Mitzva Day offers opportunity for face-to-face good deeds

by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

It’s not often that more people volunteer their services than organizers can accommodate.

But that was the welcome situation this past Sunday, Jan. 22, when more than three dozen families and individuals showed up to deliver food packages to those in need as part of Mitzva Day at the Wilf Jewish Community Campus in Scotch Plains.

The event was organized by Joanie Rosenthal and Lisa Olender for the Women’s Campaign and Leadership Development Division of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey.

Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey provided 35 boxes to deliver to individuals and families who receive a monthly delivery of supplemental food from the agency as part of its extensive food program. That gave their regular volunteers a break and provided the Mitzva Day participants with a chance, as Women’s Campaign director Felicia Korman said, “to see where their federation dollars go.”

“So often, people associate federation with fund-raising, with being asked to donate money,” she said, as yet another family left eagerly lugging their big box of provisions.

“This is a one-time opportunity for them to see for themselves the need that’s out there.”

It was around 3 p.m. when the last of the boxes was collected from the Wilf campus. Rosenthal breathed a sigh of satisfaction. “I didn’t know I was worried, but now I feel so relieved. It went really well,” she said. “There were so many new faces.”

Last year’s event, which she also helped organize, got snowed out, and the committee members had to deliver the boxes themselves the following day. This time the weather cooperated, and their outreach technique proved highly effective. “I sent out e-mails to people I know and asked them to contact people they know who haven’t been involved before and who they thought might be looking for an opportunity like this,” said Rosenthal. They also contacted synagogue education directors, suggesting the event as an opportunity for their bar and bat mitzva students in search of mitzva projects.

Quite a few were regular helpers; others — as Rosenthal had hoped — were venturing into these waters for the first time. Most came in family groups, parents welcoming the opportunity to have their children experience doing tzedaka firsthand, or — as the organizers anticipated — to give their 11- and 12-year-olds a chance to put in some mitzva time.

Yvette and James Andriola of Watchung came with Jacob, 12, and Lea, nine. “We’re doing as many of these events as we can,” Yvette said. With Jacob’s bar mitzva service coming up on June 10, he agreed he still has time to accumulate a bunch more mitzva hours.

Others, like Cheryl Hankin of Scotch Plains, came on their own. Asked why she had volunteered, she said, “Someone has to do it. If I was in these people’s situation, I’d want someone to do this for me.”

Warren and Amanda Friss of Westfield brought their son Taylor, 11, and were going to pick up their other two children before making the delivery. They took their big box with its staples, including cans of fruit, tuna, and beans; boxes of cereal and crackers; and a bag filled with loaves of bread, that had been donated by Marc and Lisa Essenfeld of Scotch Plains. Like everyone else, the Frisses were given a form listing their recipient and the address as well as a folder of federation information and a map. “We wanted to do this with them because it’s hands-on. You see where it goes,” Amanda said.

Asked later how their day had gone, Amanda Friss said that on the way to deliver their box, they stopped off at a store to buy some extra items. They also brought fruit and a bunch of flowers. She reported that the woman they visited was very appreciative. “She hugged us, and she said that usually she just gets a box of food and that we had brought her so much. I talked to the children about it afterward and told them that this is how most people in the world live, and that they should appreciate how fortunate we are.”

Elaine Durbach

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