Lee Livingston, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, receives tzedaka money collected by the children at the Jewish Community Center of North & South Brunswick Nursery School. At the presentation are, from left, front, Sarah Zins; Sari Garfinkle; Aamani Somanchi; Shilpa Gidugu; Alan Kane, chair of the federation’s Jewish Cemetery Management Corporation; and Ethan Wolkoff. Photos by Debra Rubin
March 04, 2008
Too young perhaps to understand the emotional toll of the destruction, nursery school students in North Brunswick nonetheless wanted to help restore a New Brunswick Jewish cemetery laid waste by vandals.
So the youngsters, ages two-and-a-half to five years old, at the Jewish Community Center of North & South Brunswick Nursery School brought in $586 in tzedaka money to give to the cemetery restoration fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.
“Very bad kids knocked down the stuff they had there,” said five-year-old Joseph Wolkoff of North Brunswick. “That’s all I know.”
Many of the children gathered Feb. 26 for a classroom ceremony during which federation president Lee Livingston and Alan Kane, chair of its Jewish Cemetery Management Corporation — which oversees abandoned cemeteries — were there to accept the generous donation.
The money, which had been placed in a brightly colored envelope, was handed over to the federation representatives by dozens of eager hands.
Phyllis Denenberg, director of the nursery school, based at Congregation B’nai Tikvah in North Brunswick, said the school asks youngsters to contribute tzedaka each week.
“They didn’t really understand what happened at the cemetery, but we always talk about the importance of helping others who need our help,” she said.
A letter was sent home with each child outlining the vandalism and destruction at the cemetery and the federation’s efforts to help fund repairs.
In a classroom at the Jewish Community Center of North & South Brunswick Nursery School are youngsters who contributed to restoring the Poile Zedek Cemetery with federation leaders Lee Livingston and Alan Kane.
In two incidents, on Jan. 1 and 4, four teens went on a destructive spree that uprooted or damaged approximately 75 percent of all the gravestones and caused $500,000 to $1 million in damage, most of which will not be covered by insurance.
The juveniles have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced March 17.
The Joyce Kilmer Avenue cemetery is jointly shared by New Brunswick’s Congregation Poile Zedek and Sephardi Congregation Etz Ahaim of Highland Park.
“This community has gotten together to restore that cemetery,” Livingston told the children. “We’ve raised about $100,000 of tzedaka.”
Kane said he was impressed with the youngsters’ sense of community and desire to help others. “The real value here is that it teaches these children they are part of a larger community,” he said.
Maya Bishop, four, of Somerset gave expression to her and her classmates’ desire to assist others. “We have to help people because they need clothes and food and their mommies and daddies can’t get them clothes,” she said.
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