Thursday, October 1, 2026
The clothes, from shoes to shirts, are on shelves, as they would be in a store. The items are in boxes, and the apparel has the same tags shoppers would see. Created to help those in need, the newly opened Mark Ramer Chessed Center has set up assistance with the same dignity and understated style that its namesake assisted others.
Ramer, who died in 2019, was known for his philanthropic ways, and the center is the physical manifestation of his legacy. The Leon Mayer Fund, in collaboration with Kosher Response, manages it from the fund’s Hewlett office. Chessed means kindness in Hebrew. Open for the past few months, the center was formally welcomed to the community with a grand opening last Sunday.
“This is so appropriate, I can’t even begin to put into words — this is what Mark was all about,” State Assemblywoman Melissa Miller said, adding that Ramer was not only a fellow Atlantic Beach resident but also a family friend. “He selflessly gave to anybody. He didn’t care about where you came from, what you were doing. If there was a need somewhere, he was the first person, quietly, doing it.”
The Leo Mayer Fund was founded more than 30 years ago, in memory of Mayer, by one of his sons, Shlomo, and Rabbi Simcha Lefkowitz, of Congregation Anshei Chesed, also in Hewlett. The fund has aided many families over the years by subsidizing meals, offering financial assistance and help with school placement and family issues. Buzz Mayer represented his family and his late brother at the Ramer Center’s grand opening.
“This is our biggest undertaking, and a whole different endeavor,” Lefkowitz said of the chessed center, which is open to everyone and described as a new community resource stocked not only with new clothes but also appliances, bicycles, housewares, school supplies and strollers. “American companies have millions of dollars of items to give. You have to know how to access it. We haven’t scratched the surface.”
All of the goods are donated, and Lefkowitz and Gabriel Boxer, chief executive officer of the fund and the manager of Kosher Response, noted that every $1 donated is converted into $15 of new merchandise. Boxer, a Hewlett resident, started Kosher Response last year, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, to help support local businesses by purchasing food to help feed families in need and recognizing essential workers.
“We want to do this in a respectful manner,” Boxer said, explaining a process that involves an individual’s or family’s meeting with a social worker, evaluating their needs and scheduling a “shopping” appointment at the chessed center. All services are free.
Ramer, who was 71 when he died, practiced dentistry for a decade and then went into real estate. He got involved with JCC Global, and eventually became its president. Founded in 1977, JCC Global is the umbrella organization for the international and regional networks of Jewish community centers.
A 2018 trip to Mexico City made a strong impression on Ramer, when he visited a chessed center there. Afterward he told the story many times of how Jewish Mexico City community members cared for one another. “It means a great deal,” Dr. Naomi Ramer, Mark’s widow, said of having the Hewlett center dedicated in his memory. “It’s exactly what he wanted to do.”
A long relationship between the Ramer family and Lefkowitz made naming the center after Mark a no-brainer, though as Mark’s son, Adam, said, his father “never liked to take for credit things.”
“It means a lot for us to put his name, now that he has passed, on something that was so close to his heart,” Adam said. “This place is supposed to feel like a shopping experience for people. It’s not supposed to feel like they come, take stuff and just leave, supposed to come and go with your dignity intact.”
The center, at 15 Prospect Ave. in Hewlett, is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
To contact the Leon Mayer Fund, go to www.leonmayerfund.org or call (516) 569-6364.
