GLENCOE – This year, as they have for the past 14 years, the students of Jordan Elementary Community School in Chicago will start the school year with brand new school supplies provided by the members of North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe.
“Operation Backpack” was founded in 2001 by congregation member Lois Scheyer as an effort to help the approximately 550 students at the Rogers Park school, nearly all of whom are from low income families.
Scheyer had been a volunteer at the Jordan School and realized that the children had virtually no school supplies. “So I called my friends, and we got together to help,” she said. “It is a tremendous emotional experience for the children,” Scheyer continued. “They have so many pressures outside of school. At least this is one thing we are able to relieve.”
North Shore Synagogue Provides School Supplies
to Students at Rogers Park SchoolWhat: Operation Backpack
When: Sunday, Aug. 30, at 9 a.m.
Where: North Shore Congregation Israel
1185 N. Sheridan Rd.
Glencoe, IL 60022
According to Scheyer, it costs approximately $30 to provide yearly school supplies for one child. She writes personal letters seeking donations from congregation members. Several members of Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka also contribute, Scheyer said.
All the supplies are purchased at WalMart, which allows Scheyer to buy unlimited quantities of special priced items. Scheyer said she buys 25 different items, including notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, highlighters and erasers. She said she also buys prime brands, like Crayola.
Because Scheyer has been such a successful fundraiser, extra money collected goes into an enrichment fund for the students. The fund is used for field trips to museums, boat trips and even the Lyric Opera.
This year, the students will sign a pledge to “pay it forward,” according to Scheyer. “When the students are grown up and able to afford it, we are asking them to contribute to another child in need because they know how important it was for them,” she said.
On Sunday, Aug. 30, volunteers will meet at the synagogue to pack the supplies and deliver them to the Jordan school. Congregation members Chadd and Susan Berkun will coordinate the effort, along with the synagogue’s teen youth group.
The event this year is part of a weekend-long celebration of the installation of a new senior rabbi at North Shore Congregation Israel. Rabbi Wendi Geffen, 40, will become the ninth senior rabbi – and the first female one – in the synagogue’s 95-year history. Geffen, who is originally from Dallas, has served the prominent reform synagogue in Glencoe since her rabbinic ordination in 2002.
Geffen was selected to head the congregation of 1,350 families after a year-long nationwide search. The congregation’s choice follows a trend among reform synagogues across the country that are seeking to strengthen their reach in and more fully engage the communities they serve.
In addition to Operation Backpack, synagogue members will participate in several other social justice projects that highlight Geffen’s priority of service to the community, including providing meals for families in need.
Those activities are very much in keeping with the spirit that Geffen embodies – engaging with synagogue members as well as the greater community, according to congregation president Jody Weinberg.
“Rabbi Geffen believes the Jewish tenet of ‘repairing the world’ to be a critical part of living a Jewish life,” Weinberg said.
Geffen will lead one of the largest congregations in the Chicago area. She is one of only five young female rabbis nationwide to head synagogues with memberships that exceed 1,000 families.
– Submitted by North Shore Congregation Israel
Please click here to read a Daily North Shore story about Wendi Geffen from August 4, 2015.