After my rather frustrated piece in the Dec/Jan issue concerning our efforts to get outreach programs started in Modiin we are happy to report that both the social and volunteer programs have moved forward significantly in recent weeks.

On January 9 we dipped our toes into the movie scene to see what support it would receive and from that very positive start we have now booked a local cinema to show the documentary, “Waves of Freedom”, on April 21 and have one of the volunteers who appeared in the movie, Murray Greenfield, coming to speak about the actual events.

In February we hosted Barbara Blum who has previously delighted ESRA members with her ‘take’ on the British class system and we had a nice turnout. We are trying something different in March, hosting a young harpist, Liraz Choloniewski, who will not only give a recital, but also provide the audience with some background information on this angelic instrument.

Then Stella Padeh’s ever popular lecture series has the speaker Michael Toben talking on “America and the experience of East European Jewry - their trials, tribulations and successes in the late 19th century and the early 20th" on Motzei Shabbat, March 6 and on April 10 a “Financial planning workshop incorporating wills and trusts for Israeli residents”, which auger interesting and informative evenings.

Our online secondhand book project, “ESRAbooks”, took a while to take off. Initially the books that were donated were diligently catalogued by Cynthia Barmor, my co-chair, who then sent out email listings to signed-up members, but the return, disappointingly, did not justify the huge effort. Meanwhile through zealous advertising on our “ESRAbook” list and local Modiin list literally hundreds of books came our way. Additionally, ESRA’s bookshops in Raanana and Or Akiva (thank you guys) made very welcome contributions, but mostly the books came from the good people of Modiin as word got around.  

Yet we still had no place to store them and Cynthia’s home was looking more and more like Steimatzky’s warehouse! This prompted her to come up with the idea – possibly born of desperation – to hold a book sale in her home on Saturday night, February 6. We set aside two hours but people were there long after and we sold a staggering amount, to the extent that people could not get through the door at one point.  We all felt that ESRA Modiin was finally on the move. Not only that, but joy of joys, thanks to the generosity of Hinda Hausdorff, we now have a storeroom; not one from which we can sell but at least one in which our book stock can be safely stored. We have obviously hit on a formula that works, and will now think how we can expand the concept.

ESRA Modiin’s outreach programs are also making their mark. We conduct English conversation tutoring for bagrut students running in five high schools, and we are providing English teachers for a local program providing extra tuition to underprivileged children. We are currently hand-delivering 400 ESRA magazines to English speaking households in Modiin and will shortly spread our wings into Hashmonaim, Maccabim and Re’ut. Our newest committee member is from Hashmonaim and we hope also to add representatives in Maccabim and Reut which will further broaden our scope and the ESRA name.

Finally, we are enormously excited about our latest endeavor – a huge fundraiser toward the end of the year …. but more of that in our next update.  Watch this space.