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September 13, 2002/Tishri 7 5762, Vol. 55, No. 3
Hanukkah gift baskets bolster Israel
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Valley residents can celebrate Hanukkah and strengthen Israel's economy at the same time.
By purchasing Hanukkah gift baskets filled with products manufactured in Israel, people can help Israeli businesses devastated by nearly two years of the latest intifada, said Helen Kriegsfeld, a member of Action in Support of Israel, a grassroots effort to aid the Jewish state.
Each $20 basket will come filled with items such as chocolates, teas, strawberry preserves, Hanukkah candles and honey from Yad Mordechai, a sister city of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
Planners project each basket will make a profit of $5. Proceeds will be directed to American Red Magen David for Israel (ARMDI), to purchase medical supplies for ambulances, said Kriegsfeld.
Any additional money will be given to Hadassah in Israel, she added.
Purchasing Hanukkah gift baskets is an opportunity to support the Israeli economy, people and government, said Rabbi Bill Berk of Temple Chai in Phoenix, a participant of Action in Support of Israel since its inception last spring.
The group began in the aftermath of the Passover terrorist bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya in March.
"What happened in this community, in the Jewish community in Phoenix, is that a tremendous grassroots effort emerged" after the bombing, said Berk. "We had to find a way to give expression to the fact that a lot of people are concerned that Israel must be helped now."
A group of approximately 30 synagogue members, businesspeople, lay leaders and representatives of local churches began meeting weekly at Temple Chai. Information spread by word of mouth, said Berk.
The group call themselves Action in Support of Israel in part because the participants see themselves as an "action clearing house" for Israel, he said.
Eitan Ben-Ami of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Israel Center and Cathy Wolf, director of the federation's Jewish Community Relations Council, helped the group organize, said Kriegsfeld.
Group programs have included distributing anti-terror bumper stickers, creating an American-Israeli pen-pal exchange, publishing an ad in the Israeli newspaper Yidiot Achranot and planning a Ben Yehuda Street in Phoenix, a street fair exclusively with Israel products Oct. 27-28.
After one group member suggested selling Hanukkah baskets filled with Israeli products, participant Daph-na Gold, who is Israeli, contacted Zalman Segal, owner of Segal's Kosher Market, Kriegsfeld said.
Segal, who had contact with distributors of Israeli products, agreed to sell the products to the group at cost.
"We will not make any money (from the baskets)," said Segal. "I want to enable to group to make more profit in order to send money back to Israel."
Throughout this summer, group leaders met with the Arizona Association of Jewish Executive Directors and Administrators, comprised of the executive directors of Beth El Congregation, Har Zion Congregation, Temple Beth Israel, Temple Chai, Temple Emanuel, Temple Kol Ami and Temple Solel.
"We made the gift baskets their project as well," said Ben-Ami. "All of them agreed to sell them at their (synagogues)."
Other Valley Jewish institutions are printing and distributing publicity flyers.
The baskets will be put together in an assembly-line fashion at Temple Chai by students from Hebrew High, The Pardes Jewish Day School, the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School and Temple Chai Temple Youth (TCTY), said Gold.
Gift baskets must ordered by Oct. 8 and will be ready for pick-up at locations throughout the Valley beginning Nov. 18. Hanukkah begins the evening of Nov. 29 and concludes the evening of Dec. 7. For information, call 602-787-2930.
Contact the writer at barry_cohen@jewishaz.com.
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