H eadlines
Link Kosher
Yom HaShoah has always been,
not surprisingly, the busiest time
of year for HAMEC, and this
year was no different.

HAMEC was part of
programming for the entire week,
hosting and sponsoring events
with partners in Philadelphia
and beyond. Its largest public
program, held in conjunc-
tion with the Anti-Defamation
League and the Jewish commu-
nity of Wilkes-Barre, featured
testimony from well-known
Holocaust survivor Danny
Goldsmith. Prior to the pandemic, Quinn
said, he’d have been at the public
program and relied on volun-
teers and HAMEC’s one other
staff member to ensure that
things were running smoothly
elsewhere. Because everything
was moved to Zoom, Quinn was
able to toggle between several
different events at once from
home, overseeing multiple
programs. What he heard from speakers,
Quinn said, was certainly
molded by the pandemic
— survivors and educators,
speaking safely from home,
more fluent in Zoom than they
were a year ago — but it did not
seem to figure in to the content
Camden County, where they
coordinated food distribution
every Tuesday.

Now, they provide meals
to more than 450 families, or
approximately 2,000 children.

Although the food is kosher,
the food pantry is available to
all, and serves families from
various religious backgrounds.

Many kosher foods also meet
the dietary requirements for
Muslim families who eat halal.

“We serve everyone equally,”
said Rabbi Yosef Notis,
program coordinator and dean
of Bnos Devorah School in
Lakewood, New Jersey.

He added that in the begin-
ning of the program, when
demand for meals outstripped
supply, some parents said they
should be prioritized because
their children were enrolled
in the school where the meals
were served, but the volunteers
insisted on keeping it open
to all.

Yares, a doctoral student at
Fairleigh Dickinson University
and a father of five, has previous
experience working to combat
food insecurity. His first job
out of college was working for
a food pantry run by Jewish
Family and Children’s Service
during the height of the Great
Recession in 2008. The diverse
backgrounds of the visitors
surprised him.

“You had Ph.D.s, you had
others who you wouldn’t think
would need to use a food
pantry,” he said.

Yares said there was a point
when his own family had to rely
on food stamps, and he knows
how hard it can be to ask for
help. He also knows how many
hoops that people enrolled in
food supplement programs
have to jump through to access
relief. To lessen the stigma around
receiving food assistance, Yares
designed the meals program to
be accessible to any family with
children ages 1 to 18, regard-
less of income. Parents are only
Continued from Page 1
12 APRIL 15, 2021
Continued from Page 1
Daniel Goldsmith
delivers his Holocaust
testimony at a
HAMEC event for Yom
HaShoah. Screenshot by
Jesse Bernstein
of their speeches. If anything,
Quinn said, speaking out
against recent violence toward
Asian Americans was a more
consistent theme.

Similar dynamics were at
play at other local and statewide
events. Marc Zucker, chair of
the Pennsylvania Jewish
Coalition, was the introductory
speaker for the 37th annual
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Civic Commemoration of the
Holocaust on April 8. Gov. Tom
Wolf, state Rep. Bryan Cutler
— Pennsylvania’s Speaker of the
House — and state Rep. Joanna
McClinton all spoke at the event.

Zucker’s focus was exclusively
on Yom HaShoah and not any
perceived link to the pandemic.

“I don’t really think of them
together in any meaningful
way,” Zucker said.

That doesn’t mean it went
unmentioned. More than 25,000
Pennsylvanians have died of the
virus since the pandemic began,
and “to not mention that would
make no sense,” Zucker said.

But that’s more or less where the
overlap ends, he believes.

“I mentioned it also because
so many of our attendees are
state legislators, who have
worked tirelessly to try and
address the many implications
of the pandemic,” Zucker said.

“But really, the Holocaust is a
singular, horrific event in world
history involving a systematic
and coordinated genocide. So,
there’s really no link that I
could see between a devas-
tating pandemic, devastating
as it is, and an unimaginable
tragedy, like the Holocaust
genocide.” Sarita Gocial, the daughter
of survivors who is married
to another child of survivors,
feels similarly. Gocial has
been involved the with the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia’s Holocaust
commemoration efforts for
years, and looks forward to
presenting her family’s story
annually. Like Zucker and Quinn,
Gocial knows that the shapes of
the 2020 and 2021 Yom HaShoah
JEWISH EXPONENT
commemorations were deter-
mined by the pandemic, but did
not see that as a reason to dwell
on it.

“We do touch on the
anti-Semitism growing in this
country once again, and those
types of things, but really,
COVID was not a big focus of
the program,” Gocial said.

Congregation Beth Am
Israel’s programming, delivered
virtually, was an approximation
of its pre-pandemic traditions.

Working with other local
synagogues, cantors joined with
singers, participants lit yellow
candles at home and testimony
was delivered from survivors
and their children.

Even with all of those
Zoom-specific element under-
lining the omnipresence of
the pandemic, the content
itself was largely devoid of its
inf luence,
Rabbi David
Ackerman said.

“I wouldn’t say it came up
especially strongly in this year’s
presentations,” he said.

If there was a thematic
linkage that came through, he
said, it was the sense of isolation
referred to by many survivors.

“We’ve actually all come to
know a little bit of what it feels
like to be completely separated
from people you know, and love
and care about,” Ackerman
said. “That’s as far as it got.” l
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H EADLINES
required to complete a regis-
tration form to participate.

“So oft en people say, ‘Oh, I
don’t want to take from people
who are in need,’ and I say,
‘Th is is for everyone,’” Yares
said. “We are all in need right
now. We all have kids at home,
and they’re not supposed to be
home, and they eat a lot.”
Th e U.S. Department of
Agriculture reported that more
than 5 million children experi-
enced food insecurity in 2019.

Th at number jumped to more
than 13.9 million children
in 2020 as a result of the
economic crisis that accompa-
nied the pandemic, according
to an analysis by the Brookings
Institute. Yares said the scope of the
current hunger crisis means
federal and state govern-
ments have tossed many of the
normal eligibility regulations
for food assistance programs in
an eff ort to meet skyrocketing
demand as quickly as possible.

Yares was inspired to design
the program aft er he learned
about a similar project for
Jewish students in Passaic
run by Teach NJ, an advocacy
group for the state’s nonpublic
schools. He got funding
through the Department of
Agriculture’s Summer Food
Service Program, which
reimburses program operators
that provide food for low-in-
come kids when school is not
in session.

Th e volunteers started by
providing bagged lunches but
quickly moved to boxes when
they realized the scope of the
demand. Each box contains
seven breakfasts and seven
lunches, with healthy snacks
as well as regular and choco-
late milk. On Passover, food
boxes contained matzah and
macaroons along with other
kosher for Passover items.

“In a typical week, you’ll
have some turkey in there,
some cheese, falafel, rolls,
blintzes, some fi sh,” Notis
said. “It’s really a very nice
selection.” Left overs, especially dairy,
are donated to other local food
pantries. Yares said that since
dairy allergies are common
within the Jewish commu-
nity, the program has donated
thousands of gallons of milk to
the Cherry Hill Food Pantry.

Volunteer Samuel Gluck
uses his experience from
working in a warehouse many
years ago to help organize
other volunteers and make
sure the food pickup lines run
smoothly. “Th e actual fl ow of traffi c is
important,” he said. “We don’t
want to block off a road. We
want to make sure we get as
many cars out as quickly as
possible to make sure there’s
no wait time as well.”
Gluck said each pickup site
Families line up to receive meals.

has 15 to 20 volunteers, with
two or three additional people
directing traffi c.

“People really want to get
involved and help out families.

It’s great,” he said.

Yares plans to continue
providing kosher meals until
at least Dec. 30. Aft er that,
much will depend on demand
and government funding, but
Photo by Ilana Yares
he thinks the success of the
program will make it easier to
keep it going.

“I didn’t know that this
would become one of my
greatest accomplishments of
my life,” he said. “I just wanted
to help and do no harm.” ●
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