JFS brought love and light to 27 children during Hanukkah 2024. The Hanukkah Gift Program has been around since 1993 and started out with providing gifts to families who were clients of the agency. In 2005, we expanded the program to the entire community.
This program is one of the fun events that take place at JFS! Our social workers are often supporting people through life’s transitions, and Hanukkah is a nice change for our social workers to be involved in simply spreading joy.
As the program coordinator, my position carries a unique perspective on the program. I am involved in every aspect of the program including identifying families, gathering wish lists, working with donors, receiving the gifts and the joy of watching the families receive the gifts. I have the pleasure of witnessing the joy it brings to everyone involved.
The JFS Hanukkah gift program is unique in many ways. The aspect I am most proud of is the integrity it holds for everyone involved. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance, so the social workers are the only ones who have access to the list of families. The gifts purchased by the donors are non-identifying as well as the donors' identities are held in confidence. We try to assign donors to families that do not attend the same synagogue or schools as to avoid a donor recognizing the coat or shoes they purchased for a child. We truly preserve the family's privacy in any way we can.
Our program is unique in that we gather wish lists from the parents. Many holiday programs do not allow the parents to ask for gifts and they simply can have the opportunity to pick out a few gifts amongst generic gifts for their child. We do it this way to preserve the dignity of the parents by allowing them to give gifts that are meaningful and relevant to their child. The gifts are given to the parents unwrapped so the parents themselves can wrap them and present them to their child. The children are not aware that JFS is involved. By allowing the parents to submit a wish list, it not only alleviates the financial stress during holiday time, but it ensures that the family is not disrupted in any way.
My position within this program is heartwarming. From the first call to a struggling parent, to the excited donors who wants to help, meeting with a donor parent with their child to receive the gifts and spending a few minutes explaining the program to the child (a future Mensch) and to seeing the grateful parents pick up the gifts. I witness joy in every step of the program. The program is intense for a period of 6 weeks, and I am exhausted at the end but the joy I get from the program and knowing that the families are having a good holiday, is worth its weight in gold.
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