Books for Israel

An opportunity to educate, long distance

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of June 12, 2009 / 20 Sivan 5769

Missions to Israel to volunteer, visit or fund-raise are all worthy ways to support Israel, but there is another way to help the people there, particularly children, that doesn’t require a trip overseas or a monetary contribution.

Just ask David and Naomi Greenberg of West Hempstead. As the local volunteer coordinators of the Books for Israel project, the Greenbergs collect used children’s books to be shipped and distributed to Israeli children who have limited access to English literature as a result of recent government cutbacks.

Books for Israel is an international grassroots effort that was initiated in October 2002 by two sisters, Rena Cohen and Jade Bar Shalom, and was later renamed the Jade Bar Shalom Books for Israel project in memory of its founder who passed away in August of 2006.

“Israel doesn’t have money in their budget to pay for English books, so teachers there contact us to let us know what they need to supplement the curriculum,” Naomi Greenberg explained. “We’ve gotten back wonderful letters from the students and teachers saying we enriched their lives.”

Books come from all different sources, including shuls, schools, libraries and individuals. All types of books are welcome, from paperbacks and textbooks, to books on tape, for children of all ages.

A local guidance counselor and teacher, David Greenberg has heard first-hand accounts from Israeli children who spent hours reading in bomb shelters, as a distraction, for enjoyment, and to help improve their English. He and Naomi take annual trips to Israel to see their children and grandchildren who live there, and visit some of the schools that have received the books.

Treating the project as their own opportunity to give back to others, the Greenbergs also purchase books to send, in addition to the many that are donated. Recently, they bought some at a rummage sale in Lynbrook, and from the West Hempstead library, which was eliminating some older books to make room for new ones.

“We’ve been doing some buying on our own,” Naomi said. “Other groups collecting around the country have taken donations for shipping costs as well, but we haven’t because we view this as our tzedaka project.”

Naomi also puts up notices on several local community e-mail listings, including West Hempstead, Five Towns, and Kew Gardens. In response to her request, the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County is donating 15 boxes of books to the project.

Others in the community have used the book campaign as a chesed project to celebrate a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, donating some of the money for the cause, whether to pay for books, postage or shipping.

The books are distributed in schools all over Israel, often through the AMIT organization, to children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Communities that have received shipments in the past include Sderot, Be’er Sheva, Kiryat Shmona, Akko and Beit She’an.

The Greenbergs — who store all the donated books in their own garage — send out the collected books in two large installments per year from a shipping yard in Brooklyn. The first was sent in January to Kibbutz Yavneh in Ashdod; they are now collecting in preparation for a second shipment in July, which will also go to Ashdod, and from there be distributed throughout the country.

For more information and to find out how you can donate books, call the Greenbergs at (516) 483-8581 or visit www.booksforisrael.com.