By selling lemony drinks during Temple Israel’s annual meeting and soliciting donations from synagogue members and preschool teacher/author Linda Glaser, Hebrew and B’nai Mitzvah students were able to send an abundance of hope and love to Pittsburgh.
From their lemonade and tea sales, the students sent $307 to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to help victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue and their families.
From their book donation effort and Linda’s generous match, they sent 58 copies of "Emma’s Poem” and “Hannah’s Way” to preschools and after-school programs in the Pittsburgh community to help children there learn about diversity and tolerance.
Linda’s books were named to the Association of Jewish Libraries’ first Love Your Neighbor List, which was created in response to the synagogue shooting and to rising anti-Semitism in the United States. The University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development distributed the books as part of a larger book drive it conducted.
In an e-mail, Roger Fustich, operations director of the Office of Child Development, wrote “We appreciate your generosity and kindness! We started our distribution last week and certainly received very positive feedback. …You, Linda Glaser, your students, and congregation are wonderfully compassionate. We love you.”
