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'Honey From The Heart'

Norman Lord
Special to the Jewish News

F

or 20 years, Lesley Berman and
Terry Schwartz have been living
the sweet life.
Literally.
The two Atlanta residents are co-
chairs of ORT America's "Honey from
the Heart" project, a combination fun-
draiser, High Holiday gift package that
has grown into a national operation
since it was launched in 1991.
What began humbly — several
women in Atlanta writing out person-
alized holiday messages and mailing
labels by hand and tying bows on 150
jars of honey from a local beekeeper —
has now come to define the two long-
time volunteers' lives.
"My life is about honey, especially at
this time of the year;' Schwartz says.
Says Berman: "I live honey. My kids,
who are now 30 and 26, have been
involved in the project since they were
3 or 4."
Today, more than 100 distributors
around the country — synagogue
sisterhoods and brotherhoods, day
schools and other Jewish organizations
— sell the 8-ounce jars of Orthodox
Union-certified kosher clover honey to
friends, family and supporters. Berman
and Schwartz say sales have increased
every year since the project began, and
this year they are looking to sell almost

20,000 jars.
To date, about 200 Jewish organiza-
tions have benefited financially from
the project — many have been par-
ticipating for 10 years or more. When a
person receives a honey jar in the mail
there is a card wishing them a happy,
healthy New Year, and stating that a
donation has been made in their name
to the sender's organization.
The sweet life for Berman and
Schwartz, began, as is fitting, with a
single jar of honey.
Back in 1989, Berman was at a meet-
ing of her Atlanta Tri-County chapter of
Women's American ORT (the precursor
to ORT America). Another member
brought a jar of honey she had received
from a cousin in a Southwest chapter of
ORT to propose having the Tri-County
chapter sell honey as a fundraiser.
Intrigued, Berman contacted the
person in the Southwest but she wasn't
interested in sharing.
It didn't deter Berman. She decided
to seek out a local honey company
and start selling the jars in the Atlanta
area. They found a local beekeeper who
shipped the chapter 150 to 200 jars.
"We charged $5.50 for mailing and
the honey, and we sold all of them to
friends and family in lieu of New Year's
cards," Berman says.
When members of the Atlanta chapter
took the honey jar idea to the Women's
American ORT national meeting in 1991,

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it generated much interest from other
chapters around the country.
Schwartz, who has a background in
database management, joined the honey
team in the early 1990s, and has been
instrumental in guiding the project to
the next level.
"This year we built a new website for
Honey from the Heart [www.orthoney.
corn] because we outgrew the old one
Schwartz says.

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