“Operation iMatza” Sends Soldiers Overseas A Piece Of Home

Crown Heights — Some Brooklyn kids worked double duty Wednesday, learning how to make a traditional Jewish food and cheering up service men and women overseas. NY1’s Roger Clark filed the following report.

Kids in Brooklyn were rolling in dough Wednesday – all part of the process of making matzo. Matzo is the unleavened bread traditionally eaten by Jews during the Passover holiday. It is a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt, when the Jews did not have time to let their bread rise, so they wound up with the cracker-like matzo.

“I like rolling it,” said Leah Frimerman, a young matzo maker. “I like rolling it really thin; it’s my favorite part just to roll the matzo dough.”

The Jewish Children’s Museum offers kids a chance to learn how to make matzo from scratch: from harvesting the wheat, pumping water from a well, mixing the water and flour into dough, and then rolling it and baking.

According to Jewish law, the entire process of making matzo has to take less than 18 minutes because the dough cannot rise which would render it not kosher for Passover.

But it wasn’t just about learning to make matzo on Wednesday as school children were also writing what you might call ‘matza grams’ — notes of encouragement and support for men and women serving in the military overseas.

They will be sent to troops along with actual matzo as part of what has been dubbed “Operation I Matza.”

“We want to give the soldiers the feeling of the holiday and the feeling of home,” said I-Matza technician Levi Welton.

“I think it’s really nice,” said Shina Frimerman, another young matzo maker. “The soldiers are far away fighting and when they get a sweet little note from back here I think it’s really sweet.”

Sergeant Scott Humphrey of the United States Army agrees. He has been deployed overseas four times.

”Gestures like this make the time go by a lot faster,” said Humphrey. “We have makeshift wall lockers, we have our own personal areas, so for people who have the Jewish belief, this is something that can help them get by.“

And the kids who participated in the process are glad to help put a smile on a soldier’s face.

”I think it’s special that we are sending them matzo with like special notes, because they can also celebrate Passover by eating the matzo that we send them,” said Frimerman.

And whether the soldiers eat the matzo or just read one of the notes, they will know these kids in Brooklyn are thinking about them.