Knitzvah volunteers at Sid Jacobson JCC in East Hills craft blankets, create bonds

Every Wednesday afternoon, in an empty first-floor room in the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in East Hills, the door unlocks and the lights are turned on.

At 12:30 p.m., a group of women enter, wheeling carry-on sized cases and holding large tote bags full of yarn, crafting supplies and baked goods.

As they gather around a table almost as long as the length of the room, the women reach into their belongings to reveal spools of yarn in reds, blues, yellows, greens, pinks, purples, creams and multicolor.

“It’s just a room full of lovely, wonderful women,” said Wendy Pally, 67, of Floral Park. “I look forward to it every week.”

The group of about 20 women is part of Knitzvah, a volunteer group that has knit and crocheted blankets for people in need for almost 20 years. The name is a play on the Hebrew word “mitzvah,” meaning good deed.

Knitzvah is open to men and women, and volunteers don’t have to be a member of the JCC or know how to knit or crochet, as group members will quickly teach them how. But participants say the group, currently made up of all women, creates more than just blankets — making new, yet lasting friendships.

Julie Assael, director of senior programs for the JCC, said Knitzvah combats seniors’ loneliness. Group members celebrate one another’s birthdays, follow up when they’re sick and throw a holiday party each year.

“It has become, I think, a very integral part of their lives,” Assael said. “They have become very good friends. They support one another. They look forward to seeing each other each week.”

Ellen Bernstein, 65, the group’s volunteer administrator, said once or twice per month she brings about 20 blankets to infusion patients at the Cancer Institute at St. Francis Hospital in East Hills, which shares a parking lot with the JCC.

Donated yarns into blankets to donate

Knitzvah also donates about 20 to 30 blankets to nonprofit group Care to Knit, which distributes them to homeless and women’s shelters. They also give blankets, many times made with red, white and blue yarn, to veterans.

Each blanket is made up of 8-by-8-inch squares totaling a length of 32 inches and carefully folded and placed in clear plastic packets with a card stating a description of the group and its purpose.

The group relies on donated yarn, and no two blankets are the same. Members accept everything from craft store clearance items, single spools given by a fellow JCC member, to scraps donated at the building’s front desk.

And if someone has yarn within a 20-mile radius of the JCC, Bernstein said she is happy to take a drive.

“Every piece of yarn gets used,” she said.

In December, members of Tunnel to Towers, a nonprofit that assists veterans and families of fallen first responders, met with Knitzvah and explained their cause.

That same day, the Knitzvah group donated 40 blankets to the organization.

These blankets are a reminder that there are good people in the world.

-Jack Nelson, senior manager of development for Tunnel to Towers

“For the groups Tunnel to Towers serves, all of whom have endured tragedy or hardship, these blankets are a reminder that there are good people in the world who spend their free time making sure strangers they’ll likely never meet get to enjoy some comfort and warmth,” Jack Nelson, senior manager of development for Tunnel to Towers, wrote in an email.

“Our veterans are not as well taken care of as they should be,” Bernstein said. “So to get something homemade, I mean, don’t you like it, if someone makes you a hat or a scarf?”

Adele Gewirtz, of Roslyn, has volunteered with Knitzvah for 10 years and said the group has received letters of gratitude and thanks from the blankets’ recipients and families.

A veteran once loved his blanket so much that when he died, he was buried with it, his family told the group.

“That was very touching to me,” Gewirtz said. “It warmed my heart to know that. It was a wonderful gesture. We did it with our heart, and to know that it was so appreciated by the recipient and then later on, what it meant to the family.”

Tasks based on skill set

At Knitzvah, every member has a self-appointed task based on skill level and what they find satisfying, Bernstein said.

Bernstein called one member a “master knitter,” as she makes intricate squares and recently brought in 11 blankets she made on her own time. Gewirtz, who did not disclose her age but said she is retired, creatively weaves squares into artistic borders and patterns, finalizing them into a blanket.

Pally said she usually stands at the end of the table near the door and manually turns the handle of a yarn winder, unraveling a spool of bright turquoise yarn.

Her 8-year-old papillon mix has become an unofficial Knitzvah mascot, walking freely around the room, inspecting each stitch and blanket and providing emotional support to the volunteers.

Pally, who also knits, said she started out as a volunteer five months ago, but grew bored of making squares.

“I do the grunt work, which I’m more than happy to do,” she said. “We have the artists here, who actually do the creating. So I still feel like I’m being helpful, but just in a different way.”

Bernstein, who already knew how to knit, said she learned how to crochet from other members.

Everyone is so helpful and so committed and so friendly.

- Ellen Bernstein, Knitzvah's volunteer administrator

“Anyone who comes in that’s just interested, everybody here would help you learn to knit or crochet,” Bernstein said. “Everyone is so helpful and so committed and so friendly.”

Pally, who is not a member of the JCC, said that shortly after joining the group, she learned Bernstein also lived in her building and now “drags her to exercise classes.”

That shared care for each other, as well as for the recipients of the blankets, is the secret ingredient woven into each stitch.

“It’s a labor of love,” Gewirtz said.