C ommunity / mazel tovs
COMMUNITYBRIEFS Film Festival Kicks Off Oct. 24
THE BUCKS COUNTY KEHILLAH Jewish Film
Festival will screen three films virtually over the next
three weekends.

There will be interactive discussions via Zoom
after each film.

“Crescendo” from 2019 screens at 7:30 p.m. on Oct.

24. It tells the tale of a famous conductor who accepts
a job creating an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra
and then deals with the resulting problems. Rabbi
Raysh Weiss of Congregation Beth El of Yardley leads
the post-film discussion.

“Crescendo” screens at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 24
Courtesy of Menemsha Films
“Fiddler, Miracle of Miracles,” which tells the
original story behind the beloved musical, follows at
7:30 p.m. on Nov. 1. Post-film discussion on the 2019
offering will be led by Rabbi Sigal Brier of Temple
Judea of Bucks County.

And 2011’s “My Australia” is slated for 7:30 p.m.

on Nov. 7. The film follows two troubled boys in
Lodz, Poland, after World War II who fall in with an
anti-Semitic organization. The boys’ mother moves
them to Australia, where they “become aware of their
family’s roots.”
Rabbi Eliott Perlstein of Ohev Shalom of Bucks
County will interview Ami Drodz — on whose story
the film is based — as part of the post-film discussion.

KleinLife Receives $10K COVID-19
Response Grant for Use in Meal Delivery
KleinLife in Northeast Philadelphia announced Oct.

12 that it received a $10,000 COVID-19 grant from
the Truist Foundation through Meals on Wheels
America. KleinLife President and CEO Andre Krug said
the money will be used to buy resources for the
Home Delivered Meals Program it runs in coordina-
tion with RSVP Philadelphia. The program provides
70,000 meals annually to homebound seniors in
Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery counties who
cannot shop or cook for themselves.

“Since the start of the pandemic we have added
hundreds of area seniors to our Home Delivered
Meals Program,” Krug said.

Meals on Wheels America said it has distributed
$18.3 million in emergency funding to local senior
nutrition providers actively responding to pandemic.

RapidMask2Go Supplies PPE in SEPTA
Suburban Station
Philadelphians passing through SEPTA Suburban
Station are now able to buy KN95 masks, hand
sanitizer and gloves from vending machines provided
by RapidMask2Go.

The company was founded by David Edelman, a
Jewish New Yorker who travels to Philadelphia often
because his son is a patient at the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia.

RapidMask2Go installed its first vending machines
in Suburban Station in July and there are now four in the
transit hub. The company also has installed machines
in New York City and more than 10 NJ Transit stations.

Edelman said vending machines seemed like a
natural fit for safe, in-person purchases.

“There was no human contact involved, it was
something that people could see and it had that
immediate gratification versus going online to
purchase something and maybe it shows up,” he said.

The idea was also a response to the rampant price
gouging that occurred in the earlier stages of the
pandemic when people were desperate for supplies,
Edelman said.

“People were charging five and 10 times what the
average cost for those masks and gloves would be, so
we did a standard markup and made it accessible to
everybody,” he said.

Dispensing PPE through vending machines is
becoming increasingly popular — local startup Philly
PPE also sells supplies through vending machines in
the area.

JRA to Celebrate 20 Years with Virtual Annual
Event The Jewish Relief Agency will celebrate 20 years
at 10 a.m. on Oct. 25 with “Whatever it Takes: A
Livestreamed Show to End Hunger.”
The show, which will be hosted by KYW 1060
reporter Hadas Kuznits, will honor outgoing
chairman Daniel Erlbaum.

The show also will feature a cooking demonstration
with “Chopped” champion Darius Peacock, who will
use JRA food box ingredients.

JRA serves more than 6,000 low-income individuals
across Greater Philadelphia, with 500 to 1,000
volunteers participating each month. l
JRA’s drive-through system was tweaked for social
distancing because of the pandemic.
Photo by Elvera Gurevich
SHARE your engagement, wedding, birth,
Bar/Bat Mitzvah announcement
and any other simcha on
both jewishexponent.com and
the weekly Jewish Exponent
newspaper for ... FREE.

J E W I S H E X P O N E N T . C O M /
S U B M I T-MAZEL-TOV
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
OCTOBER 15, 2020
31