To Life!

ON THE COVER

'Let All Who Are Hungry

Come And Eat.'

COMMUN ITY CARE

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

-

Staff Writer

0

n March 11, George
Orley of Bloomfield
Hills was called to the
Torah at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek as a bar mitzvah. But it
was during the weeks prior to
that Shabbat that he came to
accept an important responsibil-
ity of adulthood: helping care for
those in need.
Joining with a new genera-
tion of supporters, George chose
MAZON: A Jewish Response to
Hunger as the recipient of dona:
tions he asked his friends to
make instead of buying him bar
mitzvah presents.
"We enclosed a card in each of
the 140 kids' invitations, telling
them in lieu of gifts we hoped
they would make a donation
to Mazon," said George's mom,
Diane." At his bar mitzvah party,
informational material was
placed on each table describing
Mazon and its
benefits.
Supporting
hunger relief was
an easy choice for
the 13-year-old.
"The kids I know
don't have to look
for a meal, they
just have one
said George, a
seventh-grader
at Cranbrook
Rabbi Berkun
Schools in
Bloomfield Hills.
"The kids who get
food because of the donations
wouldn't die without it, but they
would be hungrier."

30

April 6 • 2006

Detroit embraces MAZON's mission
through youth, schools, synagogues.

According to Rabbi Jonathan
Berkun, Shaarey Zedek's b'nai
mitzvah families are encouraged
to support the Los Angeles-based
Mazon. The organization allo-
cates donations from the Jewish
community to prevent and
ate hunger among those of all
faiths and backgrounds in the •
United States and around the
world, including Darfur, Sudan;
tsunami-hit Asia; and in the
Hurricane Katrina-devastated
Gulf Coast.
"I explain that in the shtetl,
when a rabbi was asked to offici-
ate at a simchah, he first asked
that all the hungry people in the
neighborhood be fed," Rabbi
Berkun said.
He encourages modern-day
b'nai mitzvah to follow the
Mazon "3-percent solution" creed
to contribute 3 percent of the
cost of their party as a symbolic
way to continue this tradition.
"Just as we are about to sit
down and celebrate, we, too, are
first making sure
that those among
us who are hungry
have food to eat," he
said. "I believe this
type of donation
helps the celebrating
family as well as the
entire community
remember one of
our primary mis-
sions as Jews – to
help those who are
less fortunate."
Diane Orley said,
"We had a positive
response to the request for dona-
tions. I wish we had asked the
adults to do the same thing. We

are very passionate about Mazon;
and my husband, Randy, and I
plan to make a further donation
to Mazon in honor of George's'
bar mitzvah?'

Way Back When
Detroit has had a Mazon connec-
tion for nearly 20 years, almost

since author and teacher Leonard
Fein – founder of Moment maga-
zine and the National Jewish
Coalition for Literacy — estab-
lished the national group in 1985.
That year, the organization dis-
tributed $20,000 in cash grants.
Now more than $3 million is
granted annually to more than

George Orley gets ready to light a candle at his bar mitzvah
celebration.

300 hun-
ger-relief
agencies
worldwide,_
including
emergency
food provid-
ers, food
banks,
multi-ser-
vice organi-
zations and Rabbi Yedwab
advocacy
groups seeking solutions to the
hunger problem.
Locally, Mazon — which is
the Hebrew word for "food"
— began with a bang.
"When I first came to Temple
Israel, the national Mazon orga-
nization was brand new," said
Rabbi Paul Yedwab. "Rabbi [A.
Irving] Schnipper and I were
very excited about it and we
created the Mazon Council of
Metropolitan Detroit with the
support of most of our area
Conservative and Reform rab-
bis?'
-A Detroit-based initiative
asking b'nai mitzvah celebrants
to make donations to Mazon in
honor of their guests was taken
to the national level.
"Within our own congrega-
tions, we tried to think of ways
to make it easy for people to
get involved," Rabbi Yedwab
said. "Iry Kramer, our original
director, created a brochure that
would be given to each of our
b'nai mitzvah?'
Representatives from each
affiliated congregation met
regularly. It Ivas through those
meetings that Mazon branched
out in a remarkable way, with