BROOKLINE, MASS. (WHDH) - Students and parents at a Jewish school in Brookline recently packed up supplies after gathering donations to send to Israeli soldiers fighting on the front lines as part of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The supplies packed at Maimonides Jewish School fill 61 duffel bags. Most of the bags made it on a plane to Israel by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
“They’re 6,000 miles away and they are my brother, literal and figurative brother and sister,” said Rabbi Yaakov Green of the Maimonides School. “We need to do something. Idle hands. We need to feel like we’re contributing even in a small, tiny little, miniscule, drop in the bucket way.”
The school got involved after two of its alumni were called up as reservists by the Israeli Defense Force. Those soldiers told the school what they needed and families answered the call.
“It’s something as small and mundane as Aquaphor for lips that are gonna get chapped sitting in the trenches at night when it’s cold,” Green said. “Hand warmers, protective eye gear, headlights.”
The drive for donations began at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Photos later showed the bags arriving in Israel where they were opened, sorted and their items were put into use.
“It’s literally like the basic essentials,” Green said. “What you would want to send, God forbid, your brother or sister out the door, going to serve your country.”
Along with the goods, the Maimonides School’s middle and elementary aged students wrote letters to soldiers.
Green said the hardest letter to read was from the child of a parent who was already called up. The parent, Green said, has been serving on the front lines “for a couple of days.”
“His child wrote a letter directly to daddy saying ‘We’re praying for you. We miss you already. Stay safe,’” Green said.
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