Purim begins Wednesday night, March 7th. For more information about the holiday of Purim, please visit www.VirtualPurim.org.
Aleph is now making preparations for the shipment of thousands of Megillot, Hamantashen, Terra Chips, and candy packages to Jewish troops and their families. Alpeh’s goal is to reach all Jewish members of the United States Armed Forces and ensure that each and every one receive a Purim package this year wherever they may be stationed. If you aren’t a military family, but want to help out, skip down to the bottom for an option to support another care package mission.
Aleph will ship these packages to any address where Jewish men or women are stationed — FREE OF CHARGE. If you want to participate in this program, just send an email to military@aleph-institute.org with the following information:
- Complete mailing address (If in the US, please provide a physical address if possible (for UPS delivery) – Outside the US, an APO address)
- Name of chaplain, lay leader or other person to whom the packages should be sent at each location (in order to ship them in bulk wherever possible):
- Which bases or location of troops the delivery will cover (to avoid duplicates). (Please copy all other Chaplains, Rabbis or Lay leaders that may also be ordering for the same personnel in your email)
- Total number of Purim Packages needed (for Jewish personnel and or family members to whom you will be able to distribute):
- Number of printed copies of the Story of Purim booklets needed
- Phone number of contact person (and cell phone, if at all possible)
- Generic Military E-mail address that does not change with each move, or personal email address
The active-duty and reserve Jewish chaplains in the United States Armed Forces do a great job, but unfortunately there are not enough of them to go around. Please try to arrange for an active duty or reserve Jewish chaplain to lead Purim services for the Jewish troops and their families in your area. If you are not able to do so, Aleph can help. Aleph has a number of young Rabbis who are willing to travel to any base or area where Jewish military personnel are stationed (both in the US and abroad) to conduct a special holiday service, which would include the reading of the “Megillah” from the hand written parchment scroll (the Book of Esther, which recounts the story of Purim) and a ceremonial holiday meal. As always, Aleph provides these services FREE-OF-CHARGE, but they may require transportation or the reimbursement of the transportation expenses, especially if Rabbis will need to travel to remote or generally-inaccessible locations.
If you are interested in having a Rabbi travel to your location to lead Purim services for Jewish members of the United States Armed Forces and their families please call or email Rabbi Katz at (305) 864-5553 or (305) 725-2439, military@aleph-institute.org.
How to support care package shipments
To directly support Aleph’s efforts, please consider supporting the organization by participating in their annual fundraising auction by visiting www.alephauction.com.
Another option to support the troops over Purim is to order a set of cards from KosherTroops. Contact Sara or Ava directly if you are interested. See the flyer below for full details.
