ENCINO : Group Brings Holiday Cheer to Elderly Jews

Two boxes of Passover food--matzo, gefilte fish, chicken, eggs, fruit and holiday wine--came to Morris Weiss’ door in Canoga Park last weekend.

“It’s a nice thing they are doing,” said Weiss, who was born in 1906 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1924. “It’s marvelous. It’s something you can’t put words to.”

The food was delivered early Sunday morning by members of the Encino B’nai B’rith, which started distributing Passover boxes to elderly poor and home-bound Jews 19 years ago.

At times, the recipients are overwhelmed.

“One . . . was practically crying,” Mark Brownstein of Burbank said about a delivery to an elderly couple he made last year. The delivery to Weiss’ home was one of several Brownstein made Sunday.

David Kaye, the group’s community services chairman, and Marvin Flagg, in charge of distribution, this year coordinated the packing and delivery of 620 boxes of food through six B’nai B’rith lodges, including Encino, to Jewish senior citizens across the San Fernando Valley, as well as to Santa Monica, the Westside and Downtown Los Angeles.

“We started in a small way,” Kaye said. “We knew there were senior Jews that were so poor that they didn’t have these things during the holiday.”

Last year, Encino B’nai B’rith distributed 9,000 blankets, as well as 3 million pounds of food, soap and other items. The B’nai B’rith organizations--the name means “Brothers of the Covenant”--began 150 years ago with a focus on community service.

In the Passover program, each recipient gets two boxes, which has a retail value of about $60, Kaye said. The food is used in the Seder, the traditional meal during Passover which begins at sundown Friday.

Also included in the delivery are noodles, chicken soup, tea, tuna, fruit cocktail, soap, detergent, eggs, potatoes and a Haggada--a prayer booklet that tells the story of Passover.

“The biggest thing that floors me is when you walk in, they don’t want you to leave,” Kaye said. “They have so little contact with the outside world they want you to stay and talk with them. They need the company.”

But, unfortunately, when making so many deliveries, each visit has to be quick. “You can’t stay,” Kaye said.

Kaye guesses that he had about 15 volunteers who packed the food and loaded it into trucks behind Gelson’s supermarket in Tarzana on Saturday. On Sunday morning, about 15 to 25 people from each B’nai B’rith lodge met at the same spot to make the deliveries.

The other lodges that participated are Rishon B’nai B’rith in Encino, Van Nuys B’nai B’rith, Knesset B’nai B’rith, Kadimah B’nai B’rith--a group for young couples in the Valley--and Haverim B’nai B’rith. Also helping in the distribution was the D’or Hadash B’nai B’rith, a lodge for young adults based in Thousands Oaks.