On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Long Island volunteers deliver hot food to celebrate the Jewish holiday

Merilee Kaufman welcomed several guests to her Rockville Center apartment on Tuesday, including one carrying two shopping bags containing hot meals for Kaufman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sunset Wednesday.

For about five years, Kaufman has been receiving pre-holiday meal deliveries from the Barry & Florence Friedberg Jewish Community Center in Oceanside. And she is grateful.

“First of all, it’s wonderful,” Kaufman, 81, said, sitting on her living room couch. “It means someone is thinking about me and that’s why I’m not alone.” Kaufman said her “wonderful husband” of 50 years, Herb, died in January 2023. The food delivery means support is welcome. “This concern means a lot,” she said.

Volunteer and Friedberg JCC member Elliot Winter, also of Rockville Centre, placed the shopping bags – gray and white reusable bags donated by the Bristal nursing home corporation – on Kaufman’s kitchen counter.

Employees said each person receiving food deliveries from the JCC received two hot New Year’s meals over two days.

Kaufman, a retired “I made people famous” columnist, plans to share hers. – I invited a friend.

Kosher meals — prepared by Sharmel Caterers of Oceanside at a discounted price for the JCC — included baked chicken, cabbage rolls, challah, mashed potatoes, chicken soup with matzo balls, carrots, apples and honey, custard and grape juice.

“It’s very much a holiday meal,” said Gloria Lebeaux, director of social services for the Friedberg JCC.

Lebeaux added: “These are cooked meals… for people who would find it difficult to prepare a meal themselves.”

The JCC learns about the 60 people who will receive deliveries through the center’s interactions with members across its “full range of social services,” Lebeaux said. “In this community, we also partner with other programs and agencies that serve those in need and the isolated,” as well as local synagogues.

Lebeaux said deliveries had been happening for many years, “but the pandemic sealed the deal” to do it “more consistently.”

Lebeaux said the JCC thinks it’s important to provide holiday meals because “there are a lot of adults and young people in the community here who are isolated and celebrating the holidays on their own, and we would just like to alleviate that feeling of isolation and loneliness by providing warm, nutritious, tasty meals… for the two days of Rosh Hashanah,” which end on Friday.

Sabrina Viscardi, special events manager and volunteer coordinator at the JCC, met with each volunteer who arrived at the center on Tuesday to prepare for the food delivery mission. Viscardi said most of the 15 volunteers were expected to perform three to four deliveries.

Winter, 70, a retired banker, said he has been a member of the JCC for about 10 years. “I retired about three years ago… I decided that one of the things I wanted to do when I retired was to give something back to society…. I’ve been doing that for a few years now. I do it on Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year and during spring Passover, and it is very rewarding.”

On Tuesday morning, Winter was scheduled to make three more deliveries: another in Rockville Center and two in neighboring Lynbrook.

Another volunteer, Elliot Hearst of Oceanside, a member of the JCC gym, was scheduled to perform two deliveries.

When asked why he volunteered, Hearst replied: “Just to give something back. I’m retired, so I keep busy, I get out of the house and help people who might need a nice meal for the holidays, but for some reason can’t go out and get food.”

Using a Hebrew term for a good deed resulting from religious obligation, Hearst said that delivering supplies was “a good thing. It’s a mitzvah.”