By Tzuriel Robbins, Principal of AMIT B’Levav Shalem Yeshiva
(Printed on Ynet, Yediot Achronot Online News Website)
As summer vacation approaches, Tzuriel Robbins, principal of the AMIT B’Levav Shalem Yeshiva in Yerucham, shares a special social initiative of youth in the city of Yerucham.
The story began during summer vacation about a year ago. A group of students who were going into the twelfth grade contacted me with a request. They said – We want our 12th grade experience to be more meaningful. We want to give of ourselves and not just ‘waste’ our year on studies and matriculation exams. So we met…in the middle of the summer vacation, at the home of one of these wonderful students. We sat and thought about the next year and what we could do with it. The decision was to search for a significant volunteer project in Yerucham, to look for a need that had not yet been answered in our community.
After a meeting with the welfare department in Yerucham, the idea came up – to build a warehouse for second hand furniture. The idea was very simple: to mediate between used furniture that people want to get out of the house and other people who need the furniture and cannot afford to buy it. The idea was simple, but it turned out that the execution was not. The students had to find a location for the warehouse, they had to figure out how to move heavy furniture from place to place (have you ever tried to move a refrigerator from the third floor without an elevator?), they had to find a truck to carry the furniture, they needed to open the warehouse during non-routine hours when there were urgent needs, and they also needed to study and go to class…
But despite all the difficulties, the devoted staff of 12th graders made this project into a senior class project. They took a classroom in our school building and turned it into a “Power of Giving” warehouse. When there was no vehicle to carry furniture, they built a small cart on wheels and used it to move the furniture. In short – their creativity blossomed and their commitment to the cause pushed them not to give up despite the difficulties. And there were many difficulties…
The warehouse quickly became too small to accommodate the furniture, so fortunately, the local council gave us a larger and more spacious warehouse. At a festive ceremony with representatives of the local authority and in the presence of all the yeshiva students, we inaugurated the new building of the warehouse.
The running of the warehouse has become quite professional. There is a ‘management’ of students who are responsible for the project and coordinate the requests. There is a telephone number for people who want to donate furniture and there are regular opening hours with a list of organized volunteers of the yeshiva students. Every Thursday, furniture is collected from houses around Yerucham using a pickup truck that we managed to get.
The secret of the success of this project is our close cooperation with the welfare department. They often refer the needs of the residents to us, as well as requests of residents to donate furniture. This project is a great blessing for the community of course, but it is also a tremendous blessing for the students who operate it. The students are learning firsthand the importance of giving and doing acts of kindness, as well as the effort required to take responsibility for an enterprise. In addition, they are learning how to run a small business, how to deal with customers, and how to manage their time.
The students recently won the National Religious State Education Prize for their contribution to the community. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this story is that some of our students who have had very difficult academic challenges over the years, through their work in the warehouse and the responsibility they have taken on in this enterprise, have begun to take responsibility for themselves as well and to become more successful in their studies. The impact of giving is truly powerful!
