Colel Chabad officials preside over the distribution of Passover food aid by students at the Charles E. Smith Experimental High School for Boys in Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM – It’s a bright, cool afternoon at Jerusalem’s Charles E. Smith Experimental High School for Boys, known locally simply as “Hartman” after the institute and Jewish think tank that houses it. A group of 10th grade boys are horsing around on the basketball court, careful to avoid the stacks of food parcels that they’ve stayed after school to help distribute to needy residents ahead of the Passover holiday.
Israeli Passover Food Distributions Reach Feverish Pitch
JERUSALEM – It’s a bright, cool afternoon at Jerusalem’s Charles E. Smith Experimental High School for Boys, known locally simply as “Hartman” after the institute and Jewish think tank that houses it. A group of 10th grade boys are horsing around on the basketball court, careful to avoid the stacks of food parcels that they’ve stayed after school to help distribute to needy residents ahead of the Passover holiday.
The spectacle of teenagers volunteering their time for service projects such as this might be a rarity in some quarters, but here, it is part of the school curriculum. All Hartman students are required not only to study the Torah’s principles of charity, but also to put those lessons into practice. Today, they’re teaming up with Colel Chabad, a Chabad-Lubavitch run social welfare network founded in 1788 by the First Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, to staff its Jerusalem distribution center.
According to Rabbi Mendy Blau, director of Colel Chabad’s Israel programs, the partnership achieves the best fusion possible of book knowledge with practical experience.
“This is one of the top high schools in Jerusalem,” he says. “Every class in the school is required not only to study the Torah’s messages of charity and giving, but also to internalize the messages by volunteering in a host of service initiatives.”
Blau says the partnership with the school is a year-round endeavor, and one that he would find hard to believe if he did not see it with his own eyes.
“These kids’ commitment to chesed is total,” he explains, using a Hebrew word sometimes translated as “loving-kindness” or “benevolence.” “I’ve watched them come in during the summer vacation to make sure that needy people continue to receive the goods we provide. Not only that, but several years ago, when we had trouble navigating the bureaucracy at City Hall to obtain funding for this project, the boys went out and raised money themselves to support the food bank. You can tell it is much more than a school requirement. The notion of giving to others is truly a part of their makeup.”
