Every so often I try to channel my friend and colleague Lois Caplan, who currently is busy traveling for the holidays and taking a short hiatus from her bi-monthly column. Lois, as most of you know, does a terrific job highlighting all sorts of worthwhile events and benefits of Jewish interest throughout the St. Louis area that otherwise might go unrecognized. When she takes a break, which goodness knows after five decades of writing she has earned the right to do, some of these happenings fall through the cracks. So in the spirit of Thanksgivukkah, and because Lois never fails to inspire me, here’s my best attempt to kibbutz à la Caplan, or in this case, futz with Futterman (I have no idea what that means but I like the alliteration).

Pies with a Purpose

In 1986, Congregation Temple Israel hosted its first Thanksgiving Eve Dinner for people in need.  Guests came from area social service agencies and from senior adult apartment communities including Covenant House/Chai and Crown Center.  The Thanksgiving dinner quickly became an annual tradition, both for more than 400 guests attending each year and for the 100-plus volunteers.  

This year, however, Temple Israel was faced with a dilemma, explains Carol Wolf Solomon, director of development and communications at TI.  Due to construction in the temple’s auditorium, there was no space to hold the dinner. Breaking with the tradition of serving those in need was not an option. So Rabbi Amy Feder met with congregants involved in planning last year’s Thanksgiving to brainstorm ideas. Then they consulted with Marcia Mermelstein, coordinator of the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry.

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Out of this brainstorming session, “Pies with a Purpose” was born. For the past few weeks, congregants have gathered in the TI kitchen to bake pumpkin pies for the food pantry. Sam Benoist, who will celebrate his bar mitzvah at TI this weekend, recruited 25 of his friends and relatives to join him in baking for his mitzvah project.

After six baking sessions, more than 500 homemade pumpkin pies were donated to the food pantry for families in need. Mermelstein says one man was moved to tears by the prospect of having a homemade pumpkin pie for his Thanksgiving dinner table. Pies with a Purpose Co-Chairs Ron and Sarah Falkoff added, “We are so glad that we were able to brighten the holiday season for so many people this year through our homemade pies.”

For the love of mom

It’s estimated that one out of five people in the United States has some form of arthritis; two-thirds are under the age of 65. That means about 11,000 of the St. Louis area’s Jewish population is afflicted. One of the three most common forms that strike younger people is Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), a systemic disease characterized by the inflammation of the membranes lining the joint. This causes pain, stiffness, warmth, swelling and sometimes severe joint damage.

Growing up, Amanda Sher watched her mother suffer daily with RA. “My mom is my everything,” says Amanda, who is an attorney and congregant of Temple Israel. “When she hurts, I hurt. I grew up watching her hurt. But to her credit, she never complained. Still, I knew she was in pain.”

Amanda also grew up watching her mother, Linda Sher, volunteer on behalf of numerous organizations. So when Amanda moved back to St. Louis after college, she wanted to mirror her mother’s efforts. Helping to champion advancements in arthritis, she says, made a lot of sense.

“It’s kept me going because I am determined that the day will come when my mother and other like her will not be in pain because of arthritis,” says Amanda, who adds that improvements in treatment over the past 20 years have greatly helped her mother and others. “That’s why I’m so determined to go even further,” she adds.

This year, Amanda is serving as the Auction Chair for the local Arthritis Foundation’s biggest fundraiser, the Silver Ball, which features dinner and dancing, silent and oral auctions and an awards ceremony. The black-tie gala will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 at the downtown Four Seasons Hotel. For more information and tickets, call Jan Bignall at 314-991-9333 or email [email protected].

Press on

Escape the January doldrums by joining the fun that’s sure to be the 2014 Media Person of the Year Gala. The Jan. 21 event will roast, I mean honor, Post-Dispatch veteran sportswriter and National Baseball Hall of FamerRick “The Commish” Hummel, along with iconic radio announcer and former St. Louis Cardinal Bob Uecker and Bob Duffy, formerly of the Post, now associate editor of the online St. Louis Beacon. Several heavy-hitters in the sports world (rumor has it that one of their names rhymes with pastas) will be among those roasting, I mean toasting, the honorees when the festivities begin at 6 p.m. at the Edward Jones Corporate Headquarters, 12555 Manchester Road in Des Peres. Proceeds go to funding scholarships and internships for future journalists, as well as grants for local enterprise journalism. The Jewish Light received one of these grants in 2010 for its award-winning “Hate Crimes” series. For more information, go to www.stlpressclub.org.