Recipients

June 2006: After shopping at the last ever Brandeis Women’s used book sale in Chicago - at Old Orchard - I found myself with two sets of the Encyclopedia Judaica, in addition to some six cartons of other titles. I shipped one set back to Maryland, for shipment to Africa. The second set I shipped to Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, on the Southwest Side of Chicago.

To learn more about this vibrant congregation and its dynamic rabbi, take a peek at this youtube video.

February 5, 2006 The first shipment of books to Nigeria. I can only estimate the number of books - between 3200 and 3600, including Chumashim, Tanakhim and Siddurim. The books shipped would establish 10 book collections throughout Nigeria with a minimum of 170 books. These libraries are to be located in Aba; Ikot Ekpene; Kubwa, a suburb of Abuja; Lagos, at Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, founded as the sister congregation of Rabbi Capers Funnye’s synagogue in Chicago; Okigwe; Owerri, at the Imo State University; Port Harcourt; and three other communities, to be named.

November 15, 2006: Fifteen cartons of books were taken to a warehouse in Baltimore. They will be shipped to England on November 29. Ten cartons of books - approximately 230 volumes (including a full set of the Encyclopaedia Judaica) weighing some 475 pounds - were shipped to Rabbi Natan Levy, Jewish chaplain at the University of the West of England in Bristol. The destination of the rest of the books - 160 volumes, 225 pounds - is Newcastle, where a devout Igbo man is preparing for his “conversion” to Judaism. (What does 475 pounds of books look like? Click here.)

I am grateful to the Jewish Publication Society for putting me in touch with Natan. I am tremendously proud to be JPS’ shliah mitzvah - its mitzvah agent/emissary.

January 1, 2007: Dr. Jack Zeller, President of Kulanu, introduced me to Sonya Loya, founder and director of the Bat-Tziyon Hebrew Learning Center in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Sonya is a Board Member-at-Large of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies. (Update, June 2007: I have since learned that Sonya may be in the process of relocating. Three large cartons of books await her.)

June 8, 2007: Our second 40’ container was loaded, containing Judaic books for Nigerian Jews, textbooks for the Inwelle Study and Resource Centre, and a few dozen computers that will be shared. I estimate that some 4000 books - including Bibles, Pentateuchs, Siddurim and Machzorim - were shipped this time. Dr. Christiana Okechukwu of the Inwelle Centre is seeing to the logistics - clearing the container through customs and seeing to the ground transportation of its contents to her centre in Enugu. I have learned from experience that a neutral party is a better choice as consignee if I want to avoid the shenanigans that left a bitter taste the first time a shipment was sent.

Fall, 2007: A contact at JPS put me in touch with Rabbi Lynn Goldstein of St. Louis, MO. Rabbi Goldstein had been working with a group of over 50 African Americans from Cairo, Illinois, who were in the process of embracing Judaism. I had the supreme privilege of participating in the Bet Din (Rabbinic panel) when they went to the mikvah (ritual bath) in Memphis, Tennessee. (Read the story that appeared in the Memphis newspaper; the Forward published an article as well.) Tikvat Israel sent about a half-dozen cartons of books to Cairo, to help this community of new Jews to continue its Jewish growth and development.

| Recipients in 2008 |