Community Magazine April 2019

32 Community Magazine Can One Person Feed? Aryeh Lurie’s Yad Ezra V’Shulamit organization has so far distributed over 1,000,000 food baskets How Many People RACHEL COHEN W hen Aryeh Lurie looks into the eyes of someone suffering from hunger and deprivation, he knows exactly what the person is feeling – because he’s been there. He recalls all too well what it’s like not to have three meals a day.  The child of Persian and Iraqi immigrants in Israel, Lurie vividly remembers his childhood when sometimes he had a sandwich for school and sometimes, he didn’t, and when sometimes lunch consisted of pickles that his mother made from picking up the strewn cucumbers in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market.   But there’s also something else he vividly remembers from his childhood: that as impoverished as his family was, his parents instilled within him the value of giving to those less fortunate. “You Should Always Care for Other People” “On Shabbat, our cholent consisted of beans and potatoes,” Aryeh recalls. “After kiddush , my mother told me, ‘Go to our neighbor and give him the first bowl.’ The first bowl is traditionally reserved for the head of household, but we were taught to give it to someone who had less than we did. When you are poor, not only are you humble, but you develop a sensitivity to others.” This special sensitivity has remained with Aryeh to this day, and it is what prompted him to create Yad Ezra V’Shulamit, named after his two parents. “My parents instilled in us the strength to not only soldier on, but to care for others less fortunate,” he said. His father would tell him, “Your situation in life will change. You’ll have better, more prosperous days ahead. No matter what your situation, you should always care for other people’s wellbeing. Think of those who don’t have much. Think about what you can give up for their benefit.” In 1988, Lurie launched a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization that provided food baskets to 50 needy families who would otherwise not know where their next meal was coming from. What started as a small and humble organization with two employees, a truck and a driver has since grown into a national enterprise, providing comprehensive services to the needy. To date, Yad Ezra V’Shulamit has distributed over 1,000,000 baskets to underprivileged families and individuals throughout Israel. “I never set out to grow as much as we did,” Aryeh says about the project’s humble beginnings. “I’m not a Prime Minister or a philanthropist. I just started giving out a few baskets in 1988, and it grew to over 3,000. It started when I was a student. I knew there were kids who didn’t eat all the food they had, so I’d find ways to collect the leftovers and I would distribute it to make sure students got that unused food,” he said. “They Never Forget That” For 31 years, Yad Ezra V’Shulamit has embodied the Jewish tradition of “ Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la-zeh – All Jews are responsible for each other.” And in so doing, it has achieved nationwide acclaim. In an address before Pesach, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement to potential donors, saying, “There Aryeh Lurie with Benjamin Netanyahu.