December 31, 2004/Tevet 19 5765, Vol. 57, No. 18
A daily reminder
DEBORAH SUSSMAN SUSSER
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 At Temple Emanuel in Tempe, Fonda Christopher and youth group members sell bracelets to commemorate victims of terror in Israel. From left are Simone Wagner, Christopher, Maryn Gordon and Michaela Christopher. Photo by Deborah Sussman Susser |
Susan Schanerman, director of education at Tempe's Temple Emanuel, thought they were "amazing." But she wasn't sure people would be willing to spend $5 on them. So in the fall, she contacted OneFamily Fund, the organization that launched the project, and ordered 50 to start.
Fonda Christopher, the temple's vice president of education, along with five members of TETY, the temple youth group, set up a table outside the temple one Sunday morning to sell the bracelets, as a mitzvah project co-sponsored by the religious school and TETY Junior and Senior.
All 50 bracelets were gone in just over half an hour.
"We couldn't believe it," Schanerman said.
The second order, for 200 more, sold out within a week. Christopher said parents, grandparents and children all bought them.
Some of the people who purchased the bracelets weren't congregants - or even Jewish. Maryn Gordon, one of the TETY members helping Christopher, said her non-Jewish friends at school wanted bracelets "because it's a good cause. So we bought them for them."
The last shipment of 100 bracelets was gone well before the religious school closed for the semester in early December. Schanerman has ordered another 50 and expects them to arrive before school begins again in January.
"It's a growing program," confirmed Adam Richard, the donations coordinator for the OneFamily Fund, "and they do tend to sell very quickly."
The impetus for OneFamily came from Michal Belzberg of Jerusalem. Three years ago, when Belzberg was 12, she decided to forego a bat-mitzvah party and instead donated the money to orphans, grieving families, and wounded victims of terrorism. Her example inspired the OneFamily Fund, which today runs programs around the world to support the victims of anti-Israel terror both financially and emotionally.
Richard said the bracelet project was one of the first to be implemented by OneFamily when the volunteer-based nonprofit organization began. All of the money from the bracelet project goes to support the families of the victims.
Andrew Straus, the rabbi at Temple Emanuel, wears a bracelet engraved with the name of Vadim Norzhich, a 33-year-old soldier who was lynched by a mob in Ramallah in 2000.
"This project helps people have a daily connection," Straus said, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the metal band. "Every day you put on the bracelet and think about our brothers and sisters in Israel."