Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org info@yadezra.org

Feeding Families, Nourishing Hope… Spring 2015

Message from Sam Rozenberg, Yad Ezra President I was 13 when I came to United States with my family in 1978. I recall receiving help from one or-ganization in particular, HIAS (an organization whose mission is “to rescue people whose lives are in danger for being who they are,” and whose vision is “a world in which refugees find welcome, safety and freedom”). Unfortunately, I don’t remember the names of the volunteers who helped us. There were many and they assisted us with all aspects related to making America our new home. We, along with hundreds of thousands of newcomers, came from the former USSR when the government - with hesitation - finally opened its borders, allowing Jews to leave for the West.

These volunteers helped us with shopping at local supermarkets. They helped us with providing and setting up the furni-ture in our new apartment, an apartment that seemed to be rent free for at least the time being. A kind, retired lady helped me get to the school bus for the first few days of school. A college student volunteer helped my parents and me sign up for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Jewish Family Service arranged for a volunteer to help my par-ents with resumes. In general, the community whose efforts were mustered by international Jewish aid organizations helped us get on our feet and become Americans.

Some eleven years later, as the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet borders really opened up, the Jewish communities throughout USA could no longer rely solely on the help of large international, national or even well-established regional organizations to help with meeting the daily needs of the community that was absorbing newcomers at an unprece-dented rate. Yad Ezra was born of that need.

The founders of Yad Ezra saw the need for helping vulnerable families in our community meet their nutritional needs. They wanted to help while preserving the recipients’ dignity, and with equal importance, doing it in a way that promoted our Jewish culture and tradition. While emigrants from the former USSR were not the only segment of our community in need, the newcomers made up the largest percentage of our clients and helped us focus our operations and forthcom-ing growth.

That was twenty-five years ago and so much has changed since then! In future articles, we will address these changes. However, suffice it to say that Yad Ezra is here to stay. We will stay so that we can continue to marshal community ef-forts to ensure that no Jew goes hungry today, while also believing that, one day, we will vanish hunger from the face of our planet.

Young Girls Decide to Help Yad Ezra Sloane (7) and Morgan (6) Berman and Mya (6) and Zoe (3) Kellman decided that they wanted to raise money for Yad Ezra after learning that there are families in need. They created rubber-band bracelets and duct tapes pens to sell. Hersh’s on Orchard Lake Road allowed the girls to sell their products in their store and encouraged customers to donate canned goods for Yad Ezra as well. The girls raised $360 which they brought to Yad Ezra and then spent some time volunteering in the warehouse. As Zoe said, “It made me feel good inside my heart.”

And a special THANK YOU to all of our volunteers and donors who partnered with Yad Ezra to ensure that everyone in our community

was able to celebrate Passover!

Ezra’s small staff and was responsible for client intake to han-dle the growing number of families arriving at Yad Ezra’s small basement office in Southfield. Eugene Sherizen learned about Yad Ezra and said when he first walked into Yad Ezra’s small office and met Jeannette, she didn’t know whether he was there to volunteer his services or if he was in need of food. Ed Hersh also became involved at that time and provided a free standing 4,000 square foot warehouse and office space on Harding Street in Oak Park for Yad Ezra to move into. In ex-change for nominal rent, Ed performed all maintenance and repairs for free (including snow removal and lawn mainte-nance), and provided extra storage space and made his forklift and other equipment available for use when needed. Ed and Eugene were Jeannette’s ‘go to guys’ for anything that had to do with the building or ware-house and they always picked up any costs incurred. Some things have changed since those early days on Ten Mile Road. We now own our 16,000+ square foot building, thanks in large part to Ed and Gloria Meer and their family, and to a grant from the Kresge Foundation. Though we haven’t physically moved far from our original of-fice/warehouse space (approximately 2 miles), we now assist families living as far away as Flint, Ann Arbor and Windsor, as well as those living in Jewish Senior Life Apartments and resi-dents in JARC and Kadima homes. Since we opened our doors on February 5, 1990, we have provided 16,752,345 pounds of free groceries to thousands of client families. More

than 2,000,000 hours of volunteer service have been logged. We have a meal assistance program that provide nutritional lunches daily to 930 day school students whose families fall within Yad Ezra’s guidelines. We have served as a mentor and consultant for a myriad of organizations in and out-side of Michigan.

What hasn’t changed since those early days is Yad Ezra’s com-mitment to providing not just a physical source for nourish-ment, but also the continued focus on the importance and value of community, respect, dignity and our Jewish heritage. We still operate with a very small staff of 5 full time employees and a part-time bookkeeper, a corps of dedicated volunteers, generous donors and agency partners throughout the state. To that end, we should all celebrate Yad Ezra’s 25th anniver-sary with the knowledge that so many people’s lives have been touched by Yad Ezra’s ‘helping hands.’

Twenty five years ago, a group of individuals with a shared vision de-cided to start an independent kosher food pantry to provide free groceries

to low income families living in SE Michigan. Some of these individuals were connected to a food bank in Oakland County, others helped start Forgotten Harvest and/or were involved with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, which was al-ready raising funds and visibility for the hunger cause in metro Detroit. Some of them knew each other through work, some of them grew up here, others elsewhere, all with different backgrounds, including a former priest and a pulpit rabbi. They each used their personal strengths and abilities to give birth to Yad Ezra, convinced that there were Jewish families living in the area who needed food assistance. Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper went to his congre-gants at Beth Ahm (formerly Beth Abraham Hillel Moses), asking for dollars and volunteers to help the fledgling organiza-tion open its doors. Jim Macy, a former priest and Executive Director of the Foodbank of Oakland County, provided the warehouse and logistical knowledge. Gary Dembs, Mickey Eizelman, Howard Zoller and Elie Kaplan formed the organiza-tion. Jeannette (z”l) Eizelman, a caterer, was hired to be the executive director, and her pharmacist husband Seymore, be-came the unpaid, part-time warehouse manager. Early food vendors/suppliers/supporters at the time included Greenfield Noodle, Food Bank of Oakland County, Gleaners Community

Food Bank, Forgotten Harvest and Kramer Foods. In the evenings, Jeannette and Seymore determined which food items they could purchase based on nutritional value and the amount of money they had to spend. Gary, Mickey and Howard would then go and purchase the food before client hours so that Yad Ezra’s shelves would-n’t be empty when clients arrived.

At the same time, the Soviet Union’s leadership began allowing people to emigrate to the US, with many moving to SE Michi-gan. Jewish Family Service became Yad Ezra’s first Jewish organizational ally, providing assistance, contacts and referrals to Yad Ezra so that clients would benefit from both agencies working together to provide basic needs. Word of Yad Ezra spread thanks to the Jewish News, community rabbis and other organizations, resulting in 250 families coming to Yad Ezra in need of assistance that first month, when only 100 were originally anticipated. Sylvia Abromowitz joined Yad

Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org info@yadezra.org

Rabbi Rachel Shere and 7th graders from

Adat Shalom

Monday Volunteers at Harding building

Jeannette (z"l) and Seymore Eizelman

Rabbi Schnipper inside Yad Ezra's first office space

Yad Ezra Celebrates 25 Years of Helping Families

Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org

Kudos for Volunteer Groups Mid-November 2014-Feb 2015

• Huntington Woods Women's League

• Cub Scouts 1587-Madison Heights • Wayne State University Medical Students

(twice) • BBYO Group NextGen young adult group • Lily Broner Family • Novi Hockey Team • Project Volunteer-Wayne State University Or-

ganization • JServe Teens • Friendship Circle • West Bloomfield High School Students • Hillel of Metro-Detroit • Repair the World • Temple Shir Shalom • Shaarey Zedek • Temple Beth El • Akiva Hebrew Day School • Muslim/Jewish Twinning Project • Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Group, Princeton, NJ • Shaarey Zedek-7th graders • Adat Shalom-7th graders • Jeff Katz and Robert Tokar for the preparation

of this newsletter • Delivery Phone order volunteers:

• Yury Voldman • Lora Bank

Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org info@yadezra.org

save the date…… Yad Ezra’s 25th annual fundraising event Linda and Tom Klein, 2015 honorees Monday, October 12, 2015 Strolling Supper and Short Program Adat Shalom Synagogue

We’re Happy it’s Spring! We have tribute cards with carrot seeds embedded in the paper and are available in packages of 5 cards with envelopes for $36.00. They can be ordered online (www.yadezra.org) or call the office at 248-548-3663. Send a tribute and the recipient can plant the card and watch carrots grow!

Yad Ezra and Jewish Community Rela-tions Council Host Hunger Seder in memory of Emery Klein (z”l) Once again, Yad Ezra partnered with the JCRC and Rabbi Joseph Krakoff to host a Seder dedicated to hunger awareness and activism. Attendees experi-enced a foodless Seder and learned about how hun-ger affects peoples’ lives and the ways we can advo-cate to end hunger. Guests from all over the greater community joined together to participate in this ef-fort.

Kudos

Corne

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Phone Call from a Client A one-time only client called to thank us for the gro-ceries that we gave him the night before. He stated that he really appreciated being treated with respect from the volunteers and staff. He said that he was especially touched by everyone’s kindness since he isn’t Jewish and didn’t know what to expect coming to a kosher pantry. He ended the call by saying that if time and health permit, he would like to volunteer at Yad Ezra in the future. Note from a client “I cannot put into words properly or enough to say how much the food from Yad Ezra helps us! We write the date on the calendar and watch the days until it is our turn again. Thank you so much.”

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Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org

Yad Ezra 2850 W. 11 Mile Road, Berkley, MI 48072 (248) 548-3663 www.yadezra.org info@yadezra.org