Yad Eliezer

Yad Eliezer was founded in 1980 by Rabbi Yaakov and Hadassah Weisel, both elementary schoolteachers, and named in memory of her father, Rabbi Eliezer Lipa Benzman.Weisman, Shalvi. "Cultivated with Emunah: A conversation with the founder of Yad Eliezer". Binah, January 14, 2013, pp. 30–34, 45. The seeds of the organization were planted when Hadassah, a resident of Jerusalem's Kiryat Sanz neighborhood, found out that her neighbor's family was suffering from malnutrition, and sent her daughters door to door to collect food for them every week. As word got around, other families requested the same assistance, and she was soon sending all her daughters' classmates out to collect food, then

filling colorful plastic shopping baskets for the weekly delivery.{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1014/hashem-helps-the-givers|title=Hashem Helps the Givers – Part I |first=Jonathan |last=Rosenblum |date=18 October 2006 |access-date=17 February 2013|work=Mishpacha}} Other classes and other schools got involved, and Weisel's two-and-a-half room apartment became the collection point and packing area for monthly food boxes for 360 needy families – a figure that mushroomed to 1,800 needy families by 1995. After operating Yad Eliezer out of her apartment for 20 years, Weisel began soliciting overseas donations through the newly formed American Friends of Yad Eliezer to further expand the operation. Yad Eliezer is now headquartered in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem under the directorship of the Weisels' son, Dov.

Yad Eliezer provides monthly food packages, comprising basic necessities such as "eggs, oil, flour, sugar, and canned goods" and fresh produce to 6,000 families throughout Israel.{{cite web |url=http://www.just-tzedakah.org/shopexd.asp?id=175|title=Profile: American Friends of Yad Eliezer |date=April 2004 |access-date=17 February 2013|publisher=Tzedakah Inc.}} It also distributes hundreds of Shabbat food packages consisting of "challah, fish, salads, chicken, and cake" to needy families and poor elderly,{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-159728174.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324220352/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-159728174.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 March 2016|title=A Hand and a Heart |first=Ruth |last=Beloff |date=19 December 2008 |access-date=17 February 2013 |work=The Jerusalem Post}} (subscription) and holiday food packages in advance of Passover and Rosh Hashana. In response to government welfare budget cuts, Yad Eliezer distributed 9,000 Passover food packages in 2004, up 5,000 from the previous year.{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-93207306.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313220729/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-93207306.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 March 2016|title=Aid Organizations Race to Find Food |first=Hilary Leila |last=Krieger |date=5 April 2004 |access-date=17 February 2013|work=The Jerusalem Post}} (subscription)

Approximately 50 percent of the food distributed by Yad Eliezer is purchased wholesale with donations from overseas donors.{{cite web |url=http://www.chareidi.org/archives5761/voeschanan/ayadelzr.htm|title=A Different Kind of Bas Mitzva |first=Moshe |last=Schapiro |publisher=Dei’ah VeDibur |date=1 August 2001 |access-date=17 February 2013}} Thirty-five percent of the food is gathered from Israeli farmers' surplus, amounting to $3 million worth of fruits and vegetables annually. Yad Eliezer also receives produce through the maaser ani ({{langx|he|מעשר עני}}, lit. "poor tithe"), the 10-percent tithe of Israeli farm produce separated by Orthodox farmers in the third and sixth year of the sabbatical year agricultural cycle for the benefit of poor people. The remaining 15 percent of food is obtained through door-to-door collections of non-perishable food by girls in primarily religious neighborhoods. These girls volunteer under the supervision of local coordinators, who send the donated food items to Yad Eliezer's warehouse. Regular and drop-in volunteers – including students, soldiers, and visitors from abroad – help in the warehouse, sorting food by category and boxing the monthly distribution.{{cite web |url=http://www.charity-charities.org/NewYork-charities/Brooklyn-1470372.html|title=American Friends of Yad Eliezer Charity Profile|publisher=Charity Vault|access-date=17 February 2013}}

Yad Eliezer provides baby food packages to 2,000 infants monthly.{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/la_women_help_feed_israeli_babies_20100413|title=L.A. Women Help Feed Israeli Babies |last=Gruenbaum Fax |first=Julie|date=13 April 2010 |access-date=17 February 2013 |work=The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles}} This includes monthly supplies of Materna baby formula for 1,400 infants.

File:Armonot Wolf wedding, Jerusalem.jpg wedding at the Armonot Wolf wedding halls.]]

Shortly after Weisel began collecting food for poor families, she heard about a bride who could not afford to make her own wedding. Weisel and her daughters offered to do the cooking and set up the wedding in a local synagogue. This operation expanded into catering three or four weddings per week and the hiring of impoverished waiters and waitresses who were invited to take home the leftover food. In 2000, Yad Eliezer acquired an industrial kitchen and began promoting the idea of "dancing at two weddings" to Americans who were marrying off their own children: for a donation of $1,000 they could sponsor a needy couple's wedding the same night in Israel.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oTSYAqeSvNYC&dq=yad+eliezer&pg=PA181|title= The Guide for the Romantically Perplexed|first=Lisa|last=Aiken |page=181 |publisher=Devora Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=1930143729}} In 2005 Yad Eliezer purchased the Armonot Wolf wedding complex on Beit Hadfus Street in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem for $4 million. The complex's two wedding halls host both weddings for needy couples and discounted weddings for religious families from the general Orthodox community in Jerusalem. Yad Eliezer volunteers also cater discounted meals for four other Jerusalem wedding halls.{{cite web |url=http://www.chareidi.org/archives5762/noach/yadelezr.htm |title=News: Yad Eliezer Helps the Hungry and Needy in Eretz Yisroel |first=Moshe |last=Schapiro |date=17 October 2001 |access-date=17 February 2013 |publisher=Dei'ah VeDibur}}{{cite web |url= http://www.yadeliezer.org/blog.php?id=69 |title=A Great Way to Start the Day |first=Shalvi |last=Weissman |date=17 July 2012|access-date=17 February 2013|publisher=yadeliezer.org}} The organization pays all or part of the expenses for 400 weddings for needy couples annually.

Yad Eliezer's mentoring program for boys from single-parent homes began in 2000 with 400 boys. As of 2013, 4,000 boys are enrolled in the program. Pairing up mentors with orphans, children of divorced parents, and children who have a seriously ill parent or sibling, the program operates in 35 cities.{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/yad-eliezers-big-brother-program-an-interview-with-eli-yakobi/2013/02/07/|title=Yad Eliezer's Big Brother Program: An interview with Eli Yakobi|first=Shalvi |last=Weissman |work=The Jewish Press |date=7 February 2013 |access-date=17 February 2013}}

Yad Eliezer also operates an orphans fund, an emergency grants fund, distribution centers for second-hand furniture and appliances, a visitation program for families coping with illness, a shoe distribution program, and a job-training program.

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1014/hashem-helps-the-givers "Hashem Helps the Givers – Part I"] Jonathan Rosenblum, October 18, 2006
• [http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1016/hashem-helps-the-givers-part-ii "Hashem Helps the Givers – Part II"] Jonathan Rosenblum, October 25, 2006

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Category:Jewish charities based in Israel

Category:Jewish community organizations

Category:Volunteer organizations in Israel

Category:Organizations established in 1980

Category:1980 establishments in Israel

Category:Organizations based in Jerusalem