As the global Jewish community turns the corner of a full year’s worth of pandemic-style Jewish engagement, Passover is here to greet us once again. While last year may have required many to scramble and pivot with creative and ingenious ways to adapt during the holidays to a quarantined reality, this year the holiday comes upon more experienced and battle-tested warriors. In some ways, the creativity and life experiences have transformed what could have been a devastating blow into a period of Jewish growth.
Looking back to their efforts last year’s “Corona Passover,” Rabbi Chaim Wilhelm and Mushka Wilhelm of Chabad of North East Portland say that it was precisely the pandemic that pushed their usual efforts to burgeon into something far greater—a “Chessed Connection” program of acts of kindness performed by community members that has boosted Jewish engagement throughout the city.
Sharon Benedict now goes by the moniker “Challah Mamma” and speaks personally of this phenomenon. “Two years ago, I asked Mushka if she would teach me how to make challah, and from then on, I started baking challah every week,” she said. “Prior to the pandemic, I would take my challah to the local street fairs and sell them at a table there together with Rabbi Chaim and Mushka. It was a great way to bring people into the community.”
Of course, she’ll be taking a break from her challah-baking during Passover—observed this year from Saturday night, March 27 through Sunday, April 4— but at this point, Benedict is baking 32 challahs a week. And that’s in addition to more than 50challahs a week that Mushka Wilhelm is baking each week at home. All in all, a vast network of volunteers reach nearly 100 people every week, from a rotating list of 300.
“My challah-baking has taken on a whole new level,” says Benedict. “The rabbi tells me that my challahs have helped grow the community, and I believe him.”
The Portland ‘Chessed Connection’
After distributing “Seder-to-Go” kits last year prior to Passover, the rabbi realized how lonely, anxious and generally cut off from each other people were, and the simple gesture of showing up at their doorstep (with safety precautions in place, of course) was a literal lifeline. For some, in addition to the personal connection, the food and care packages were, in fact, necessary commodities to simply get by.
“It was the beginning days of the pandemic, and I realized that I can’t sit and wait for ‘others’ to provide solutions or prognoses,” said Wilhelm. “Instead, I would have to be part of the solution, the response. So, I galvanized volunteers from around the community and off we were, distributing packages all around Portland’s Inner East Side.”
An important element of this entire operation is the surprising reality it has created—not just dodging the pandemic bullet, but utilizing it to grow the community. With so many institutions downsizing or shutting down, and the continuous slog without any in-person programming putting a serious drain and damper on everyone, a boon to the community hardly seems likely. But thankfully, that’s precisely what’s happening.
“About four years back, I traveled to Houston to help with the relief efforts there after Hurricane Harvey, and I remember thinking how incredible it would be to have such aide infrastructure here in Portland,” said Wilhelm. “We actually started the ‘Chessed Connection’ back then, but it was much more sporadic. But with the onset of the coronavirus, it really took off.”
Today, there are 20 volunteers who not only deliver the food packages, but also shop for the supplies and then package them in Wilhelm’s backyard.
“When Rabbi Wilhelm called me and asked me to get involved, I said, ‘Challah, tzedakah, volunteering—it’s a no-brainer!’ ” Dan Gerber, who generously contributes financial support to the project, told Chabad.org. “We’ve been talking about it, and for the foreseeable future, I see no reason to stop the efforts. We all need community, that personal connection, so much. To get a fresh homemade challah and some chicken soup brings a smile to people’s faces and literally makes their week.
“What I like about it so much is that it’s so simple and affordable. Nothing fancy or complicated—just a simple dose of Chabad hospitality—but it goes such a long way to keep people feeling connected,” he said.
“I very much enjoy being part of Chabad,” Sharon said. “I love helping the community grow, and being around the rabbi and his wife.”
Lending Purpose to Teens
Beyond the love and care these packages bring to their recipients, they serve a vital function for the volunteers themselves.
“Our family’s connection with Rabbi Chaim and Mushka started before the pandemic began as Chaim was tutoring my son for his bar mitzvah,” Rebecca Dake of Portland told Chabad.org.
“When the pandemic struck, our local synagogue closed down, along with everything else. For my teenage children, the extended quarantine really got to them,” she said. “It was emotionally crippling, and like many other children their age, it was causing anxiety and stress. I reached out to Chaim to see if there was anything he could do.
“He immediately responded, inviting the children to his backyard where they were doing a socially-distanced volunteer packaging effort.”
Dake described how that the chance to do something meaningful and purposeful during this time was exactly what her children needed. And when her elder daughter was looking to get involved even more, Chaim and Mushka drafted her to the cause: She now serves as a teacher’s aide in their Hebrew school that is operating in limited capacity per Oregon’s health guidelines.
It’s much the same story with the others involved—that sense of purpose doing something so necessary and helpful is all the difference between a month at home going stir crazy or an energized few weeks doing something for the greater good.
As Rebecca put it: “This is the type of outreach that others are simply not doing, and it’s so critical, both for those who receive it and those who give it. After all, when we help others, we’re really helping ourselves even more.”
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