The Bnai Israel Matzoh Fund: Volunteers mobilize to feed heroic families

As most people turn their attention to Lag Baomer and Shavuot, maybe thinking of Pesach only to recall it with some matzoh eaten on Pesach Sheni, Alan Hirsch, President of the Bnai Israel Matzoh Fund, is still collecting funds to close the financial gap remaining from this past Pesach.

A completely voluntary organization, the Matzoh Fund provides over-the-top Maot Chittim, food and funds for Pesach for those struggling financially in Yehuda, and Shomron. Mounting a fundraising effort starting from Rosh Chodesh Adar spearheaded by Alan Hirsch, he and friends and family collect money primarily in Brooklyn, Teaneck-Bergenfield, and Great Neck. “We’re weak in the Five Towns,” said Hirsch. This year they supplied over 1500 families with an initial budget of $180,000 that went to $200,000. They provide meat, chicken, fruits and vegetables, shmurah matzo, wine, grape juice, lollipops for the children, and either a voucher for the local supermarket or a personal check with the family’s name on it, for $1000, to each needy family.

Hirsch started this about 12 years ago “on a small level,” he recalled, initially assisting ten families in Maaleh Amos, in the Gush Etzion area of Yehuda, and 12 families in Chevron. “The following year there were twice as many and it grew to Gush Etzion. The first year or two it was my money, then I was going to people to ask. It’s a very quiet thing. Individual people know, quietly families know about the Matzoh Fund organization. Word spread over there. We never say no to anybody; whoever feels that they need we give them. We ask know how many families and they give a projection. If more come we give and we need that much more money.”

Hirsch “makes the orders one or two months before Pesach,” said his son, Ari Hirsch. “So it’s based on the previous years how much to order.” He noted that the food is bought according to need and regardless of expense but the suppliers work with Alan Hirsch. “All the suppliers give excellent prices,” explained Alan Hirsch, “well below wholesale. They want a part in the mitzvah.” Each family gets a check or a voucher because “in certain areas we work with the grocery stores there so we help them as well.”

Those who donate heard of the Matzoh Fund through the Jewish media, radio and Internet but also by word of mouth and when Hirsch speaks at different shuls, mostly in Brooklyn. Every year he gets an endorsement at Rav Herschel Shechter’s shiur in the Young Israel of Midwood. “We don’t get official endorsements but a lot of rabbanim give us from their Pesach funds,” said Hirsch.

“Everybody knows about places for distributing foods for Pesach in Russia, Israel, Yerushalayim, Tel Aviv, Brooklyn, Queens,” said Hirsch. “There’s nobody in Chevron.”

“They live in the heartland and put their lives on the line,” continued Hirsch. “No one took care of them. Some of it may be political. Most don’t know how to get there. There are enough places that nobody goes, that nobody takes care of. That’s where we go. We saw the need. “

“Many of the people never had meat before,” he added. “When we started years ago, people never had meat on their table, so this is the once a year that they have it.”

He began in Maaleh Amos because his daughter lived there and they saw the need on a personal level. The town was founded about 30 years ago and is 20 minutes from Efrat. Hirsch has been going to Chevron for 19 years now for Parshat Chayay Sarah and “knows personal acquaintances who really needed it, so that’s why I went over there.”

The organization is run by a network of volunteers here and in Israel. Funds are collected here in the U.S. Hirsch and his long time friend, Jerry Pasternak, spend every Purim together, “from night to night collecting,” said Hirsch. “We have a route of people already who expect us to come on Purim. We collect until the job is done; we’re still collecting. When the job is finished I’m finished.“

“It does no good to donate food here,” said Hirsch. “In Israel we take donations of food, in America all we can take is money.” One or two families going to Israel from here for Pesach arrive early to help out. “Everything here and in Israel is zero expenses. We get money, buy the food, give the checks. Advertising, everything is donated by volunteers.”

Americans For a Safe Israel helped by sending out a mailing for them and the Young Israel helped in Gush Katif and with the refugees. “All the years until it was given away we went to Gush Katif,” stressed Hirsch. “For six or seven years we distributed all over Gush Katif and we are still giving to the Gush Katif refugees, the ones who still need it.”

Every family is screened and lists are composed by the rabbanim of the yishuvim. “Usually the rabbanim know what’s going on in these places,” Hirsch explained. “That’s how it works out there. The Irgun Chesed in every yishuv takes care of it. The Rabbi takes control in every yishuv to give it out.”

He notes that it’s a lot of work and it’s all done by volunteers in the U.S. and in Israel. “It’s down to a system,” explained Hirsch. “”Everything comes in and within two hours everything goes right out. We get the chicken and meat in Itamar on the street at 3:30 and it’s delivered by 4. They take it on trucks; it’s impossible to do it any other way. It’s subdivided to the yishuvim and taken to the peoples’ homes. In Kiryat Arba they have a warehouse. It’s done at night usually, so people who get don’t see who is giving it to them. “

Hirsch stated that there are four main distribution points in Israel and from those warehouses and distribution points the food gets distributed to the different communities. The distribution centers are in Itamar for the Shomron, Kiryat Arba for the Chevron region, Maaleh Amos for the Gush Etzion area and Beitar, just for Beitar as there is a “tremendous need there.” It’s distributed just a few days before Pesach since they want the families to have the groceries before they struggle to buy them but also only once the house is ready for Pesach. “They have to get it at the right time.” Hirsch travels to the area during chol hamoed to pay the bills.

“We’ve been doing this for the last 10 years,” pointed out Pasternak. “Between Purim and Pesach we try to collect as much as we can. It’s a tremendous, tremendous chesed for these people. They wouldn’t be able to put food on the table, literally. It’s pure chesed, there are no paid employees.”

“It’s a zechut (merit) for us to be able to do this for them,” added Pasternak. “They give their lives in Eretz Yisrael on the yishuv. It’s the least we can do. They’re living in places, they’re mosair nefesh (sacrifice) for us. People have to live there for defense, for halacha and it’s very difficult to find work over there. It’s a chesed (kindness) to support these people; it’s an obligation.”

“There are 400 families in our area alone,” said Moshe Goldmith, the mayor of Itamar. “Every year we get more and more. Alan never says no. The families light up, they look forward to it, ‘is it coming this year?’ It’s a tremendous chesed. He is so modest. He doesn’t want to identify who he is. I’m amazed every year, being a part of this experience.” Goldsmith coordinates the whole Shomron region. Each community has a gemach (charity organization) person and a coordinator who give him a list of the families in need. The food distribution has to be done like clockwork since it has to be distributed quickly so the meat, chicken and produce don’t spoil and reach the families at the right time. “Alan is on the line making sure everything is done. He’s so quiet, he does it for the sake of helping people.”

“It’s absolutely amazing,” said Goldsmith, “just to see their eyes light up, how appreciative, the little children with lollipops. The people are not aware, no one really knows where it comes from. I’m speechless.”

Other well-known people who support the fund include member of Knesset Michal ben Ari and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman.

The Matzoh Fund was made aware, before Pesach, of some families in one of the towns in the Chevron area that only had noodles for Shabbat and didn’t have food from week to week. The fund delivered a Pesach package to their door over night. The next day, a young woman who knew Hirsch and had alerted them to the situation, was sitting in a park there when one of the women from one of these families approached. She said that Pesach is coming and they didn’t know if they would have anything for the holiday. She cried and davened to Hashem last night, she recounted to this other woman, and in the morning there was a box on her steps with meat, chicken, matzo and grape juice. The young woman went home to cry and said, “you can’t imagine how you lit up this family’s Pesach, she was crying and thanking Hashem.”

For more information go to: www.matzohfund.com.