As her sister and friends carried out their duties in the Israeli Defense Force, University of Virginia freshman Sara Sherris, 22, spent last week getting her fellow students to help send the traditional Purim gift baskets of food known as mishloach manot to soldiers in Israel.

Sherris was one of seven students who took turns tabling for Purim Presents From Students to Soldiers, a project of Chabad-Lubavitch of Charlottesville and its campus-based Chabad House. Passersby donated one dollar each to help pay for the packages, which were distributed Thursday night by Rivka Kaplan, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Safed, Israel. Virginia students also sent handwritten cards to the soldiers.

"The cards that students wrote were really sweet," reported Sherris. "Some students in the Hebrew department even tried to write in Hebrew."

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Miranda Jones, 21, of Falschurch, Va., echoed her friend's sentiments.

"I have friends and family in the IDF," said Jones, "It's very personal to receive hand-written notes from peers, from people their age across the world."

Sherris, a native of Kibbutz Yahel north of the southern Israeli resort of Eilat, said that her friends know all too well how difficult it is to be at their posts during Purim.

"It is really tough to be working during the holiday," said Sherris. "They'll really love the treats."

"It would comfort me and make me happy," added Jones, a junior Middle East studies major, who is moving to Israel with her family after graduation next year. "I would find the gifts very reassuring."

Channa Mayer, co-director of the Chabad House, said that the project grew out of a desire to express students' thanks for the soldiers' defense of Israel.

"I provided the hamentashen, a traditional Purim cookie, and the students did the tabling," said Mayer, who added that more than 100 students donated money for the soldiers. "Most students gave a dollar, but some gave ten dollars."

Local residents also chipped in online via the Chabad House's Web site. All in all, the effort raised $500.

Across the Country

In a project coordinated by their campus-based Chabad House, students at the University of Virginia got classmates to fund the distribution of Purim gift baskets to soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force.
In a project coordinated by their campus-based Chabad House, students at the University of Virginia got classmates to fund the distribution of Purim gift baskets to soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force.
A similar effort at the University of Pittsburgh netted some $80 for Kaplan's distribution from Safed. Shashana Hoexter, program director at the Chabad House serving the university, displayed posters of Israeli soldiers in conjunction with a March 3 presentation by Noam Bedein, the director of the Sderot Media Center who has been traveling around the country telling college campuses about life under fire in Sderot, Israel.

Students at other college campuses decided to make gift baskets themselves and send them directly to Israel.

At the City College of New York in Harlem, 50 students turned out for a kosher lunch provided by the campus-based Chabad House directed by Rabbi Shaya and Goldie Gansbourg and used the time to package non-perishable treats and write cards. A community member then took the packages to Safed.

In Madison, Wis., the Chabad House serving the University of Wisconsin co-sponsored an event with Hillel where students made mishloach manot for Israeli soldiers.

"We had students come and they made hamentashen and chocolate lollipops out of moulds," said Chabad House co-director Henya Matusof.

A similar event happened last month at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., at a Falafel Night sponsored by the local Chabad House. There, students made some 60 packages destined for Safed.

Back at the University of Virginia, Sherris said that a lot of people were unfamiliar with the tradition.

"Most people were just happy to do a good thing," she said. "It's good, it's different."