When Christmas dinner is kosher

Beverly Goncalves, chair of Torat Yisrael’s Social Action Committee, has volunteers from last year who had signed up to help again before last year’s turkeys were even out of the oven!  Torat Yisrael members have a great time cooking together: the annual side-dish marathon cooking session is a great social event for all the cooks as well.  Rabbi Amy Levin always claims the “honor” of roasting and carving the turkeys.  Every December, Goncalves contacts the Family Shelter staff to see how many residents will be at the Shelter for Christmas dinner.  She’s had to order two, three, or even four turkeys, depending on the need.

This year, the cooking crew is particularly excited since this is the first Kosher Christmas Dinner that will be prepared in Temple Torat Yisrael’s brand new kitchen in the congregation’s Middle Road, East Greenwich, synagogue.

The Kosher Christmas Dinner project began in the winter of 2004/5, when Rabbi Levin and the Social Action Committee were looking for a project that would bring them in direct contact with the local community.  “The idea of offering to cook and serve a Kosher Christmas Dinner was so attractive to us,” recalls Rabbi Levin.  “We wanted to do more than just collect money for a good cause.  It also occurred to me that if we took care of Christmas Dinner at the Rhode Island Family Shelter, we might free up some of the shelter’s staff and volunteers to enjoy Christmas in their own homes with their families and friends.”

There are usually three different teams of volunteers.  Some people like to shop.  Others like to cook.  Yet others enjoy the opportunity to visit with the Family Shelter residents and chat with them as they serve up slices of turkey and portions of green beans, potatoes, salads and desserts.

This annual connection has led to other types of Torat Yisrael involvement with the Rhode Island Family Shelter. Last year, the bar and bat mitzvah class adopted the Family Shelter and members of the Torat Yisrael 7th grade class visited the children at the Family Shelter, read to them and played games with them.  This fall, on the Sunday of the Jewish Alliance Educational Services Department’s annual Zelniker Conference for Jewish Educators, Rabbi Levin organized a Tikkun Olam Day for Torat Yisrael students.  The Kindergarten-1st Grade class made little gift bags for the Family Shelter students with Halloween-themed stick puppets and greeting cards. The Torat Yisrael 6th and 7th grade students made a series of Halloween-themed jigsaw puzzles for the Family Shelter kids as well.  Other projects that day were pictures drawn around verses from the Torah about gratitude that were displayed in the art gallery of the Atria Harbor Hill Assisted Living Facility in East Greenwich and “Thank you for your service” cards sent to the residents of the Veterans Home in Bristol.

The Kosher Christmas Dinner project has transformed Christmas for these Torat Yisrael volunteers.  Now Christmas has become much more than a day off for Chinese food and a movie; it is now a day for sharing warmth and joy and hospitality and friendship – values everyone can embrace.

Susan Smoller (president@toratyisrael.org) is president of Temple Torat Yisrael.