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World-Renowned King of Cantorial-Music Yitchoke Meir Helfgot Serving Hot Meals at MASBIA soup Kitchen in the Month of its Third Anniversary. (PRNewsFoto/MASBIA.org) Three years ago, a welcomed guest arrived in the streets of BoroughPark Brooklyn. It wasn’t a famous rabbi or scholar, nor was it a well-knownpolitician coming to campaign in a neighborhood considered to be one of the wealthiest enclaves of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews. In fact, it wasn’t a
person at all.
NEW YORK, April 28 /PRNewswire/ — This month New York City is
celebrating a very special anniversary.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080428/NYM064 )

Three years ago, a welcomed guest arrived in the streets of Borough
Park Brooklyn. It wasn’t a famous rabbi or scholar, nor was it a well-known
politician coming to campaign in a neighborhood considered to be one of the
wealthiest enclaves of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews. In fact, it wasn’t a
person at all.

What arrived that day in April, looked more like a chic new restaurant:
It had polished wood floors, a newly remodeled interior with a red carpet
down the center of the floor, trees that provided each table with the
privacy that Orthodox Jews embrace while sitting down for a meal. And if
one walked by, it was hard to miss the smell of a freshly cooked meal
wafting through the air.

But what arrived wasn’t a restaurant either, and the guests who have
lined up daily for the last three years to receive a three-course meal, are
not Boro Park’s wealthy residents. They are the often overlooked residents
who live side by side the wealthy, but who often can’t afford to feed their
families. That first night, when Masbia-the only Kosher Soup Kitchen in New
York-opened its doors it welcomed its guests with a telling sign that is
still draped at the entrance. Masbia’s logo is an abstract rendition of
Abraham’s tent, which like Masbia, was open to anyone looking to enter.

To celebrate Masbia’s birthday, a number of musical entertainers are
serving food this month including world-renowned-cantor Yitchoke Meir
Helfgot, singers like Sruly Williger, Michoel Schnitzler, Ari Teitelbaum of
Neginah Orchestra, and Music Producer Gershy Moskowitz.

That first night, three years ago, eight people showed up at Masbia to
eat. Today, the kitchen serves 160 meals, five nights a week. Poverty has
been steadily growing. Rents and the price of Kosher food are climbing. And
most families pay enormous fees to send their kids to yeshiva.

Not a week goes by when Alexander Rapaport, who co-founded Masbia with
Mordechai Mandelbaum, doesn’t see a member of his community searching
through the garbage bins. The problems in Borough Park are part of a larger
Brooklyn phenomena. The number of Brooklynites who experienced difficulty
affording needed food increased by 75% between 2003 and 2006.

About 84% of the households receiving food stamps used them up within
three weeks and had to turn to soup kitchens or food pantries for the last
part of the month, according to recent studies.

And during the last year, 52% of Brooklyn`s emergency food providers
have run out of food at one time or another. And all of the agencies are
appealing for help.

Walking into the soup kitchen on any given night, no one would guess
the hardships involved with keeping a soup kitchen of this kind running.
And thanks to the charitable support of many community members, Masbia has
not only managed to stay above the fray, but offers services of the highest
quality– lavish meals in the most comfortable and respectful setting.
While others go on holiday, Masbia never takes a vacation. They are open
come rain or shine, including the holidays.

Masbia was founded by few individuals who believed that the rich in the
community would jump to support an organization like this, and that’s
exactly what happened, said Rapaport. “Donors pushed us to be open on the
holidays, they brought the money forward to make us open on the holidays,”
Rapaport said. “We want to be open 24/7 we just need the money to be able
to do it.”

And anyone who has had the pleasure of being at Masbia over the
holidays, knows they are served only the best. On these nights the cost of
meals drastically jumps. Whereas regular daily meals cost roughly $6 per
person, the holiday equivalent would cost $80 in any New York restaurant.

“Those who come for a hot meal will be getting the best of the best,”
said Rapaport. “Because there is often shame in coming to a soup kitchen,
it should at least be worth it and we want people to feel very good coming
here. But more than that our donors want us to go all the way-they don’t
want to sponsor a skimpy soup, they want to sponsor the best.”

Increasing demand, and the success of the Masbia model has recently led
Rapaport to decide to expand. He is in the process of opening a second
venue in the Williamsburg neighborhood.

Part of Masbia’s success is a result of Rapaport’s enterprising spirit.
Always on the prowl for new ideas, Rapaport has found new and creative ways
to get the community involved. At the heart of this is the belief that
spreading the word of this one-of-a-kind organization is the key to public
support. Rapaport uses every opportunity he gets to inform people through
the media of the growing poverty among orthodox Jews. Just this past winter
Masbia was featured in articles in the New York Daily News three times, on
the Reuters News Bill-Boards in Times-Square, News 12 TV, the Jewish Week
and the Jerusalem Post and local Jewish media including Hamodia and Der
Yid. Recently Rapaport outdid himself with a video-live actors and all-
that documents a new trend in the community intimately connected to the
soup kitchen.

Today, much of Masbia’s funding comes from an unlikely source.
Unlikely, that is, by modern standards. These days, brides and grooms on
the verge of getting married make sure to pay a visit to Masbia before they
tie the knot. The founders have found a way to resurrect an “old world”
ritual and at the same time ensure that supply at Masbia never stops.

Today, most of their $500 thousand annual budget comes from newlyweds
and their parents, who thank God by sponsoring a meal at the soup kitchen
in the days before the wedding celebration.

“The most appropriate thing to do before my wedding was to pay for a
hot meal,” said Mr. Neuman, a Borough Park resident, less than a week after
he got married. “This is the way to give gratitude to God and let the poor
join in my simcha.”

To sponsor an entire night costs $960, which comes out to roughly $6
per meal.

The tradition dates back to the “old world” where the custom was to
sponsor a “poor man’s meal” in the days before the wedding. The Talmud and
Midrash relate stories where giving to the poor at the time of the wedding
saved the couple from potential harm. What evolved from that was a
tradition of giving to the less fortunate as part of the pre-wedding
ritual.

“When Europe was still a bustling Jewish center, everyone made a poor
man’s wedding for poor people to have good meal,” said Neuman.

In America that tradition largely faded. But Masbia has found a way to
bring it back in style.

“If tomorrow will be the day I rejoice the most, at least let others
less fortunate rejoice with me,” said Neuman, who came to Masbia dressed in
his wedding garb. “On my wedding I spend time with my family and friends,
but at Masbia I am with klal Israel.”

During Passover Masbia was closed in the past, but this year “Bikur
Cholim” of Boro Park and MASBIA Soup Kitchen jointly served hundreds of Hot
Kosher for Passover meals on 10th Ave next to MMC to the families of the
sick and to the needy of Boro Park. Twice a day the store front was open
for guest. Yom-Tov meals included Matzah, eggs, fish, soup, chicken,
Kugels, top quality fruits & vegetables, nuts, cookies, water bottles,
seltzer and grape juice, Seder Platters and more. All of the kashrus
directories were available for those needing medication. People from all
walks of life, rich and poor, singles and mothers with children, Elderly
with their spouses, or others with family in the hospital, all were able to
get a warm Pesach meal at the “Bikur- Cholim annex”. Partitions were
available for who wanted to lead their own Seudah.