Knowing who to call

Sometimes the work of building community is figuring out what people need. And sometimes it is realizing: we know exactly who we can call.

For years, we’ve admired and supported the work of Masbia, the kosher food pantry that provides high-quality food, meals, and ingredients to Jewish and non-Jewish New Yorkers alike. So when Dimitry learned that Masbia had opened its first Manhattan location on the Upper West Side — and that they were having a hard time finding enough volunteers on weekday afternoons — he called their founder and director, Alexander Rapaport, to ask how we could help.

The need was beautifully simple: people who would show up.

So Dimitry made him a promise. Every Tuesday, we would try to send at least two people from our communities to volunteer for a couple of hours.

We’re two weeks in.

This week, Mo Neiman, Nickia Muraskin, and Josh Sussman were our crew — all three of them showing up on remarkably short notice, including Mo, who had just spent the weekend with us at our community retreat. They put on their green Masbia aprons and got to work helping distribute food to New Yorkers who needed it.

And looking at this photo of the three of them, we keep thinking: this is community, too.

Community is the Shabbat table and the singing and the holidays and the moments when a room is full. But it is also knowing that there is work to be done on a Tuesday afternoon — and knowing who you can call.

It is having enough relationships woven between us that when someone says, “We need two people,” the answer can be, “We have people for that.”

There is a Jewish phrase for what happens when we show up this way: kiddush Hashem — making something sacred visible in the world through the way we live and the way we treat other people. There is something especially beautiful about doing that through Masbia: a Jewish organization feeding New Yorkers of all stripes with dignity and generosity.

Two hours. Two people. Every Tuesday.

It isn’t complicated. But week after week, relationship after relationship, this is how we become the kind of community we want to live in.

Speaking of: ready to roll up your sleeves? Sign up here to volunteer directly with Masbia, and send Dimitry a message to let him know that you have done so.