Passover Feeding The Hungry Remember those in need at Pesach. Lori Dube Special to the Jewish News W hen Larry Oleinick, the founder of Heart 2 Hart Detroit (H2HD), handed out his first package of food to a homeless man in Detroit's Hart Plaza this past summer, it didn't just feel right; it also felt familiar. Back in the 1970s and 1980s at Passover, the living room in the Oleinick's Oak Park home became an assembly line for creat- ing care packages — with donated matzah, fruit and macaroons — for Jewish people living in Detroit. The annual matzah delivery project was started by Oleinick's father, Milton, work- ing with the late Rabbi Solomon Gruskin of the Congregation B'nai Zion shul in Oak Park. Those Passover pilgrimages were Downtown not far from where Oleinick ventures now, three times a week, during the summer heat and the winter freeze to feed, clothe and connect with the city's less fortunate. "My dad taught us the importance of tzedekah, of giving back, of helping out any- one in need; says Oleinick. "And my mom, Cru, had a heart of gold and would lend an ear to anyone who wanted to talk. What I am doing through Heart 2 Hart Detroit is an extension and a way of honoring what I learned from my folks" These days, Oleinick, with help from friends and relatives Ken Levy, Jeffrey Markowitz, Mark Jacobs, Harriet Kirsch, Allan Oleinick and Bill Briggs, is reaching out to a broader community than Jewish people in need. They are acting upon the fundamentally Jewish principle of tikkun olam — repairing the world — to help address Detroit's homeless issue. "We now hand out a dozen to 18 lunches three times a week on the streets in Downtown Detroit. I know what we are doing doesn't solve the problem:' says Oleinick. "But if we hand food to one per- son that hasn't eaten that day, or give a coat to someone who is living under the express- way overpass in the freezing cold, I know we are doing something worthwhile. "Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, and we do that with each package we hand out and each individual we look in the eye and ask if they need shoes or socks or underwear" Oleinick also knows that building part- nerships with individuals, businesses and Larry Oleinick and Ken Levy with the cooler that they pull around Hart Plaza filled with sandwiches in the summer. organizations is the best way to have a real impact on the homeless situation. That is why his family, cousins, childhood friends and local suburban businesses and organizations like the Detroit Pistons, Tappers, the Shirt Box and Superior Materials Holdings have all come on board with the H2HD mission and have sup- ported its work. H2HD is also networking with B'nai B'rith Great Lakes Region and the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue for contributions of clothing and toiletries and programming possibilities. With its 501(c)(3) status in the works, H2HD, along with its board of directors, is looking to expand the mission to include more daily deliveries of lunches and cloth- ing. Since it began in June, H2HD has dis- tributed more than 1,000 lunches and given away more than 250 each of coats, new socks and new underwear. "I'm proud to be a part of H2HD and offer any support I can to help them fulfill their goals of feeding and clothing Detroit's homeless:' says Mark Jacobs of Farmington Hills, chairperson of the H2HD board of directors and also a childhood friend of Oleinick's. "I've gone to Africa to help pro- vide clean drinking water to people, but when I made the delivery Downtown with H2HD, I saw the profound needs that exist in our own backyard." Oleinick adds, "For me, Passover will always be a time to be with my family and to give to others. This year's deliveries won't have matzah in them, but they still repre- sent the Illor Vador tradition started by my father that I am proud to continue all year long through Heart 2 Hart Detroit:' ❑ For more information on how to contribute or get involved with Heart 2 Hart Detroit you can visit the website at www.h2hd.org. Chocolate Shakes Up The Seder Ritual JTA R abbi Adam Schaffer, who's been leading chocolate seders since he edited a choco- late seder Haggadah in 1996, acknowledges that "people often do feel ill" from all the chocolate. Still, Schaffer, the religious school director at Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills, Calif., says he was motivated to "experiment outside the box and engage college students who were not in the usual Hillel track," and found that the chocolate seder took things to a "fun level, helping make connections for people, re-contextualiz- ing the seder:' In the last couple of decades, college campus groups and synagogue youth groups have concocted the seders that replace the ritual foods with chocolate. There is green-colored chocolate for the karpas/lettuce; chocolate-covered 48 March 21 • 2013 nuts for the charoset mix of nuts, apples and wine representing mortar used in building for the Pharaoh; a chocolate egg for the roasted egg symbolizing the Passover sacrifice; a very dark 90-100 percent chocolate for the bitter herbs or maror. You get the idea. A chocolate-soaked seder may help sugar-hyped par- ticipants absorb the ritual's teachings about freedom. An alternative to wallow- ing in the gooey substitutes for the usual ritual foods, as entertaining as that might be, could use chocolate to name the issues of slavery, eco- nomic justice and fair trade in the chocolate business and to elevate the profound themes of Passover. My chocolate Haggadah amplifies awareness about ethical quandaries around chocolate, and challenges par- ticipants to consider labor justice and spotlight Passover's underlying messages of freedom, dignity and fairness. In A Socially Responsible Haggadah for a Chocolate Seder, chocolate becomes the medium for uncovering teachings about ethical kashrut, worker equity and food sustainability to celebrate those who toil, often in great poverty, to grow and harvest cacao, including children and young adults — some of them in bond- age in the Ivory Coast and Ghana's cacao plantations. The Haggadah hopes for a harvesting of the fruits of productive, meaningful and safe labors. The custom of three matzahs — the chocolate Haggadah version uses chocolate-covered — recalls our tikkun olam, our ongoing struggle to perfect the world, as we consider responsibil- ity for the contrast between the limited resources of most cacao growers and the wealthy consumers of chocolate. When we cover our matzah with chocolate, we recall that not only are we descended from slaves in Egypt, we recall child slaves on cocoa plantations of our time. As we prepare to celebrate Passover this year, may we feel assured that we have helped advance the messianic era through our tantalizing array of chocolate choices, not just chocolate matzah. ❑ Rabbi Deborah Prinz is the author of A Socially Responsible Haggadah for a Chocolate Seder, which may be found at her blog, www.jews onthechocolatetraiLorg. Her latest book is On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao [Jewish Lights].