Brookline school rallies community to donate supplies for Israeli soldiers
BROOKLINE - Two Israeli men in Brookline are heading overseas to fight on the front lines of the war against Hamas. They are taking 40 duffle bags of donated supplies with them.
The two are graduates of the Maimonides School in Brookline. Within hours, their community rallied the supplies and coordinated their distribution in Israel.
"I would say we started mobilizing on the idea at 8:30 a.m. By 10:30 a.m., an email went out. Within three to four hours, this and much, much more has shown up," said Rabbi Yaakov Green, head of Maimonides School. "The arrows in our quiver are prayer and the acts of kindness you are watching behind us."
A student at the school already watched his father leave for Israel. He was called up as a reservist.
"We wrote letters that are going in these bags as well to all the soldiers. His, of course, spoke about missing his father," says Rabbi Green.
Julia Pearlin heard about the rush for supplies and called the Army Barracks Store in Saugus to get military items. When other people heard about her trek, the store started receiving calls from people asking to donate money to the cause. The store put together several more duffle bags full of supplies.
"I feel helpless. I'm shattered. I'm torn. As someone who has family, friends, loved ones there, it's paralyzing. We already have soldiers near and dear to us that died last night that will never be coming home," said Pearlin, "Jewish or not Jewish, we come together because it's about people. It's about lives. It's not about politics. It's about that every life means something to us."
Once the supplies arrive, the school has arranged for the supplies to be expedited to the front lines and the soldiers who need it.