PTA Chesed Fair Offers Multitude of Mitzvahs

POSTED: JANUARY 2012

By Stephen E. Lipken

The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Chesed (Loving-kindness) Fair held at Westchester Day School (WDS), Mamaroneck on Sunday, November 27 offered a multitude of mitzvah opportunities for their students and outlying community to perform Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).

“We serve pupils from all Jewish denominations from age two to the eighth grade,” WDS Head of School Rabbi Joshua Einzig stated. “There are 400 students and each one has to perform 24 “Cheseds” before they graduate.”

There were 14 charitable organizations, on grant from United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of New York, according to UJA Planning Manager Caring Commission Alexandra Roth-Kahn.

Daniel Rothner, Founder and Director, Areyvut, a non-profit organization creating meaningful youth activities including Jewish teen philanthropy programs and Mitzvah Clowning coordinated the event and distributed balloon sculptures to children.

Mitzvah opportunities even extended to Africa. Mara Berde, Manager of Volunteer Services explained that Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) is a Rwanda residential community designed to care for teens orphaned during and after the genocide in 1994.

David Wise, a Queens Yeshiva High School math teacher representing Kulanu (Hebrew: All of Us) volunteered at a Jewish village in Uganda, founded in 1919. “I helped teachers prepare students to take the National Exams, which were fortunately in English.”

Other groups included Pass It On…Kid’s Kloset, accepting donations of “gently used” clothing; Sharsheret, supporting young Jewish women and families facing breast cancer plus Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the largest hospital in Jerusalem, AMIT, The Friendship Circle and the Volunteer Center of United Way.

Photo caption: Sheindl Berger, 9 shows Challah Cover that she created.

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