Shofar Corps in Fair Lawn, NJ

Yasher Koach - strength! - to the young members of Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Cong. B’nai Israel, New Jersey, for their Shofar Corps visits to shut-ins. Supported by various community organizations, the youths learned shofar, identified seniors in need of services, and learned to conduct a special shofar service that was written by previous Corps members. They also gave honey cake to the seniors, a symbolic and traditional gesture to welcome in a sweet year.

What indelible impressions this mitzvah had on the young people. According to a newspaper account. One participant told of visiting a man who

“was quiet and seemed content to just listen, but after we read a story about a rabbi who blew the shofar on a ship that was heading for disaster, he slowly began to open up, Amazingly, he was on a ship being deployed to Korea during the Korean War on Rosh HaShanah, and landed in Korea on Yom Kippur...  When I blew the shofar, I could see his face light up with joy. He seemed very happy and I thought I saw him start crying when we finished our service.... I believe I truly realized how meaningful our gesture of sounding the shofar was at that moment. Until then, I’m not sure I fully appreciated what we were doing and how important it was for these people.”

When visiting a Holocaust survivor,

“It was great to see her face light up each time the kids sounded the shofar. She told us that the Auschwitz portion of the readings reminded her of her childhood…. She briefly recounted her youth while on the run [from the Nazis]. Before leaving she asked for the kids to blow another tekiah gedolah.”

And another,

“I went to the same house that I went to last year, with a woman who was on oxygen and could not get around very well. She said that she couldn’t wait to see us again next year, and how much she enjoys our visit. I hope I get to visit her again.”