Category: Philadelphia Inquirer

B'nai B'rith Statue still stands for religious freedom in philadelphia

9/22/2015

In 1876, when B'nai B'rith was only 33 years old, it commemorated America's centennial celebration by commissioning a statue, Religious Liberty, in Philadelphia that represented tolerance and religious freedom.

Nearly 140 years later, some things never change, as the statue remains a landmark in Philadelphia and B'nai B'rith International continues to promote education, religious freedom and tolerance for all groups.

With Pope Francis scheduled to visit Philadelphia this weekend, and address religious freedom in the vicinity of the statue, Religious Liberty was the subject of an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Read excerpts from the paper, below:

A statue representing religious freedom and immigration stands at the site where Pope Francis will deliver a speech on those themes.

[...]

It stood in Fairmount Park for more than 100 years before being moved to the grounds of the Jewish history museum in 1986. In 2010, the statue was moved again, down the block to the museum's current location on Fifth Street and Market.

The statue was crafted by prominent Jewish sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He was the first Jewish cadet to attend the the Virginia Military Institute.

Ezekiel carved the sculpture from Carrara marble - Michelangelo used the same marble for his Pieta.

"The place to go to study was Italy, even [for] Moses, who was the first big American Jewish sculptor," said Cheryl Kempler, B'nai B'rith's archivist.

Immigration is an important topic for both the Pope and B'nai B'rith, according to Daniel Mariaschin, B'nai B'rith international executive vice president.

Mariaschin said B'nai B'rith sent a delegation to the Vatican in June to discuss with the pope religious liberty and the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

"Our organization grew in this country as a result of immigration," Mariaschin said. "The pope's visit, with all this coming together, it is important."

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Recap: B'nai B'rith's Project H.O.P.E. Delivers Possibility Of Passover

4/17/2015

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UPDATED: 04/22/15, 4:45 p.m.

For five decades, B'nai B'rith International has used Project H.O.P.E. (Help Our People Everywhere) to make Passover seders possible for the elderly and disabled, as well as those that do not have the means to buy kosher-for-Passover meals.

This year, the program served more than 2,600 meals in a number of communities across the United States, garnering attention from the local press and the appreciation of those served.

Read a recap of the localized impact, listed below:

Connecticut Jewish Ledger:

As it has for the past 39 years, the B’nai B’rith Horeb Lodge in New Haven helped make Passover a happy holiday for families in need throughout the area through PROJECT HOPE – a kosher-for-Passover food drive organized by Lodge chair Harold Miller.

“I started by contacting various offices of the Jewish Family Service (JFS) and Tower One in New Haven. I am in touch with JFS in New Haven, Bridgeport, Danbury, Waterbury/Southbury, Greenwich, and New London,” Miller explained to the Ledger. “I asked all of them how many packages needed for the current year and then I arranged to provide for it.” After the packages were assembled at the JCC of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge, representatives from JFS and Tower One stopped by to pick them for distribution to their clients.

It’s hard work, says Miller, but well worth the effort.

“We distributed almost 400 packages this year,” he says.

Connecticut Jewish Ledger

Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia):

“I wish to thank Project H.O.P.E. — You have certainly made it possible for me and my beloved son to have a joyous Pesach through your generosity of the kosher food. As a Holocaust survivor, I am especially appreciative. If there were more people like you, the world would be a much happier place.”

“During World War lI, I lived in the [concentration] camps in terrible conditions but always with hope. I thank Project H.O.P.E. for sending me Passover food … I am glad that good people care, that I should never be hungry again.”

These are just two of the numerous thank-you notes received by Project H.O.P.E., an organization dedicated to providing Passover-friendly foods to those in need in the Philadelphia region, since its inception in 1997.

Samuel Domsky, chairman and founder of Project H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Everywhere) was especially proud of this year’s Passover distribution effort, which took place on Sunday. It is the chai, or 18th year, of his group providing much-needed Passover food to those who otherwise would not have the ritual foods for their seder.

“Some people assume Jews aren't in need. That’s not the case,” he said, as his family and hundreds of others gathered at Temple Sinai in Dresher to pack and deliver food to families across the region. “Families, the elderly, single parents — all need food to celebrate Passover.”

The Jewish Exponent

Five Towns Herald (New York):

The Key Food supermarket in Woodmere, which has served the community for more than 50 years, according to Manager Jose Diaz, is closing, and the site — in a small shopping center between Franklin and Irving places — is expected to become home to a Gourmet Glatt Emporium, an all-kosher food store.

[...]

Anna and Asher Matathias were in Key Food last week to pick up the store’s Passover contributions to B’nai B’rith’s Project HOPE, and saw what Asher described as “rapidly emptying shelves.”

Asked about the possibility of a new Gourmet Glatt, Matathias said, "Of course, my wife, and those closer to the Woodmere [Long Island Rail Road] station than the Cedarhurst stop, are delighted with such a prospect.

"Needless to state that such an advent reflects the expansion of the Jewish community — Hewlett is already feeling the phenomenon by the way of the growing congregation of the local Chabad."

Five Towns Herald

Philadelphia Inquirer:

Joan Pavalow had planned a trip to the supermarket this week - with Passover just a few days away, she needed groceries. But then she decided not to go.

She just didn't have the money, she said.

So on Sunday afternoon, when the Kepniss family - David and Marla and their four kids - showed up at her apartment with two bags full of kosher-for-Passover food, Pavalow reacted with gratitude - and relief.

"This is a life-saver to me," she said. "I don't have the money to go to Shop Rite - and this is wonderful."

Pavalow was one of hundreds of people in the Philadelphia region who had food delivered to their doors Sunday in anticipation of Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday.

The program, run by the Jewish service organization B'nai B'rith and known as Project H.O.P.E., has been serving needy Jewish families in four states and the District of Columbia since the 1960s.

Philadelphia's Project HOPE program was begun 18 years ago by Dresher resident Samuel Domsky, who for several years ran the entire operation out of his garage with donated food. Now, he raises $30,000 a year to buy Passover staples such as matzo, eggs, and gefilte fish, and has gone from serving 75 families a year to 600.

"There's a general lack of knowledge of the extent of poverty in the Jewish community," Domsky said. "We helped raise awareness that there are many out there - seniors, Holocaust survivors, people just hanging on."

According to statistics from the Philadelphia Corporation for the Aging, 7 percent of Jewish people in the five-county Philadelphia region between 18 and 39 - and 6 percent of those age 75 and older - were living at the poverty level in 2012.

On Sunday, about 400 volunteers - the Kepniss family among them - gathered at Temple Sinai in Dresher to pack grocery bags full of food, load them into cars, and drive them to homes and apartments across the city.

The Kepniss family, of Philadelphia, was sent with more than a dozen bags to the Robert Saligman House, a Jewish retirement home on Roosevelt Boulevard. David and Marla Kepniss and their children - Talia, 13; Emmett, 11; Max, 8; and Joel, 6 - spent about an hour making deliveries in the narrow hallways.

For their trouble, they received hugs, smiles, and the occasional piece of candy for the children.

[...]

At her apartment door, Pavalow told stories about her father-in-law, a cantor at a synagogue who always made sure the prayers were read perfectly at their Passover seders.

[...]

"It's the contact with such a broad range of people," said Peter Adlowitz, of Philadelphia's P'nai Or congregation. "The giving, to me, doesn't feel like it's one way.

"Letting the kids witness the impact this has on families - these are real people, local people - is very meaningful as a parent," he said.

As the family gathered in the apartment building lobby after a full morning, Max said he felt "tired and good at the same time."

"It makes me feel grateful," said his sister Talia, "for what I have."

Philadelphia Inquirer

Reprinted In U.S. News & Interest

Reprinted in Israel Foreign Affairs

Reprinted in WorldNews (WN) Network

The Mitzvah Bowl (Pennsylvania):

Project H.O.P.E. works with the community family service agencies and local Jewish social services and with B’nai B’rith members and synagogue volunteers. Jewish organizations provide the lists of people who need packages and the facilities for collecting, storing, and packing the food. B’nai B’rith volunteers assemble and deliver the packages. Begun in New York, the program has spread to Boston, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Last year in Philadelphia, 540 families received Passover food.

As a once a year Mitzvah Project, the Sunday before Passover, deliver Kosher for Passover food to our most needy, elderly and isolated Jews in the Philadelphia Region. The Project involves planning, fundraising, and volunteers to ensure success annually.

The Mitzvah Bowl

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Centenarian B'nai B'rith Member Still Hard At Work

7/22/2014

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Murray Shusterman, 101, was profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer, which sought to find the secret to his longevity and success. As the piece details, Shusterman was been actively practicing law in Philly for 78 years, in addition to lending his time and leadership to the local B'nai B'rith lodge.

Find out more about his incredible story, and how "stubbornness" has him going with no end in sight. Highlights of the article can be found, below:

Murray Shusterman began practicing law in 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House - and he hasn't stopped working since.

Today, at age 101, he travels each day from his Bala Cynwyd home to his Center City office at Fox Rothschild, where his work has focused on corporate and real estate law.

"What? Retire? Sit in a rocking chair and wait to die?" Shusterman said in an interview. "All my life I've been active."

[...]

The price of longevity, Shusterman said, is that the people you love disappear. All his oldest, dearest friends are gone. Their spouses too. And his brother and two sisters.

His wife of 65 years, Judith, died in 2005. Choosing her casket was a trauma.

So what keeps him going through the trials of aging and into work each morning?

"Stubbornness," said Philadelphia architect and attorney Robert Shusterman, 72, one of Shusterman's three sons. "He keeps pushing himself as hard as he can, and tries not to complain about things. He has a determination, a will to overcome impediments."

[...]

"I did all the good things and all the bad things that a young fellow does," Shusterman said. "Except I had wonderful parents, and they gave me a sense of morality and generosity, and I've always acted accordingly."

[...]

Only 54,956 people in the United States are 100 or older, according to Census statistics. That's 0.0002 of the population. By comparison, people 65 and older account for 13 percent of all Americans.

Centenarians as a group are overwhelmingly female (82 percent), usually white (83 percent), and increasingly urban. Their numbers are growing, up two-thirds between 1980 and 2010.

[...]

His involvement in Jewish causes ran deep, as chairman of the city chapter of Friends of Ben Gurion University, and in leadership positions at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia and the local affiliate of International B'nai B'rith.

[...]

He's journeyed beyond the average 77-year life expectancy of American men. But he doesn't fear death. He's planned his funeral and picked a coffin, not wanting his sons to bear that duty.

Pressed to name the best moment of his life, and the worst, Shusterman declined to do either.

"There's no such thing," he said. "A person has many experiences over time, some good, some bad. . . . The real secret is to be decent, to be fair, and to be forgiving - now and then even a friend will do something that annoys you. And don't take yourself too seriously."

His Full Story

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B'nai B'rith Statue still stands for religious freedom in philadelphia

Recap: B'nai B'rith's Project H.O.P.E. Delivers Possibility Of Passover

Connecticut Jewish Ledger:

Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia):

Five Towns Herald (New York):

Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Mitzvah Bowl (Pennsylvania):

Centenarian B'nai B'rith Member Still Hard At Work

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B'nai B'rith Statue still stands for religious freedom in philadelphia

Recap: B'nai B'rith's Project H.O.P.E. Delivers Possibility Of Passover

﻿Connecticut Jewish Ledger:﻿

Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia):

Five Towns Herald (New York):

Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Mitzvah Bowl (Pennsylvania):

Centenarian B'nai B'rith Member Still Hard At Work

In the News

Archives

Categories

Connect With Us

About B'nai B'rith

Support Our Work

Subscribe

Connecticut Jewish Ledger: