Community
HEARTFELT EXPRESSION I ON THE COVER
RA A Brighter New
Young artists create Rosh Hashanah-themed designs to benefit Yad Ezra.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
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Yad Ezra, whose vision is "a Jewish
community without hunger," provides
kosher food, toiletries and household
cleaning items to low-income Jewish
families in Southeast Michigan.
Founded in 1990, the agency
served an average of 250 families
every month that first year and has
seen an increase of more than 500
percent in the number of families
now receiving services. With one in
20 members of the Metro Detroit
Jewish community relying on Yad
Ezra, it now distributes 850,000
pounds of supplemental food, health
care items and household
goods to an average of 1,600
families – almost 3,700 indi-
viduals – every month.
Yad Ezra distributes
appropriate foods that help
enhance the clients' celebra-
tion of every Jewish holiday.
Yad Ezra is an independent
agency supported by dona-
tions.
David Kleiman's
winning Rosh
he rules of a recent art compe-
tition were simple — draw a
holiday picture. The purpose for
the artwork — a little more complex. Yet
artists, ages 4-15, from throughout Metro
Detroit, took that purpose to heart, creating
entries for Yad Ezra's annual citywide Rosh
Hashanah Greeting Card Contest.
With each drawing, awareness of the
Berkley-based agency — Michigan's only
kosher food pantry — was generated in a
fun way among the young members who
entered. And the creators of the four top-
chosen designs saw their work reproduced
on Yad Ezra's holiday cards, sold to raise
funds for the agency.
This year's winners — all share first
place — are Wendy Kelman, 12, of
Southfield; David Kleiman, 6, of Oak Park;
Claire Schlussel, 12, of Huntington Woods;
and Ava Taylor, 4, of Bloomfield Hills.
The 12-card sets are sold for $50 and
include three reprints of each piece of art.
David may only be 6, but his mom,
Deanna, said he came to understand a lot
about Yad Ezra through the contest.
"[Now] he knows Yad Ezra is a Jewish
organization that helps Jewish people who
need food or other things, and that helping
Yad Ezra is a mitzvah;' she said.
David, a second-grader at Akiva Hebrew
Day School in Southfield, loves to draw. He
chose his design by "just thinking about
Rosh Hashanah',' said his mom. "He has
seen the cards and is very proud to have
his artwork seen by so many people."
An Artistic Summer
Kids who created the contest entries
worked on them this summer.
"The timing of the contest was tricky for
us because kids don't return to school early
enough to participate in the contest there,"
said Lea Luger, Yad Ezra's development
director. "We thought we would have a cap-
tive audience if we approached day camps."
The project was shepherded by Sarah
Snider of Oak Park, a student at Yeshiva
University-Stern College in New York, who
spent the summer at Yad Ezra through
JVS' Jeanette and Oscar Cook Jewish
Occupational Intern (JOIN) program.
Snider contacted area day camps, asking
staff if they would spread the word about
Brighter New Year on page 38
Hashanah design
ternber 2 2010
37