ORIGINAL COPY:

25 years of dining for a cause

BY SUSIE DAVIDSON

Special to the Advocate

In stark contrast to the interminably wintry outdoor weather, the atmosphere was cozy and the food was hot on Feb. 5 at Temple Isaiah. Attendees dined on a multiple-course dinner that was flavored not only with southwestern spices, but wholesome goodwill.

It was the 25^th　year that LEFTY, Temple Isaiah’s High School Youth Group and a member of NFTY-NE, the Northeast Region of the North American Federation of Temple Youth, organized a fundraiser dinner for MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. The national, nonprofit organization was founded in 1985 by writer and educator Leonard Fein, whose syndicated Op-Ed column appears in the Advocate. MAZON, which means “food” in Hebrew, allocates over $4 million per year to hunger-relief sites as it works to address the root causes of hunger and poverty.

LEFTY serves teens in grades 9-12 and incorporates Judaic teachings on social values and traditions as it provides a space for youth to gather in friendship and solidarity. Isaiah’s group is one of NFTY’s largest and most active. Other yearly events include a High Holiday Food Drive, Spooky World, Shabbat programs, LEFTY Shul-In, Mitzvah Day, Institutes and other regional events.

“Years ago, the national NFTY made a decision that it would not host a food function without adding a three percent surcharge to go to MAZON,” said Fein, who attended the dinner. According to its Web site, the NFTY board, who took this vote in 1986, just after MAZON’s founding, moved not only to expand the surcharge to registration fees at all North American events, but to encourage its youth groups to add it to all regional events and to appoint a MAZON chair/liaison to incorporate MAZON materials and programming. “NFTY has been a valued member of MAZON, and LEFTY has been remarkable,” said Fein. Indeed, LEFTY’s page on Isaiah’s site states that the chapter has contributed more to MAZON than any other synagogue in North America.

This year’s dinner was a great success, drawing 270 attendees (with over 70 teens working) and raising over $13,500. The dinner has raised $100,000 for MAZON since they began keeping records in 2003.

“The LEFTY dinner is the longest-running continuous event in MAZON history,”　said MAZON trustee David Napell, who usually attends and speaks, but was unable to this year due to weather conditions.　“Aside from the money raised, it is one of the finest consciousness-raising events I have ever seen, with parents and synagogue both teaching through doing, to build　children's character and understanding of social justice.”

Fein agreed. “These kids put on a terrific evening,” he said from his home in Boston. “Their contribution to MAZON is much more than symbolic; it’s quite real. MAZON now raises something north of $5M a year, and the way you reach that is not with five $1M gifts - you raise it with many $100 gifts, and a $10 or $20,000 gift from a bunch of kids who are learning about　tikkun olam　and what people can accomplish. I think it’s thrilling.”

The dinner is prepared, served and entirely organized by LEFTY members. Members of the congregation, such as the musical group “The Titanics” and a lighting designer, also pitched in this year. Not only is the adults-only, $36-a-person dinner a consistent sellout (last year's drew 300 attendees, which necessitated opening up the walls), but according to LEFTY’s MAZON chair and dinner chair Rachel Bodony, they go over and above.　“One anonymous couple donated all the food for the first ten years, and now, another,” she said from her home in Lexington. In addition, flowers are donated by Whole Foods in Woburn, as well as additional food by Wilson Farms, and bread by Iggy’s. “The budget for the decorations is from Temple Isaiah funding,” she said. “But other than that, everything is donated so that we can give all the money we get from RSVPs to MAZON.”

Temple member Bruce Lynn has cooked and created the menus since the beginning. LEFTY teens sign up for food prep, room setup and wait staff shifts, and help run the kitchen. Bodony, 16, said that meetings, which began last summer, increased to three times a week during the final two weeks. She works with Emily Messinger,　Director of Tichon Isaiah and Youth Programs, and LEFTY president Sarah Fishman, among others. The Lexington High School junior, who was bat mitzvahed at Isaiah and spent a past semester abroad in Israel as part of NFTY’s International Exchange, receives and inputs the RSVPs at her home, coordinates table settings and seatings, and creates the theme. “This year, the color scheme will be lavender and white, with hints of green,” she said. She also visits Whole Foods to discuss flower arrangements, and delegates duties the night of the dinner. “It is team-led,” she said, “and is really very professional, and executed very well.” At the dinner, she gave a speech in which she thanked contributors, spoke about hunger, and cited Maimonides’ levels of charity. Fein and Rabbi Howard Jaffe also spoke.

What motivated Bodony? “I wanted a role on the Executive Board of LEFTY with a lot of responsibilities,” she said. “It’s one concrete thing that I could plan, and would happen, and would be mine.” The community-minded teen has done the Walk for Hunger three times, usually with LEFTY. “In Israel, we did a lot of community service, and I cooked and served in a soup kitchen in Jerusalem,” she said. Any role models? “My sister was the president of LEFTY in 2009,” she quickly answered. “And the summer after her 8^th　grade year, she went to an orphanage in Guatemala for a month with friends of our family, who were missionaries there.” (Their aunt lives in Lancaster, Penn., and works at a Mennonite School, where she had met them, she explained.)

“This year, the number of people who depend on food pantries and soup kitchens is up substantially,” said Fein. “As part of our mission, we also encourage state legislatures and Congress to enhance the　Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which replaced food stamps,　and to be at least committed to the goal of ending hunger in America.” Fein said he is most proud of not how much MAZON raises, but how they disperse what they raise, and he praised their grantmaking staff.

Jaffe said he spoke about how Isaiah’s teens have led the way for 25 years. “They have demonstrated to us how we can have a win-win-win experience like this every year,” he said. “We all get to enjoy a wonderful, upbeat, social evening with excellent food, music, and dancing; our teens get the opportunity to produce an event like this; and all of us do so raising thousands and thousands of dollars, along with much-needed raising of consciousness.” Each year, he mentions a phone call he once received from the then-assistant director of MAZON, who told him that no synagogue community had raised more funds for them than Temple Isaiah. “I remind everyone how a simple idea, brought to us by Leonard Fein, shows how a small self tax on our celebrations has led to the raising of millions upon millions of dollars to fight hunger,” he said.

“America is not Bangladesh,” said Fein. “There’s enough food to feed everyone – we’re not dealing with droughts or famines. What we need is for our government to say that no more families in America will experience the kind of food insecurity that affects so many millions of our fellow humans across the world.”

Oh yes – the food. Bodony said it had a southwestern theme: Salad with lime and avocado; black beans, tomato, red onions, cheddar cheese, red pepper, roasted corn, cilantro and cumin lime vinaigrette with sour cream and tortilla crunch; appetizer/nosh of smoked and steamed salmon roulettes; braised chicken with beets and Moroccan spices; and a vegetarian dish of couscous with squash, turnips, zucchini, chickpeas, onions, Moroccan spices and vegetarian broth. Dessert was a chocolate truffle, butter cookies, and lemon-buttermilk panna cotta with berries. A fitting accompaniment to 25 years of grand effort!