A package from home

January 5, 2009 - 11:52 AM by David

Barabara Silverman, in the matching white coat and hair, with her band of volunteers.

Barabara Silverman, in the matching white coat and hair, with her band of volunteers.

It’s an overworn cliche that one person can make a difference, but in the case of Jerusalem grandma Barbara Silverman, it’s true.

The Chicago-native senior citizen made aliya nearly 30 years ago, and two of her three children ended up living here as well, raising their own families. Around eight years ago, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, Silverman wanted to do something for the IDF soldiers who were protecting the country against Palestinian suicide bombers. And as a grandma, she started making cookies – lots of them – which she would then deliver personally to checkpoints around Jerusalem.

The cookies quickly expanded to Shabbat meals, Silverman started attracting other volunteers, and soon a full-fledged organization was founded based in her apartment – called A Package From Home. Silverman and her merry group of volunteers began collecting goods from Jerusalem-area merchants, like chocolate, long johns, towels, and hats, and packing them off to the soldiers. What they couldn’t schnorr, they bought at cost from donations that began flowing in.

The group found a willing partner in the IDF, who sent trucks on a weekly basis to Silverman’s apartment to pick up the boxes and deliver them to soldiers – mostly lone soldiers without family in Israel, or soldiers who had been injured in the line of duty.
But during the Second Lebanon War, and now, during Operation Cast Lead, A Package From Home has gone into overdrive, sending thousands of care packages to soldiers on the front.

“Since Operation Cast Lead began, we’ve sent 2,000 packages and we’re preparing to pack and send another 1,300 on Monday,” Silverman told me yesterday. “Unfortunately we have experience with other wars. During the Second Lebanon War, we sent 22,000 packages in 33 days to the soldiers on the front.”

“I spoke to a tank commander who was in his tank for four days, and when he received some fresh underwear, it meant a great deal to him. Another soldier told me that when he opened the towel and put it up to his face, it smelled like his home,” said the proud grandmother.

If you want to volunteer for organization, or just provide a donation, go here.. As Silverman has shown, one person can make a difference.

Tags: , , , • Category: A New Reality, Israeliness, Life, Profiles, War 

Comments

One Comment on A package from home

  1. Tana Markoe on Wed, Feb 4th 2009 4:18 PM

    2. My friends and I have been making and sending hand knitted black wool hats for the IDF soldiers through Channah Koppel Chicks with Sticks in Efrat and cash through Friends of the IDF. Please send me the address for Barbara Silverman’s APackageFromHome.org so we can support this effort too.
    Keep up the good work! Yasher Koach!
    Tana & Friends
    markoe@bellsouth.net
    Miami Beach, Florida

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