Two days after Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israel last October, former Woodmere, New York resident Aron Schoenfeld was meant to begin a new job in the marketing sector. But on October 8 he received a message that the job was going to be put on hold. With extra time on his hands, he channeled his energy towards the war effort, focusing on supporting local families in his city of Modiin whose spouses were called to the reserves. He began raising funds from friends and family to purchase food platters for neighbors. As word spread, the requests for support grew. Now 11 months later, Schoenfeld is managing these operations under an NGO he established that has since supported tens of thousands of Israelis both on the home front and on the front lines.
In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, Schoenfeld, who made aliyah in 2020 with his wife and three children, observed that many people had mobilized to support soldiers with food and supplies, but few people were thinking about their family members. At the same time, many local businesses were struggling due to the war. He realized that he could contribute in multiple ways by matching vendors who were suffering from a loss of business with soldiers and their families and victims of terror seeking help.
When Schoenfeld learned about a unit of soldiers requesting meals, he hired a private chef who typically caters high-end parties to prepare food out of a backyard in Modiin. He brought an entertainer from Sderot to host a drum party for evacuees in a hotel. He hired another chef to cook hundreds of pizzas for soldiers and sent an ice cream truck owner from the south to soldiers. He also hired an event planner to host carnivals for evacuees in their hotels, complete with cotton candy, a bounce house, carnival game booths, music and more. He has hosted approximately 80 carnivals for evacuees since the early days of the war.
This grassroots effort continued to expand with more and more volunteers getting involved as the requests for support continued to increase. Schoenfeld established an NGO called Smiles for the Kids, in memory of a young girl from Boca Raton, Florida named Esti Moskowitz who passed away from cancer, in order to raise funds more effectively and best support the growing needs.
All staff—including Shoenfeld—are volunteers. He estimates that since the beginning of the war, his organization has supported 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 to 15,000 families of soldiers.
Schoenfeld explains that he is motivated by a desire to see people happy. He also hopes that these acts of goodwill—whether they last a few minutes or a few hours at a time—will help take people’s attention away from the war and give them a sense of normalcy.
Schoenfeld has witnessed many smiles in action. He once delivered a candy platter to the family of a husband and father serving in the reserves. When the young boy saw the candy platter his eyes lit up and he devoured the candy. Only a few minutes earlier he was talking about the war, and now he was in a different world and full of smiles, thanks to the special delivery. Schoenfeld said, “We saw there is a lot of stress, but something as simple as that can make people smile and forget about everything for two or three minutes.”
Schoenfeld anticipates that the needs will only grow more going forward, especially if the violence in the north continues to escalate. He also hopes to integrate volunteers from abroad into these chesed opportunities.
When envisioning his life in Israel, Schoenfeld did not think he would fully spend his days running around doing good deeds. It was after the war broke out that he decided that he was not going to sit on the sidelines. “Our goal is to make as many people as possible smile,” he added.
To learn more about Smiles for the Kids and to donate, visit https://www.smilesforthekids.com
Alisa Bodner is a Fair Lawn native who immigrated to Israel over a decade ago. She is a nonprofit management professional who enjoys writing in her free time.
