The sight never failed to stun me — hundreds of Jews wrapped in winter coats on a Sunday morning, standing in a line that snaked out the front door, around the sidewalk and into the parking lot of a Capitol Drive warehouse.
The image of those people, mostly elderly Jews from the Former Soviet Union and a smattering of developmentally disabled adults, is imprinted in my mind, a seeming imposter from an earlier time or a different nation.
But I’m looking back not to the bread lines of the 1930s but to last April, as approximately 400 families received bags overflowing with free kosher-for-Passover food from the Rabbi Scheinfeld Moath Chitim Fund. For approximately 70 years, the fund has given food to Jews in need — the most vulnerable and arguably the most invisible.
The food — bags stuffed with holiday staples and treats — was a much-needed supplement to the weekly distribution by the Jewish Community Pantry, a joint program of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center and the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Then came this year. As reported in last week’s Chronicle, the pantry was forced to close after a city inspector declared their rental space at 36th and Center Streets unfit for habitation. Staff and volunteers are now looking for a new space.
This year, as more and more people are unemployed, both sources of emergency food are not functional. This year, as more parents are paring extra expenses out of their children’s lives and health insurance premiums are not decreasing with reduced salaries. This year, as economists continually refer to the 1920s and 30s. The irony is painful.
In the vacuum of services this year, a spirit of community collaboration has taken hold. The pantry partnered with the federation’s Coalition for Jewish Learning, Tikkun-Ha-Ir of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis to launch a new initiative, The Wisconsin Children’s Passover Project.
Food is being collected throughout the community — at schools and synagogues, at special events and at the JCC. An estimated 300 sets of grape juice, matzah and gefilte fish will be handed to Jews in need on Sunday, April 5, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Jewish Home and Care Center’s Rubenstein Pavilion.
The people involved in this project — staff members, volunteers and donors — are the bright spot in a season of budget cuts and tension. I feel inspired by their action and the power of their motivation.
After Passover, a group will convene to plan for the future. If you’d like to help, you may contact Judy Barch of Tikkun-Ha-Ir (414-247-3750), Dorene Paley of the pantry (414-967-8217) or Rabbi Shari Shamah of the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis (414-967-8229).
But in a community that prides itself on caring for each of its members, we can do better. Perhaps it is time for the organized Jewish community to shoulder the responsibility of providing emergency food for Passover, when the extra food can be prohibitively expensive. Maybe it’s time for the community to purchase a building for the pantry and provide much needed stability. Feeding our most vulnerable family members must be a priority.
At Passover, we are obligated to remember the Exodus from Egypt to the Land of Israel. It is a story of survival and of emancipation.
As a free people, we celebrate at tables loaded with food and wine. Some of us even set platters of raw vegetables so that seder guests don’t suffer as they wait for the meal.
Last year, there were hundreds of people in our Jewish community who were willing to stand in a long line waiting for free food. I expect to see a similar sight this Sunday. As the financial crisis deepens, how many more people will need our help?
This is our time to ensure that none of us is hungry — not the elderly Jew from the former Soviet Union, not the developmentally disabled adult, not the large Orthodox family from the Sherman Park neighborhood nor the North Shore family that suddenly finds itself unable to pay its bills.
Let us do our best — as individuals and as a community — to stand behind the words Jews have uttered at Passover seders for generations: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”
The national organization Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger suggests adding a supplemental prayer, written by Rabbi Scott Perlo, to be said after the second hand washing, directly before the Motzi Matzah:
One day, God, may it be Your will that we live in a world perfected, in which food comes to the hungry as from heaven, and water will flow to the thirsty as a stream.
But in the meantime, while the world is filled with hunger, empower us to stand on Your behalf and fulfill the words of Your prophet: “to all who are thirsty bring water,” and “greet those who wander with food.”
This Passover, bless us that we should sustain the hungry.
Wishing you a joyful Passover. Chag Pesach sameach.
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