If it’s before Chanukah, the boxes are filled with dreidels, gelt and menorahs. For Purim, seder plates and gift cards for Starbucks or Jamba Juice go into the boxes. And for Passover, typical items include macaroons and hamantaschen — and even wind-up, walking matzah balls.
These “care packages” are sent by a handful of local synagogues to college students and, in a few cases, to elderly shut-ins and relatives of members serving in the military.
For example, 1st Lt. Matthew Illowsky, who is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, is receiving fresh-baked Chanukah cookies from Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, where his grandmother, Judy Sack, is on the board of directors.
“I made sure Matthew was on the list because I thought he needed a touch of community, just to let him know we are thinking of him,” Sack says.
Illowsky, 26, has received care packages from Beth Am since he went on active duty 31⁄2 years ago.
Ryan Cohn, 19, a sophomore at U.C. Davis, is looking forward to his Chanukah care package from Beth Am. “The Purim package came last spring right in the middle of finals when everyone was really stressed out,” says Cohn, who grew up in Mountain View. “It was a nice surprise.”
Rebecca Alberts, an 18-year-old freshman at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., was “thrilled” — according to her mother, Judy Alberts of Saratoga — this past Passover to receive a mug, candles and dried chicken soup from Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos.
Ten years ago, Shir Hadash began what it calls its College Connection program.
“We target three holidays each year,” says Nancy Mastman of Monte Sereno, who coordinates the program with Yana Arnold. “This year we did Sukkot and Chanukah, and we will do Passover in the spring.”
Included in each gift pack is a letter from Rabbi Melanie Aron and a little note from the College Connection. Parents with college students pay $55 a year for the service, Mastman says, with half the money going toward shipping.
“Typically we have 20 or more students signed up at colleges from Hawaii to back East and everywhere in between,” Mastman says. “We think it’s a wonderful way to remind students about Jewish traditions when they can’t be home.”
Taylor Cohen, a 21-year-old senior at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, has received packages from Shir Hadash for three years.
“It’s like a little piece of home, and it always reminds me that this is where I come from,” says Cohen, who is from Campbell. “It’s also a way to share my culture and heritage with non-Jewish students here.”
For members of the synagogues that send care packages, there is always a lot of prep work.
At Beth Am, members of the sisterhood, Beth Am Women, head into the kitchen before the Chanukah and Purim mailings — and bake, bake, bake.
“This has been going on for more than a decade,” says coordinator Julie Roston of Los Altos. “It is an intergenerational program, with between 20 and 30 people of all ages helping.”
About 100 care packages go out each holiday to college students, elderly congregants and members serving in the military who are stationed in the United States. “The synagogue pays for the [cookie] dough and the mailing, and Beth Am Women pays for anything else. We do accept donations,” Roston says.
Because Chanukah is relatively early on the December calendar this year — and the students won’t be “home for the holidays” — Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon decided to send Chanukah packages to college students for the first time. The synagogue normally sends packages only for Rosh Hashanah and Passover.
“When the congregation was very tiny, a group of moms sent packages on their own,” says coordinator Sandy Strauss Stern of Mill Valley. “But six years ago, the program was revived with funding from our board.”
About 45 care packages were sent for Chanukah — filled with menorahs, candles, gelt, dreidels, Chanukah blessings, song sheets and various edible goodies (both home-baked goods and store-purchased items such as protein bars and trail mix). More than a dozen people gathered on packing day to help organizers Stern and Joan Levison; they called themselves “Team Maccabee.”
Kol Shofar even alerted its students in advance to expect the packages — via a video on YouTube from Rabbi Susan Leider (they were sent an email with the link).
Congregation B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek also sends out care packages, and has been doing so for 10 years. This year on Purim, about 25 college students received packages that included gift certificates for Starbucks or Jamba Juice and a few Hershey’s kisses.
“Parents who have a stake in the program generally do the packing, and I add a cover letter about what’s going on at the temple,” Rabbi Raphael Asher says. “We always get back a handful of nice emails and thank-you notes.”