By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Night 1
8 grocery items your local food bank could really use
1. 18-oz. bottles of vegetable oil
(plastic containers, please)
2. Peanut butter
3. Toothpaste
4. Canned fruit
5. Dishwashing soap
6. Bars of hand soap
7. Canned soup
8. Pasta
Thanks to Carol Mullin of Jewish Family Service for compiling this list.
Night 2
8 Places You Can Drop Off Food for a Local Food Bank
1. The UPS Store, 227 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue
2. Redmond Athletic Club, 8709 161st Ave. NE, Redmond
3. Jasper’s Coffee Co., 33501 1st Way S, Federal Way
4. The UPS Store, 700 NW Gilman Blvd., Ste. E103, Issaquah
5. The UPS Store, 7683 SE 27th St., Mercer Island
6. The UPS Store, 4742 42nd Ave. SW, West Seattle
7. Cherry Street Food Bank, 711 Cherry St., Seattle
8. Scarecrow Video, 5030 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle
Via Northwest Harvest. These are just eight sites, but you can visit www.northwestharvest.org/Events/Public_Drop_Sites.htm to find dozens more.
Night 3
8 books that would be great for kids
By Nancy Pearl
With the help of my good friends at Seattle’s University Book Store, here are some great choices for every child and teen on your Hanukkah list:
Picture books:
1. Simms Taback’s Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
2. Mo Willems’s Knuffle Bunny Free
Middle grade chapter books:
3. Ingrid Law’s Savvy
4. M.T. Anderson’s Whales on Stilts
High Schoolers:
5. Robin McKinley’s Sunshine (for older teens)
6. John Green & David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson
All ages:
7. David Macauley’s Built to Last
8. Marilyn Singer’s Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse
Nancy Pearl is the author, most recently, of Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. She will be the featured speaker at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Women’s Division Connections event on Jan. 30.
Night 4
8 ways you can perform service for your community and the world
1. Make a commitment to something ongoing in your community.
2. Make a commitment to a single day of meaningful service, and take the time to study and learn about the group and cause for which you’re working.
3. At your next birthday or your next child’s birthday, or if you give gifts on Hanukkah, instead of giving presents to each other, give those same gifts to people who don’t have the means to get their own.
4. Advocate politically for a cause: Learn about the cause, then write a letter or make a phone call to your elected officials to let them know how you feel.
5. Support somebody who can do the work if you can’t — if a student or young adult is going to do Jewish service somewhere in your local community or across the world, support that person’s aspiration, then invite him or her to your home to share stories with your family and friends.
6. Rather than walk past homeless people on the street, give them a healthy snack and try to engage in conversation with someone you might normally otherwise ignore.
7. Become a traveler and not a tourist. Commit to doing a service trip, whether through American Jewish World Service, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee or other Jewish organizations, or support your child if he or she wants to do those trips.
8. Split your tzedakah between your own community and global causes. Make one Jewish, but make the other go beyond the Jewish community. If these can be facilitated through Jewish organizations that support global relief, learn about what the Jewish community is doing in these efforts.
Contributed by Rabbi Will Berkovitz of Repair the World. Resources for finding service organizations can be found at Repair the World’s Web site, www.werepair.org.
Night 5
8 gifts that kids in need would really appreciate this year
1. A warm hat
2. Gloves
3. Diapers (all sizes)
4. Kids’ books
5. Games for all ages
6. Target gift cards
7. Game Stop gift cards
8. Movie tickets
Thanks to Carol Mullin of Jewish Family Service for compiling this list.
Night 6
8 tips for sending a kosher CARE package to deployed Jewish soldiers
1. Keep the package small. Choose a standard, flat-rate box from USPS and it will be delivered anywhere overseas at the domestic flat rate.
2. Pack nonperishable, unbreakable objects. Remember, your package needs to travel a long way and it likely won’t be handled with kid gloves.
3. Wrap delicate items inside rolls of soft toilet paper. Need we say more?
4. Choose a theme so your soldier can share the supplies. For example, send a six-pack of body wash or toothpaste. And remember, soldiers travel light, so keep the items travel-sized.
5. Send CDs, DVDs, and entertainment magazines.
6. Tasty as it is, chocolate melts. Send candies and treats that will hold up well.
7. Confirm that your package is addressed properly.
8. Most important of all, personalize your care package. Include a handwritten note, a bit of local news, a picture of your family, or a child’s drawing to express your appreciation.
To send a care package to local deployed Jewish soldiers, contact Karen Fitzgerald of the Joint Base Lewis McChord Jewish Chapel at karen.fitzgerald@us.army.mil and she will provide names and addresses. Or visit Project MOT, a volunteer-run organization that prepares and delivers CARE packages, and gladly accepts contributions. Visit Project MOT at www.rimmon.com/ProjectMOT.htm.
Night 7
8 ways to make the most of your Tzedakah Book
Packed inside the last issue of JTNews (and located here) was the Tzedakah Book, a resource guide for helping with giving to many different local charitable organizations. Here are some ways you can use the Tzedakah Book.
1. On one or more nights of Hanukkah, look through the Tzedakah Book as a family and find organizations that resonate with you.
2. Also included with the Tzedakah Book was a build-your-own tzedakah box. Put it together and decorate! Then fill it up.
3. E-mail your friends and family and tell them they can download it from the JTNews web site and make their own opportunities to give.
4. Take it to a non-Jewish neighbor who might also be looking for places to give for the holidays.
5. Use the Tzedakah Book as a jumping-off point. Ask your children about other types of organizations they might want to support, and research them together.
6. Give the Tzedakah Book and a roll of quarters to your best friend as a Hanukkah gift.
7. The Tzedakah Book is about making donations, but you can also use it to volunteer. On the inside cover of the Tzedakah Book are organizations that seek volunteers. Contact Blair at 206-774-2251 or blairf@jewishinseattle.org to get connected.
8. Donate!
Night 8
8 Extraordinary Volunteers in the Jewish Community
1. Fran Hasson — Jewish Family Service’s volunteer of the year
In the 11 years since Fran took over the Jewish Family Service food basket centerpiece program, she has volunteered more than 1,350 hours in creating hundreds upon hundreds of custom centerpieces, one by one, for special events and family celebrations. “When they told me the program has raised over $140,000 to benefit JFS, I was truly amazed,” Fran says. “It’s been so easy, so effortless, so wonderful.”
2. Adam Goldblatt — AJC Seattle chapter
Adam is not only the AJC Seattle regional president, he is also the organization’s most exceptional volunteer. To both raise the profile of AJC in Seattle and to achieve the mission of the organization, Adam dedicates countless hours to working with his fellow board members, and the local and national AJC staff.
3. Marci Greenberg and Dave Rapp — Seattle Jewish Community School
The Rapp/Greenberg power couple are parents and volunteers extraordinaire. Marci encourages, motivates, and entertains volunteers with an upbeat and contagious enthusiasm. Dave is her constant partner in crime. As a couple, they complement one another, and together, they inspire parents and students to give to and participate in the community. Marci also fortifies everyone with her unbelievably awesome chocolate brownies.
4. Josh Gortler — Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center
Josh Gortler is a Holocaust survivor and a member of the Holocaust Center’s Speakers Bureau. He tells his story to young people at the state’s correctional centers. Many of these people have written Josh to tell him that his story gave them hope and turned their lives in a positive direction.
5. David Serkin-Poole — Anti-Defamation League
Cantor David Serkin-Poole, of Bellevue’s Temple B’nai Torah, accepted the Cal Anderson Civil Rights Advocacy Award from the Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Northwest chapter for his ongoing work on civil rights and marriage equality on Nov. 5. State Sen. Ed Murray, a previous recipient of the award, and former state Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge spoke about David’s accomplishments at the ADL’s annual No Place for Hate luncheon.
6. Judy Schwarz — Kline Galland Center and Hospice Service
Judy Schwarz has the distinction of being Kline Galland Hospice Service’s first volunteer, accompanying her first patient last February. Judy has been a volunteer at the Kline Galland Home for many years, helping out with the enameling group every Friday. She bring her cheerfulness, positive demeanor, and compassion to the hospice patients. Judy is a good listener and can also share from the wealth of her own experiences, when appropriate. They are lucky to have her, says the staff, and so do the patients she devotes her time to.
7. Team Samurai — Northwest Yeshiva High School
Pictured above are only some of the members of Team Samurai, post-race at the Run Scared 5K to benefit the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. Team Samurai was formed in memory of Sam Owen, a classmate of these Northwest Yeshiva High School students, who succumbed to Burketts Lymphoma earlier this year, a few days after his Bar Mitzvah. The Run Scared 5K was organized by NYHS alum Ilana Balint in honor of her father, David Balint, a lymphoma survivor. This was the 4th year the race was run.
8. Shoshana Kaplan — Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
Shoshana has been a phenomenal volunteer since she started with the Jewish Federation in August. She worked on a city-wide food drive as part of the Focus and Fight Poverty program around Sukkot, and has spent the last month helping with marketing and logistics of the Ethnic Flavors of Israel program.
“Shoshana is our ‘Yes, of course!’ volunteer around the office — no matter how short the notice or how frustrating the task, Shoshana is always willing to help out,” says Blair Feehan, the Federation’s volunteer coordinator. “We couldn’t do it without her.”