Donations from the Central federation helped fill boxes of food for citizens of Sderot.
March 27, 2008
Hoping to comfort residents of Israel’s beleaguered Sderot, the Women’s Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey asked people to donate money to fund a Purim treat of mishloah manot, the traditional holiday food gift baskets. They set a goal of $500 in $18 gifts; $1,300 came in.
That would have been enough to provide lavish gift baskets for the neediest people in the town devastated by the incessant threat of rocket fire from Gaza. But Tehila Nachlon, the federation’s representative in Israel, saw a way to provide a double benefit.
Rather than buy the supplies elsewhere and send the gifts to Sderot, she suggested that they be purchased in the town from local businesspeople.
“The large stores might be doing all right, but the small groceries in the neighborhoods are very hurt. People are not buying from them,” she said, talking by phone from Israel on March 21.
Then there was the question of what should go into those packages. From the activity of her own children, Nachlon, who lives in Jerusalem, knew that kids all over the country had been putting together mishloah manot baskets containing the usual goodies for the people of Sderot.
“That was a very good way of teaching the children about mitzvas, about doing good, but those people were getting so much of it, I couldn’t see sending them any more candies,” she said. “What was really needed was regular food for families who are in a bad condition.”
A Purim food package given to the needy in Sderot.
Nachlon said the Central response was “very moving.” The donated funds she used on her shopping spree were sufficient to buy badly needed staples like oil, flour, sugar, and some other basic items, and not for just one week, but to spread it out over perhaps three weeks. Nachlon turned to a local social service center for help in distributing the Purim gifts.
Israelis from across the country have responded to the plight of Sderot’s residents, Nachlon said. “Some people go once or twice a month to do their Friday shopping there, and many, many volunteers go there to help out in other ways.”
But that still leaves many families facing hardship as the local economy shrivels.
“It’s hard to say just how many people are receiving food aid from the social service center,” she said. “The man who started the center began with a few people, and it has grown and grown. It varies from week to week, but I think it’s been up to about 600 people.
“Whenever there are hard times, the young can manage to keep going, but the older people and the new immigrants — the people who have nowhere else to turn — they get left behind,” she said. “The man who runs the center gives food to those who come asking for help, but he also tries to make sure that packages are delivered to those who are unable to get there themselves.”
Thanks to well-wishers from overseas, Nachlon said, “last week, and for the next few weeks, he has an abundance of food to give them.”
Visit the Central federation’s Women’s Campaign's web page for more information on how to donate to help the people of Sderot.
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