance no matter what the family situation.

Their 13 year old daughter recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and has one dream that has yet to come true-a computer! How much of a difference a computer could make for this special family.

Avshalom asked if there was any way we could possibly provide the laptop computer, a printer and ten lessons for the family? The cost? About $1600. With some help from recent religious schools’ donations, this young girl and her family will receive their computer and lessons and who can imagine what other worlds will open up for them with this gift?

August 03, 2008

A Well Deserved Mazal Tov

On July 21 we described a fabulous Bar Mitzvah project that benefited the work of The Forgotten People Fund-an all-volunteer group that helps many Ethiopians who have settled in the city of Netanya. We have always been proud of the work that we do with the group-they are all-volunteer and almost 100% of the funds they raise are directed to helping families and individuals with the most basic of needs-school costs, food, training, clothing, health-they are a lifesaver for so many in that city.

So–it was no surprise when I opened this morning’s email from Aida Miller who, along with her husband Rabbi Yosef Miller, and friends, Anne and David Silverman, were the founders of The Forgotten People Fund, and read the following:

On Thursday evening (July 31st) our Forgotten People Fund was honored by the Mayor of Netanya, Miriam Fierberg, with an award for outstanding volunteer service for the year 2008. It was significant because Netanya is celebrating its 80th anniversary, Israel is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and FPF is celebrating its 10th anniversary. There were over five hundred people in attendance and afterwards we were surrounded by the social workers we work with, representatives of the Senior Citizens Dept., Ethiopians from the Or Ganim Gardening Cooperative that we helped establish and family and friends. I was overwhelmed by the expressions of gratitude and I wept a little because my husband. Yosef, couldn’t be with us to hear all the accolades. He was the one who started the idea of helping the Ethiopian community and it is sad that he couldn’t be there to see how much our work is appreciated.

Mazal Tov to all of the FPF volunteers who work so selflessly on behalf of Netanya’s Ethiopian community. We can’t wait for the 20th anniversary celebration!