Art Tzedakah Box $1,000 Grant Awarded!

A little while ago I spoke about some new Tzedakah grants and contests that the GRC is sponsoring. I'm excited to report that we have awarded the $1,000 top grant to a worthy cause. B'nai Torah of Boca Raton's article below explains what they've been up to. Also, though the $1,000 has been awarded, we are still looking for more people to give money away to! Check out the page here for more information.

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As described below, the box project that originated at B’nai Torah to raise funds to alleviate homelessness will soon be replicated nationwide at churches, synagogues, mosques and secular organizations. Under the auspices of the National Coalition for the Homeless, hundreds of thousands of families will be participating in the re‐named Bring America Home project. If you know of any corporation or foundation that might be interested in sponsoring this project, please contact Mark. Sponsoring organizations will be acknowledged on the boxes andthe box website.

From B’nai Torah to the US to Israel
When Tobi and I pack our bags this weekend for our trip to Israel, we will be including an unusual item: this take-out food box. The box is not intended to hold our dinner but rather gelt.

It is an example of the tzedakah boxes our Mirochnick Religious School and Ruth and Edward Taubman Early Childhood Center students made to look like houses. In December, the students took the boxes home and with their families deposited their loose change. At the end of the school year, students brought the boxes back for a communal contribution from B’nai Torah to Family Promise of South Palm Beach County.

Over $1,200 was raised from those pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Equally important, our students and their families were actively engaged in the miztvah of helping homeless families.

Family Promise Coordinators Mike Diamant (left) and Mark Wasserman presented a check for over $1,200 to Reverend Kathleen Gannon, member of the Board of Directors of Family Promise of South Palm Beach County.Mike recently joined the Board.

To see our students and their creations, go here.

National Recognition
Our box project has gotten national attention.
• We just won the top prize of $1,000 in a tzedakah box contest sponsored by the Gary RosenthalCollection. The contest challenge was to create a box that relates to a charity that will benefit from the proceeds of the funds collected in the box. Our house box for the homeless was just what they were looking for. The Gary Rosenthal Collection is one of the most popular lines of
Judaic sculpture in the country. Work from the Gary Rosenthal Collection can be found at the B’nai Torah Sisterhood Gift Shop and at www.collectgaryrosenthal.com Per the contest, this fall we will use $500 of this award to commission a local artist to work with our students to create unique house‐like tzedakah boxes.

• The box project that started at B’nai Torah is now going to be launched nationwide this August under the auspices of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Soon any
organization -- be it a church, synagogue, mosque, school, homeless shelter or secular group -- will be able to help the homeless in their community by decorating and filling their own boxes.

• The box project was the brainchild of our Family Promise Coordinator, Mark
Wasserman, who literally was “thinking outside the box” when he came up with this idea.

Going International

In Israel, I will be talking with friends and leaders about this innovative approach that fulfills the exhortation of the Prophet Isaiah to feed the hungry and house the homeless. Maybe our innovative project will be replicated in Israel as well as across our country.

Learn More
For more information about Family Promise and the box project, contact our Family Promise Coordinator, Mark Wasserman at markwboca@gmail.com or at (561) 699‐5116.
Have a wonderful summer.
Rabbi David Steinhardt