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Masbia soup kitchen started as a grassroots charity to feed the hungry. Over the past five years since we opened, we have served over 250,000 meals which means thousands of people (many of them children) have gone to bed with food in their stomachs, full and content. During the current trying times, MASBIA increased its efforts and opened three additional sites with the hope that people like you would join us in our efforts.
Keeping our doors open is an everyday struggle. We need to raise tens of thousands of dollars weekly to meet the demand. Your help is needed now more than ever as the amount of people who come through our doors keeps on growing. Without Masbia's emergency meals, people would go hungry every day, families would go to bed with their stomachs growling. Donate to Masbia so together we can make a difference in their lives.
Founder Profiles.
Honoree President – Mordechai Mandelbaum
Masbia President Mordechai Mandelbaum has been feeding the hungry out of his home for many years. Described by friends as a man of modest means, Mordechai and his wife have always been active in chessed and always ready to lend a hand to the poor and downtrodden.
For over 30 years – the Mandelbaums have opened their home to Brooklyn’s needy. Baalei tesuva (returnees to Judaism) newcomers to Boro Park, temporarily dislocated and financially strapped residents, the homeless, immigrants from Russia and Israel, divorced, widowed and orphaned - all make their way to his home for kind words of support and hearty meals. As a result of his own personal experience and firsthand knowledge, Mr. Mandelbaum recognized the great need that the overwhelming numbers of the Jewish poor 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 the Mandelbaums’ dream and mission was finally being fulfilled.
The Masbia Soup Kitchen was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Mandelbaum’s late father Leib Mandelbaum. Reb Leibele, as he was affectionately known, was known by all for his great charitable and chesed works. These traits were passed on to his children, in particular to his son Reb Mordechai, a man with a golden heart of his own, who together with his wife are committed to helping their fellow man. After his father's passing, he dedicated now famous "Masbia Soup Kitchen" as an appropriate memorial to his father's works of chesed and good deeds.
Co founder - Alexander Rapaport.
Masbia Director Alexander Rapaport is known in the community as the go-to guy for getting projects off the ground and getting them to run efficiently. After a few years of running a charity that helps the poor in Israel, Mr. Rapaport had a vision for a restaurant styled soup kitchen in Brooklyn to feed the hungry and poor kosher meals in a dignified manner. With the initial founding grant provided by Mordechai Mandelbaum who had dreamed of establishing a soup kitchen for years, Mr. Rapaport set out to make that vision a reality.
Knowing each other for a few months that Mr. Rapaport was renting an office space from Mr. Mandelbaum they started to study Talmud together for an hour or two daily. By spending a lot of time together they exchanged philosophies and ideas. But this idea just stuck around for weeks until one day they decided to make it an actuality.
After witnessing people eating at a local synagogue snack room, Mr. Rapaport realized the need for a place where poor men, women and children can eat nourishing kosher meals daily. Not just some snacks provided by the synagogue for the men who come to pray. What about the women and children who don’t usually attend the synagogue on weekdays? Where do they eat?
Mr. Rapaport, never one sit idle, immediately got to work on the Masbia project. He found a partner in Mordechai Mandelbaum who provided the initial cash for the project. Mr. Rapaport worked tirelessly and went all out for Masbia. He had a storefront business converted into a soup kitchen and worked with contactors, architects and interior designers to make the Masbia soup kitchen be a welcoming and comfortable place for the Masbia guests. On Sunday, April 3, 2005, “MASBIA” - Brooklyn’s first and only kosher free soup kitchen opened its doors. Mr. Rapaport personally welcomed and served Masbia guests.
His friends marvel at his accomplishments, at the time of Masbia’s founding he was 25 years old and now still runs a few other charity projects as well as the Masbia Soup Kitchen, all the while still operating a full service marketing consulting business with an impressive list of clients.
To his father Joseph Rapaport, this is no surprise. As a little kid he used to organize carnivals to raise funds for his school’s library project and other worthy causes. Alexander Rapaport attended the Viznitz Yeshiva in Israel and lives in Boro Park, Brooklyn with his wife and 4 children.
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