Breakfast at the Popacks

This past Sunday Colel Chabad held its 28th Annual Breakfast in the Five Towns.

Businessmen, professionals and laymen participated in the Colel Chabad 28th Annual Five Towns Breakfast.

Under beautiful sunshine, at the home of Avi and Chava Popack, participants mingled over bagels, lox and cocktails and enjoyed nature and the beautiful atmosphere.

Rabbi Zalman Duchman gave the guests an overview of the charity, describing the work of the Soup Kitchens, Salei Mazon Food Distribution, Dental Clinics and the great work they do for the widows and orphans.

A unique speaker was there to address the crowd, Mrs. Linda Hooper. Mrs. Hooper spoke of her experience few years ago the eighth grade students at Whitwell Middle School began to study the Holocaust. The goal of this study was to teach students the importance of respecting different cultures as well as understanding the effects of intolerance.

As the study progressed, she explained, the sheer number of Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis overwhelmed the students. Six million was a number that the students could not remotely grasp. She advised the students to find something to collect that would have meaning to the project. After some research on the Internet, the students decided to collect paper clips because they discovered that 1) Joseph Valler, a Norwegian Jew is credited as having invented the paper clip and 2) that Norwegians wore them on their lapels as a silent protest against Nazi occupation in WWII.

She spoke of how little these students knew of Jewish people before the project, and how it impacted so many lives. She described how the paper clip collection has become a part of the “Children’s Holocaust Memorial,” a Memorial containing 11 million paper clips housed in an authentic German transport car honoring the lives of all people murdered by the Nazis.

In the spirit of transformation, she described how the students, staff, and community of Whitwell Middle School have transformed the car from a death car into a symbol of renewed life honoring the lives of those murdered by the Nazis. For generations of Whitwell students, a paper clip will never again be just a paper clip. Instead, the paper clip is a reminder of the importance of perseverance, empathy, tolerance, and understanding.

The strongest part of the event were the words written by the host, Avi Popack, words that came from the heart, here in its entirety:

My wife Chava and I are truly privileged to host this event.

Colel Chabad is very close to me and family.

I am very fortunate to stand here today as a representative of the Popack family. My Father, Yosef Yitchak Popack is a very active philanthropic individual who is a driving force to charitable work that Colel Chabad is involved in.

My grandfather Shmuel Issac Popack and my great grandfather, Avroham Popack – my namesake, were additionally in constant support of the numerous activities and charitable causes that Colel Chabad are involved in.

I am the 4th generation in my family to be involved in Colel Chabad and for good reason.

I remember a little less than 3 years ago my extended family and I took a trip to Israel for Succos. We stayed in Jerusalem and had a wonderful and spiritually uplifting experience. One of the days of Chol Hamoed we rented a van with my family and took a drive. My father wanted to show us a few of the things that he was involved in.

One of the stops was visiting a huge Colel Chabad warehouse. When I walked in I was amazed to see all the food and other perishables from floor to ceiling. I was told that these items were delivered to poor families across Israel. That was the highlight of my trip.

Colel Chabad has been around for over 200 years and for good reason. The sheer number of people and the amount of chesed that they are involved in is overwhelming. From delivering food to poor people across Israel, to assisting widows and orphans to medical services, day care centers and immigrant aid, the list is endless.

We are all blessed by living in this community and neighboring communities and having so much.

Unfortunately there are those that are not as fortunate.

Let us be known as a community that cares about our brothers and sisters in Israel.

I stand here today as a proud supporter of Colel Chabad and I ask you to do the same. Please make a donation and get involved in such a worthy cause, it would be so greatly appreciated.

The closing remarks were from the chairman, who said, “It’s already 28 years that we gather the Sunday before Tisha B’Av, to help in this vital cause. Let’s hope and pray that we need not gather next year for this purpose.”