The National Council of Jewish Charities, or Olam Chesed, is “The largest chesed organization that no one had ever heard about…an untold story,” said Rabbi Mordechai Roizman, the founder of this “billion-dollar-big” non-profit corporation. As part of their everyday humanitarian endeavors, both Rabbi and Mrs. Meechal Roizman arrange for families in need to shop for free at their Haverstraw, New York-based 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse, stocking up with anything home-oriented, from toilet paper, toasters, toothbrushes, toys, diapers and cutlery, to couches and recliners.
“Olam Chesed partners up with big-name companies like Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target and La-Z-Boy. They seek charities that have warehousing and capacity to receive large volumes of merchandise through truckload donations. Through overstock and returned items, these businesses donate brand-new, high-quality, brand-name items,” Rabbi Roizman explained.
Distributing $10 billion of merchandise every year to Jewish families contending with divorce, unemployment, fire and poverty, helping is something the Roizmans have down to a science. The organization is “looking for people who aren’t making it,” said Mrs. Roizman, who described the process as “individuals or organizations calling and sending in an application for each individual who’s coming. We then vet the application and assign an appointment time after getting approved. We always suggest bringing a list of items because the families can get very overwhelmed when they walk in, because there are just so many things. The word is overwhelmed. The reaction is always ‘wow! There’s so much stuff.’” With a shopping cart in hand, poverty-stricken families are guided through the categorized warehouse and “before they leave, there’s a check-out process where we write down everything that they took.”
Covering all ground, Olam Chesed also supplies goods to non-profit schools and camps, and is currently kicking off a new awareness campaign, “World of Giving,” as part of its outreach program. Mrs. Roizman noted, “We work with the village of Spring Valley and have monthly events with them. We also work with food banks in Queens, Manhattan and many other places.
“We sell items like paper towels to charities like Tomchei Shabbos, Ohel and Women’s League…We are here to help charities save money by only charging them for overhead, a fraction of the price,” Rabbi Roizman added. In turn, that money can be philanthropically recycled to run the warehouse, helping people all over again.
For example, Mrs. Roizman related that large companies partner with them to offload overstocked or imperfect merchandise. “Target sent us two truckloads of mislabeled pillows because it cost them more to redo the packaging. If they donate specifically to the needy and ill, they get what’s called enhanced tax deductions. So really, this creates good through many aspects.” Olam Chesed doesn’t just benefit the givers and getters, “it’s helping the environment; the excess supplies are not being dumped. We are reusing and repurposing it in a positive way.”
Mrs. Roizman shared the genesis of Olam Chesed. “During Hurricane Sandy when my husband went out to help out in Far Rockaway, he noticed that truckloads of goods were coming in from secular organizations like United Way, The Red Cross and Helping Hands. They were donating items that the Jewish community were spending millions on while they were getting it all for free. It really piqued his interest, realizing that nobody in the Jewish world was tapping into this. Most organizations in the Jewish world focus on food and clothing. We wanted to do something that no one else is doing so we can fill another need.”
“These are things they can’t get anywhere else, and it’s not a change that’s a one-time thing. These are items they can use for years,” Rabbi Roizman further noted.
Witnessing the family’s strength inspires its own sort of strength for everyone involved. Rabbi Roizman shared, “What a difference it makes to a person’s life. It gives a person a boost, hope, bitachon (trust) that Hashem still loves them.” He added, “I used to just speak about the cognitive part because of my background in business. Olam Chesed is a magnifier. $600,000 can leverage into 10 times as much—doing more with your chesed, investing in a place that can take it further. We have to be creative with limited funds, tzedaka and ma’aser (tithe) money.”
Every family brings another story and every story brings a finer realization of both Olam Chesed’s monetary and emotional value. This shopping experience generates peace of mind and just plain ecstasy for those grasping for the ground. “We had a volunteer who said the thing they love most is watching a couple start walking through the aisles when, all of a sudden, you hear them laughing, their shoulders lifted. They’re smiling just by walking through,” noted Mrs. Roizman. “I was thinking that’s exactly it—that’s exactly it—to just change a person’s demeanor.”
“Another women carrying the weight of the world with a sick child and a husband out of work commented that, despite her hardships, she has a new Simplehuman stainless steel garbage can, and every time she’s in her kitchen she smiles, and that changes the whole atmosphere in the home,” Mrs. Roizman reflected. A client shared that the family’s new furniture has morphed into an incentive program for the children to earn 20 minutes on the recliner. Mrs. Roizman “overheard a kallah on the phone with her mother, and she just kept saying, ‘Ma, but you don’t know, there’s like everything here. Anything that you can imagine is here. Everything that we would need. I don’t even know where to start…’”
By the numbers, Olam Chesed has provided relief for thousands of people wishing and waiting for succor. Three hundred families were provided for in 2016 alone, and more than 700 were helped in 2017. That number translates into $600 to $4,000, per delivery truck, deviating by distance, and can yield $50,000 in home goods. Aspiring to extend the chesed to its entire capacity, Rabbi Roizman related that “we are just scraping the surface…We have hundreds of families that have filled out application forms. Everyday we turn away thousands, and every year millions of dollars of goods…we are inundated with requests. We have goods and the people who need them, it’s the in-between part that’s the challenge, the funds and manpower…help with trucking, warehousing, shelving and other logistical support.”
“The main thing regarding funding would be hiring ongoing sorting and organizing staff because consistency is always most efficient. There’s so many boxes that it’s a full-time job…with more funding, the sky’s the limit…we just want to do, to give.” Mrs. Roizman explained that, as of now, warehouse organization and distribution is powered by volunteers alone “to facilitate and keep things flowing.”
Mrs. Roizman thanked their main partner, Rabbi Raphael Butler, for his continuous efforts throughout the development of Olam Chesed. “We cannot have done so much of this without the Afikim foundation and Rabbi Raphael Butler. He is our largest donor and supporter, helping us financially and personally. He really keeps us going.”
To donate, sponsor a family or volunteer, please visit http://goodsfortheneedy.org/non-profits/.
By Rachel Liebling
Rachel Liebling is a summer intern at The Jewish Link and a rising freshman at Stern College for Women.
