Christmas used to be a dilemma. The staff at St. Joseph’s Family
Center wanted to spend time with their families, but there were
plenty of hungry people who depended on them for a warm holiday
meal.
Christmas used to be a dilemma. The staff at St. Joseph’s Family Center wanted to spend time with their families, but there were plenty of hungry people who depended on them for a warm holiday meal.
Enter Congregation Emeth. The social action committee from this local synagogue has been serving Christmas dinner at The Lord’s Table in Gilroy for the last five years, and this Christmas will be no exception.
“We expect to feed about 150 people,” said committee chairwoman Nancy Altman, a special education teacher at Britton Middle School. “It just seems like a good idea for the Jews to do something so the Christians can have the day with their family.”
The group, whose volunteer ranks include between 10 and 20 at-home cooks and another 20 servers, fires up the ovens at the Family Center around 9am for the dinner service between noon and 2pm.
They also decorate the room for the holiday, bringing in table decorations, a Christmas tree and even a Santa Claus for kids.
“Decorating Christmas trees isn’t really a strong point for Jews, but it’s our one point to get it right,” said Altman. “When we get to a point where we’re not sure, it’s kind of funny because we’re all kind of looking at one another and going ‘What now?’ We have enough people who’ve done it before or who come from mixed families that we tend to get it right.”
The group will hand out something more lasting than a hot meal this Christmas, too. Warm coats and socks collected as part of their clothing drive will be distributed, said Altman.
St. Joseph’s Family Center is a nonprofit organization that was founded by eight local churches in Gilroy.
They provide emergency assistance to people with immediate needs of food, shelter, clothing and other necessities.
Each month they aid more than 1,800 adults and children with food allotments and serve more than 16,800 hot meals a year.
For more information on the center, call (408) 842-6662.
Congregation Emeth is a Reform Synagogue in Gilroy.
Their social action committee takes interest in a variety of causes, from canned food drives to the adoption of Llagas Creek.
For more information on services or programs, call (408) 847-4111.
