I
Opinion
A MIX OF IDEAS
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Editorial
Hunger Pangs
T
wenty years
ago, Rabbi A. Irving
Schnipper and some vision-
ary friends started a small
kosher food pantry in donated office
space on 10 Mile Road near Greenfield
in Southfield. Its purpose: to help feed
hungry, needy Jews in Metro Detroit.
The organization assisted 250 families
each month that first year
Today, two decades,
several moves and about
two miles later, Yad Ezra
continues its mission on a
much larger scale. Today,
the food pantry is located
in a large warehouse on
11 Mile Road in Berkley,
and gives food, health and
household items monthly
to 1,600 local families. Yad
Ezra predicts it will distribute 850,000
pounds of food this year to 3,500
impoverished Jews.
Thirty-five hundred impoverished Jews
— that number certainly flies in the
face of the stereotypes of outsiders, and
our own vision of our community and
ourselves. Thirty-five hundred is 4.8
percent of the estimated Detroit area
Jewish community of 2005. Today, 3,500
is as much as 5.8 percent of our shrink-
ing Jewish community — one of every
19 or 20 Jews in this area.
Yad Ezra is a blessing. It provides
direct relief to the needy. While some
of its clients could scrape by without it,
others are fully dependent
on its monthly assistance
package. They, literally,
would be making choices
between food, heat and
medicine without Yad Ezra.
No one is living large
with the agency's help. It's
a lean machine, with five
full-time employees, a core
group of 100 volunteers
and a changing cadre of
13-year-olds who volunteer to fulfill a
bar/bat mitzvah service requirement
and leave with a deepened understand-
ing of the economic extremes in the
Jewish community.
A major part of the agency's goal is
to protect the dignity and identity of
its many clients. Those seeking its help
Yad Ezra is
a blessing. It
provides direct
relief to the
needy.
Dry Bones
OUR PRIDE AND JOY
IT'S HARD, DRY,
AND SOMETIMES
STICKS IN YOUR
THROAT
under very
trying cir-
cumstances
are treated
with respect.
As many of
our Jewish
agencies
have learned,
especially
over the last
few years,
yesterday's
donor could
easily be
today's
recipient.
Last
weekend,
Yad Ezra
distributed
Passover packages to its clients with the
help of the Moies Chitim organization
and Jewish Family Service. The annual
effort provides clients with matzah,
wine and other kosher-for-Passover
items needed to observe the holiday.
When Yad Ezra was created in 1991,
DryBonesBlog.com
its clientele had heavy representation
from the elderly immigrant population
streaming into the United States from
the former Soviet Union. Some of those
folks are still being helped today. But
after two decades of service, Yad Ezra
has become a lifesaver for the broader
community that created it.
❑
Liberate Yourself This Passover
New York
A
t the core of everything people
do at the seder and even in the
preparations for it stands the
desire to celebrate being liberated from
whatever oppresses us and those about
whom we care. The task of the seder is to
help each of us see ourselves as ones who
have been liberated from Egypt, which in
Hebrew is mitzrayim, or tight spot.
The practices of Pesach are meant to
help us experience and empathize with
the journey from slavery to freedom, from
the tight spots in our lives to the expansive
feeling of liberation. Here are 10 simple
practices, each of which is inspired by
Passover traditions, to help you liberate
yourself and others, too.
Pick a small symbol of whatever is hold-
ing you back and throw it away. Declare
that for a specific period of time, say a
week, you are simply not going to accept
the presence of that problem in your
life. That's what we do when we burn a
symbolic amount of chametz, leavened
products, on the morning before the holi-
day begins.
34
March 25 • 2010
iN
Next, treat yourself to some-
questions traditionally asked
thing new that makes you feel
at the seder, and limit your
fresh — a garment or anything
worry to that short list. Start
else, which, when worn, used,
by addressing them, just as we
etc., makes you feel like you
start by addressing the classic
deserve a fresh start and are
four questions at the Seder.
getting one. The importance of
Now, take a moment to iden-
that feeling is what motivated
tify some things that are going
the practice of wearing a kittel,
well in your life. Where do you
a simple white robe or jacket at
see the first signs of new posi-
Rabbi Brad
the seder.
tive potential emerging? They
Hirschfield
As you prepare for the holi-
need not be big to be real. Just
Special
day, make sure that your plans
as we take a bit of green veg-
Commentary
include doing something nice
etable symbolizing rebirth and
for somebody else. It need
renewal early in the seder, take
not be big, but there is no better path to
stock of what's good as part of the process
empowerment than serving another per-
of liberating yourself from what's not.
son in need. That's one of the reasons why
As we recall our ancestors' tough times
in many homes people fill each other's
in the past with bitter herbs, soften that
cups at the seder.
experience by dipping them in sweet
And whatever you do, don't go it
charoset. Consider where you see others
alone. Just as we welcome "all who are
wrestling with challenges in their lives and
hungry" to our seder tables, identify peo-
think about what you could do to lighten
ple who could share in your own process
their burden. What abilities do you pos-
of liberation and invite them to be part of
sess that could brighten someone else's
your circle of support.
life?
Articulate a limited number of chal-
Find stories of people who have over-
lenges, no more than four, ala the four
come similar challenges to the ones you
face and share those stories with your
circle of support. If it worked for others, it
can work for you. That's how we use past
experience as a resource in building a bet-
ter future.
Now, make a list of the people and
things for which you can be grateful no
matter how jammed up your life may
otherwise be. Make sure to say "thank you"
to those who make the good stuff happen.
Gratitude is liberating.
Articulate your dreams, even if you have
no idea about how to make them come true
or any rational expectation that they will. If
there was they would not be dreams. And
once you articulate them, you are that much
closer to making them real.
This process, whether followed this
coming Monday night or at some other
time, is a road map to the liberation we
all seek and a source of power to help oth-
ers find the liberation which they seek as
well. Try it and see for yourseffl
❑
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of "You
Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right"
and is the president of Clal-The National
Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.