From Rt to Lt: Sarah Weinberg, Michael Barkeshet, Giora Fried 

ESRA’s Raanana Nearly New Shop was opened 18 years ago at the height of the mass immigration from Russia by ESRA volunteers in Raanana. The guiding spirit for many years was the late Motti Wiener whose unbelievable and constant spirit of volunteering enabled him to operate the shop into his 90’s and until shortly before his death. The shop caters in particular to the lower economic sectors of our community to buy goods at symbolic prices, giving them a feeling of pride in being able to support their families instead of accepting charity.

The shop has had various venues of different sizes over the years until it reached the location where it stands today. About 150 sq. meters, it is situated in the back yard of a building facing onto Ahuza Street, the main street of Raanana. Its central location enables easy access to the general public and in particular to the large and generous population who donate freely to the shop. It is important to note that the entire contents of the shop are donated by many generous ESRA members and others in Raanana and the surrounding areas.

The shop sells clothing, jewelry, kitchen equipment, electrical equipment, linens, shoes, cutlery, pictures, electronic equipment and light furniture. We also have books in English and Hebrew and many weird and wonderful items donated in the spirit of ESRA.

Prices are really low such as NIS 10 for jeans, NIS 5 for a shirt and NIS 5 for a pair of shoes.  We do have higher prices for special donations of expensive and new items.  And of course, all the profits go towards the over 30 ESRA projects in the needy communities.

Our customers come from a wide range of economic levels and many ‘bargain hunters’ enjoy visiting our premises.

It is manned by a terrific crew of workers and volunteers, who sort, pack, arrange the shelves and sell with much love, devotion  and endless patience. Sarah Weinberg, Ruth-Ann Fields, Gidon Noah, Eli Kafri,  Israel Zander (who also uses his car to assist with collections), Shoshi Lahav, Isabel Morris, Brenda Rosin, Sharon Miller, Bella Lerner, Mike Bar Keshet, Kelly Palin and Helene Halle and are our regular team.  In addition there are many other volunteers who assist us from time to time. I must make a separate mention of Wolfie and Zena Dorfman who do an amazing job of collecting goods for the shop.

An important step forward during the last year was that the whole crew worked on changing the interior design of the shop which now has a completely new look.  Today it is possible to browse around the shop with easy access to all the items. We have many additional decorations, such as an aquarium and plants to enhance the look of the shop and attract customers.

I would be unable to function without the backing of the ESRA shop committee, including Adele Hunter, Frank Giron, Ed Wolff and Richard Stein who is the wind in my sails in his unfailing support of new ideas for the advancement of the shop.

I hope that the shop will continue to grow and prosper as the flagship of the ESRA shops : Raanana, Kfar Saba and Netanya and that the sales will increase and enable us to fund more ESRA projects in the needy communities.

At this point I’d like to thank all the donors who send us their nearly-new items and ask them to continue their wonderful support and even increase it to items of value so that we can improve our sales and our profits even more in our endeavours to help finance the ESRA projects in the community.  You are all invited to visit our shop and see the work in action.

Finally, I’d like to thank the ESRA organization for giving me the privilege of sharing in their “avoda kedosha”, of meeting really special people and of working with a group of wonderful and devoted volunteers and staff.

With prayers that our shop will continue to grow and flourish as part of ESRA.

Giora Fried is the manager of Raanana’s Nearly New Shop.