Preparing 2800 Menorah Kits!
For weeks before Chanukah, the students of the Mesivta's Joseph & Fay Rosenberg Shluchim Mentoring and Leadership Program were busy making calls, sending emails, ordering supplies, packing menorah kits, and arranging schedules.
They were preparing for a week of high-energy outreach, when Mesivta students fan out across Chicagoland to bring the light of Chanukah to Jewish people all over.
Shlomo Zev Friedman regales the crowd with the story of Chanukah and its relevance to us today.
In addition to their regular rigorous studies, the twenty-year-old student organizers are also responsible for an extensive network of weekly outreach and holiday programs benefiting nearly every segment of the Chicagoland Jewish community. Known as the Shluchim, they organize programs and even raise the necessary funds to cover expenses.
"I had never directed anything of this scope before,” said Mendel Bergstein from Oak Park, Illinois, “so this was a real challenge and a great learning opportunity for me.” Bergstein was responsible for arranging the many locations in Chicago and its suburbs where the 130 Mesivta students held Chanukah parties for seniors, lit Menorah with elderly people in their residences and distributed Menorahs in public areas. Other Shluchim organized transportation and raised funds for the menorahs and party supplies.
Students Shmuel Glaser from Chicago and Mendel Kaplan from Maryland light Menorah with a resident at the CJE Swartzberg House.
All told the students brought light and joy to 420 residents in 15 senior housing and nursing facilities and a record 2,800 Menorah's were distributed over the 8 days of Chanukah!
