By Joshua Rosenstein, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Miriam Terlinchamp wears many hats. The interim assistant director of education at Temple De Hirsch Sinai teaches Kindergarten Judaics, helps develop curriculum, teaches high school, and leads services.
Her most recent project, however, is more about tzedakah than education. Her idea, the Mitzvah Makeover Project, started when Terlinchamp was visiting her friend Lirit Maslan of Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, and Maslan’s friend Jane Smith (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) joined them. As the three women socialized, Smith opened up to her friends about her current state of affairs. A member of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath Congregation, Smith lives in Seward Park and has seven children. Among other issues she was dealing with, she told her friends, what bothered her most was the condition of her home.
“The space was extremely cluttered and desperately needed a clean-up and spruce-up,” she said.
Smith’s children range in age from 5 to 19 and they share a three-bedroom home that was direly in need of renovation. Twenty years of accumulated junk and heartache cluttered the residence, as the family had fallen on difficult financial times—four of Smith’s sons had to share a basement room.
As Terlinchamp listened to Smith’s story, she became conscious of a television playing in the background. The program was the popular reality show “Extreme Makeover,” in which ABC selects a family that would otherwise not be able to afford a renovation and completely rehabs their home. An idea clicked in Terlinchamp’s mind: with the support of the Jewish community, why couldn’t they do the same?
She brought her idea to De Hirsch Sinai’s Senior Rabbi Daniel Weiner and Director of Education Gayle Carroll. They were both enthusiastic and gave her free rein to try to make the project happen. She began by organizing a mitzvah team of high school students from TDHS’s Judaic Studies program. From there, she contacted every rabbi in the local community, and appealed to her congregation.
“People were really excited about it from the beginning,” said Terlinchamp. “Young and old, from different congregations, people came out of the woodwork and volunteered their time and skills for the project.”
When Terlinchamp called Smith to ask her if she would be willing to be a part of the project, Smith cried.
“I was very excited to hear about this,” she said. “There are two sides to it, though. On one hand, it is a wonderful way of getting the help we need, on the other, I am a fairly public figure in the community, and this brings our situation into the public eye.”
Smith teaches at several of the local Jewish studies programs for both children and adults. Nonetheless, she agreed to move forward with the plan.
While Terlinchamp was counting on financial support, she found that people were more eager to donate time and labor than funds. Carpet store owner Randy Rubenstein immediately offered to donate all the carpet and associated labor, community member Barbara Rosenthal donated hotel accommodations for the whole family for the three days of renovation, and Silver Cloud Inn agreed to match her donation. TDHS member Debbie Rosemont, a professional organizer and consultant and owner of Simply Placed, came on board with her set of badly needed skills.
“As much as we needed the painting and renovations, we really needed a better way to use the space, a better designed and organized space, and someone to teach us organizational skills to keep it that way,” said Smith.
Over the first two weeks of January, volunteer carpenters, electricians, plumbers and laborers lent their skills and cleared out two dumpsters worth of trash. On January 16 and 17, the serious labor of carpeting, painting and construction took place. The plan includes a whole new system of organization, a work area and new cabinets and storage systems.
“They are really wonderful people,” Miriam said of the Smiths. “It’s great that we could come together as a community to help this family make this dream become reality.”
Another aspect of the project is the pluralistic nature of the undertaking. TDHS is a Reform congregation, while the Smiths are an Orthodox family. Smith says that the BCMH community, and specifically Rabbi Moshe and Rivy Kletenik, have been extremely supportive to her and her family. Nonetheless, there was still room for a wider community to lend their hands.
“I believe this is an important Jewish and communal effort,” said Rabbi Weiner, “it has served to build needed bridges between the more traditional and more liberal communities and affirm the unity and growing cohesiveness of our Seattle Jewish community.”
Terlinchamp is pleased that her idea was manifested so quickly.
“I derived a great deal of pleasure from the concept that you can have a big idea and then have the community help make it happen. I really hope people find out about this and donate, and we could start a fund and do a Mitzvah Makeover every year,” she said.