It’s ‘a wonderful mitzvah’

Linda Levy exclaimed, “I haven’t seen these since I was a kid!” after the Levittown resident held up a can of Mandelin almonds) as she picked out Passover food last Thursday at the Rina Shkolnik kosher food pantry in Woodmere.

Unfortunately for many it is a very different holiday as many, many families are in need of help,” said Stop & Shop spokeswoman Arlene Putterman.

Stop & Shop donated a ton of food to the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC-run pantry on Central Avenue that helps to feed 300 families, including many in the Five Towns and Rockaway. The supermarket franchise delivered matzo, matzo meal, canned vegetables, canned salmon and tuna, gelfite fish, egg noodles, grape and apple juice, boxed mixes of potato kugel, packaged soup mixes and apple sauce, along with other items to the food pantry on Central Avenue.

“It’s fantastic, and it’s just not for the super poor, but a lot of middle class people cannot make it in today’s day and age, thee are middle class people who are struggling and need a helping hand,” said Levy, who began coming to the pantry to help out her parents after her father become so ill he is bed ridden.

As many as 300 families come to the pantry once a month throughout the year. Cedarhurst resident Marc Berlin has been unemployed and on disability for the past seven years as he suffers from cerebral palsy. “I used to donate and do deliveries when I was healthy, now due to the state of my health I need the help and it’s helped.”

Joel Block, the executive director of the Gural JCC based in Cedarhurst said, that the 300 families doesn’t tell the whole story as there are 700 children attached to those families. “Why are we here today, so no one in our community goes to bed in need,” he said.

Five Towns Rabbis Matt Futterman of Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst, Steven Graber of Temple Hillel in North Woodmere, Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel of Lawrence and Ephraim Polakoff of Congregation Bais Tefilah in Woodmere, all noted the mitzvah (Hebrew for good deed) of people sharing what they have with their neighbors, who at this time, have less.

Futterman alluded to the Haggadah, the book read during the Passover Seder: “Let all who are hungry, come and eat,” he said. “It’s not just about the brisket, it is about the sharing.”