Community
What To Do! Temple Beth El Coat Drive
Now An Interfaith Outreach
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"Serving the community for 40 years"
40 Detroit Jewish News
was Rabbi Daniel Syme's initial
idea for Temple Beth El to join
in a winter coat drive for the
needy. Now the coat drive has
grown into an interfaith, 23-site project
with the goal of collecting a phenome-
nal 100,000 coats.
Two years ago, Syme invited Ranya
Kelly, a Denver woman whose life has
been dedicated to collecting and dis-
tributing items to the needy, to speak at
the kickoff of the Bloomfield Township
synagogue's first coat drive. She
responded with an offer to provide
20,000 of her already collected coats
for the project if Syme could arrange
for their transportation and storage.
Making some phone calls, the rabbi
found his 1,500-family congregation
more than willing to donate the use of
a truck and a warehouse, as well as
many hours of time. This outpouring
turned his project from a rack in the
temple lobby to one deserving of the
governor's award for community ser-
vice, for providing much-needed
warmth to tens of thousands of area
residents.
But reward is not the rabbi's goal.
Instead, he says "this is what I believe is
our Jewish mission — to be partners
with God. With so many homeless in
need, we want to be able to distribute
more hope and gentleness into their
lives, and that makes all the work
worth it."
This year, Syme has a broader
vision. As part of the Northwest Subur-
ban Interfaith Ministerial Association,
he calculated that if each of the 23
member congregations asked its mem-
bers to donate just one coat, this year's
drive could reach 100,000. At first, the
association was skeptical of achieving
such a huge number. But Syme believes
that in agreeing to join his cause, "the
association has taken the bonds of
friendship that tied us together in ritual
and dialogue, and has now found a way
to reach out into the community to
hopefully provide 100,000 coats to
those in need."
This year's coat drive honorary co-
chairs are: community leader Frank
Stella, a recent Temple Beth El/State of
Israel Bonds honoree, who is president
and owner of S.D. Stella Products; and
Alyssa Martina, who is publisher and
president of Metro Parent Magazine
and Ann Arbor Parent Magazine.
Martina is lending her support with
two full-page advertisements in Metro
Parent, donated office space for coat
drop-off and transport of collected
items to the temple. "To raise children
with a conscience," she said, "it is inte-
gral to raise them with empathy, and
this project fits in with that mission.
"We must teach our children by
showing and becoming a role model."
In seeking donations, Martina stress-
es the importance of limiting items to
those that are "very, very gently worn.
"Don't donate what you wouldn't
want your own kids to be seen in," she
said. "Tattered items are disrespectful
Denver's Ranya Kelly helps sort coats at
a past Temple Beth El coat drive.
to those getting them."
Temple Beth El's Lois Gerenraich
suggests that "items that are dirty or
shabby can make those accepting some-
thing for nothing feel like nothing."
She emphasized the importance of pre-
serving the dignity of recipients by not'
"giving away what you, yourself, would
be embarrassed to wear." Gerenraich,
director of volunteer services at the
Southfield-based Orchards Children's
Services, co-chairs this temple social
action project along with co-worker
Bobbi Charnas, Orchards community
services coordinator.
Once the drive ends, coats will be
collected from the drop-off points
beginning Dec. 13 and brought to a
warehouse furnished by Canvassar
Brothers. Temple member Marshall
Lowenstein will provide the means to
bring items once again collected by