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Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.

Updated Aug. 7

When hungry guests walked into a recent Israeli brunch at Walnut Creek’s Congregation B’nai Tikvah, many jaws dropped. Even those familiar with abundant Israeli brunch spreads couldn’t believe the variety and bounty before them. Ample time was allotted for photographs before attendees were allowed to dig in.

The July 28 fundraising event, sponsored by the shul’s Israel committee, was the work of Hana Levy Windrix, 57, of Concord, and Syana Naaman Cohen, 47, of Lafayette. Both have been in overdrive since Oct. 7, doing whatever they can to support Israel and its people in their time of need. 

“With Hana, everything has to be done the perfect way,” said Cohen of her co-conspirator. “She knows that you eat with your eyes first.”

Cohen served as manager and chief decorator, decking the hall with Israeli flags, flowers and photos of hostages still held in Gaza. 

Then there was the spread that rivaled what’s found in the best Jerusalem hotels. Three kinds of borekas — potato and onion, spinach and feta, and cheese. Sesame-coated, oval-shaped Jerusalem bagels. Lox, herring, shakshuka and an omelet station. Labneh with za’atar and numerous flavors of cream cheese. Homemade berry jam. Eggplant, multiple kinds of olives and a dozen different salads, including carrot and beet. Fresh fruit and several flavors of rugelach.

The event raised over $10,000 for Lev Echad/One Heart, an Israeli nonprofit that coordinates civilian volunteers during emergency situations such as the Israel-Hamas war. More specifically, Cohen and Windrix said the money will go to support Israelis displaced from their communities — both in southern Israel along the Gaza border where their homes were destroyed in the Hamas rampage on Oct. 7, and in northern Israel where they’ve been under constant assault from Hezbollah in Lebanon for months.

The two women have been united by a desire to raise awareness and funds to support their native country. They have regularly stood in vigil on an East Bay overpass in solidarity with the hostages, and they organized an empty Shabbat table display in a Walnut Creek park on behalf of the hostages in the early days of the war.

They have known each other for years. Cohen was a new arrival from Israel when she went in search of baked items as good as her mother’s. That search ended after someone recommended she check out Windrix’s baking, “and since then, we’ve been involved in each other’s lives,” Cohen said.

Windrix is self-taught and calls baking her hobby. But it’s definitely more than that; she sold her baked goods to Saul’s Deli in Berkeley for years. When Contra Costa County synagogues need sufganiyot or hamantaschen, they often turn to her.

Cohen said there are multiple motivations at play in what they’re trying to accomplish. While they want to educate people and advocate for Israel outside of the Jewish community, they also hope to unite the Jewish community around supporting Israel.

Meanwhile, they’ve learned a few things. One is that there is a group of retired (mostly) women who are ready to pitch in and volunteer. At the brunch, they wore royal blue aprons with Am Yisrael Chai in Hebrew and #bringthemhome in English. Chef Natalie Benn helped in the kitchen alongside all the volunteers. Two, they’ve discovered that as soon as people learn what they’re raising funds for, some will donate no matter what.

Before the event, for example, Windrix announced that they would sell jars of her homemade chamutzim, or pickled vegetables, ahead of and during the event.

Windrix pickled and canned the veggies in six dozen 32-oz. jars, and they sold out quickly. The women have already sent the money on to Israel, where it was used to buy seven portable air-conditioner units for soldiers serving in Gaza.

“Once we said that we’re selling the pickles and why, people just gave us the money without taking the pickles, so we sold them multiple times,” Windrix said.

“Next time, we’ll just tell them what we’re selling without actually making it,” she joked. “We raised $1,800 in less than 24 hours.”

Their efforts have attracted some organizational support. Financial backing to buy the food for the brunch came from Israel Bonds and StandWithUs.

While ultimately it was up to Windrix to shop for and plan the menu, she said an effort this large could not have been pulled off without the dozen or so volunteers and the leadership of Israel committee member Julia Babka-Kurzrock.

“They all want to help and come to work, not talk,” Windrix said. “They do it all for Israel and our community. We don’t take them for granted, and really value their help.”

The two are already planning their next fundraiser: honeycake, apple cake and challah for Rosh Hashanah, which will be announced on Instagram.

Updated on Aug. 6: Congregation B’nai Tikvah’s role in the event has been corrected.