On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Long Island volunteers deliver the gift of hot food to celebrate Jewish holiday

Merilee Kaufman greeted several guests at her Rockville Centre apartment Tuesday, including one bearing two grocery bags containing hot meals for Kaufman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins Wednesday at sundown.

Kaufman has been getting the preholiday meals delivery from the Barry & Florence Friedberg Jewish Community Center in Oceanside for about five years. And she is grateful.

"It's wonderful, first of all," Kaufman, 81, said, while seated on her living room couch. "It means that somebody is thinking of me, and therefore I'm not alone." Kaufman said her "wonderful husband" of 50 years, Herb, died in January 2023. The food delivery amounts to welcome support. "That care means a lot," she said.

A Friedberg JCC volunteer and member, Elliot Winter, also of Rockville Centre, placed the grocery bags — gray and white reusable bags donated by The Bristal assisted living corporation — onto Kaufman's kitchen counter.

Each person receiving the food deliveries from the JCC was given two hot meals to celebrate the New Year over two days, staff members said.

Kaufman, a retired publicist — "I made people famous " — plans to share hers. "I invited a friend."

The kosher meals — prepared by Sharmel Caterers of Oceanside at a discounted price for the JCC — contained roasted chicken, stuffed cabbage, challah bread, mashed potatoes, chicken soup with matzo balls, carrots, apples and honey, pudding and grape juice.

"It's very much a festive, holiday meal," said Gloria Lebeaux, Friedberg JCC's director of social work services.

Lebeaux added, "These are cooked meals ... for folks that would find it difficult to prepare their own meal." 

The 60 people who receive the deliveries are made known to the JCC through the center's interactions with members through "its full array of social services," Lebeaux said. "We also have a lot of collaborations in this community with other programs and agencies that serve the needy, the isolated," as well as local synagogues.

The deliveries have taken place for a number of years, Lebeaux said, "but COVID is what sealed the deal" to do it "more consistently."

Lebeaux said the JCC considered the holiday meal delivery important because "the community here has many adults and younger folks who are isolated, who are celebrating holidays by themselves, and we would just like to ease that feeling of isolation and loneliness by providing warm, nourishing, fun meals ... over two days of Rosh Hashanah," which ends Friday.

Sabrina Viscardi, the JCC's special events manager and volunteer coordinator, met with each volunteer who came into the center Tuesday to prepare for their mission to deliver the food. Viscardi said most of the 15 volunteers were scheduled to make three to four deliveries. 

Winter, 70, a retired banker, said he has been a member of the JCC for about 10 years. "I retired about three years ago ... I decided that one of the things I wanted to do in my retirement was give back to the community. ... So I've been doing this for a few years now. I do it at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and for Passover in the Spring. It's very gratifying."

Winter was scheduled to make three more deliveries Tuesday morning: another one in Rockville Centre and two in neighboring Lynbrook.

Another volunteer, Elliot Hearst of Oceanside, a member of the JCC's gym, was set to make two deliveries.

Asked why he was volunteering, Hearst said, "Just to give back. I'm retired, so it keeps me busy, gets me out of the house and helps people, who maybe could use a nice meal for the holiday and are unable, for whatever reason, to get out and get the food."

Using the Hebrew term for doing a good deed borne out of religious duty, Hearst said making the deliveries is "a good thing to do. It's a mitzvah."

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie