First ‘Soup Kitchen’ For Jewish Needy Opens In Boro Park

Boro Park, Brooklyn enjoys an international reputa-tion as one of the wealthiest enclaves of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews in America, but it is precisely because of this reputation that it also serves as a magnet for the “hidden poor” - marginal, homeless, transient and immigrant Jews who live on the fringes of the society, panhandle on its streets, and turn to individuals for charity and an occasional Sabbath meal. Up until now, there has been - despite an extensive and impressive network of institutions that address other social welfare needs of the neighborhood - no concerted or organized effort to reach out to Boro Park’s subculture of drifters and vagabonds, which has grown significantly alongside the community. Although “free soup kitchens were standard features of the European shtetl, the concept never made it across the Atlantic together with the transplanted Jewish remnants of the Holocaust. Two Reform Jewish agencies do operate free soup kitchens once a week in Manhattan, but they are mainly geared toward the city’s “minority” populace, with clearly differentiated needs from those of Orthodox Jews, who require rabbinically supervised kosher food.

For 28 years - since the beggining of his marriage - Mordechai Mandelbau has opened his home to Brooklyn’s needy. Baalei tesuva (returnees to Judaisim) newcomers to Boro Park, temporarily dislocated and financially strapped residents, the permantley homeless, immigrants from Russia and Israel, the newly divorced, widowed and orphaned - all made their way to his home for succor and a hearty meal. As a result of his own personal experience and firsthand knowledge, Mr Mandelbaum recognized the great need that the overwhelming numbers of the Jewish rootless represented and he vowed to respond to this void.

On Sunday, April 3, 2005, the doors of “MASBIA” - Brooklyn’s first and only strictly kosher free soup kitchen - were opened and Mr Mandelbaums dream and mission were finally fullfilled.

According toj Sender Rappaport, Executive Director of “MASBIA” “tens of thousands of dollars” and “painstaking detail” have been poured into refurbishing the soup kitchen so that it closely resembles a first class dining establishment. “We wont our ‘patrons’ to dine in attractive and immaculate surroundings, where they will be accorded the utmost dignity and respect. We wont them to feel as if they are being seved in an elegant restaurant, without having to foot the expensive bill”.

Mr Rapparport was quick to point out that the soup kitchen will not only cater to the neighborhoods poor, but will also serve as the focal point for the “meshulachim” - visitors from Israel and abroad who come to Brooklyn to fund-raise for various charitable organizations back home and must live frugally on limited living expence. “Everyone will be warmly welcomed at “MASBIA”, Mr Rappaport declared. “We will not inquire into peoples personal histories or their reasons for coming to our establishment. As it says in the Passover Haggadah, “Kol Dichfin Yaytzei V’Yachol” - “Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat.”

“MASBIA” will operate daily from Sunday - Thursday, 4-9 p.m. And is located at 4114 14th Avenue in Boro Park, Brooklyn.