Jewish Family In Texas Converts Yarmulkes To Face Masks For Homeless Community

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A Jewish family in Houston is turning yarmulkes into face masks for their town’s homeless population to wear during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jason family has already collected nearly 700 from donations and has dubbed their campaign “Kippahs to the Rescue.”

The family has collected many yarmulkes from various events over the years.

“We decided to put them to good use,” said teenager Matthew Jason, the youngest of three brothers. He and his brother Jeremy were already volunteering every Friday in downtown Houston with the organization Food Not Bombs, a nonprofit that feeds the hungry, before they started their new effort.

The family’s synagogue, Congregation Brith Shalom, is helping to collect yarmulkes and set up a drive-through collection box at the temple so congregants could drop off unwanted ones.

To make the face masks, the family has been sewing six-inch elastic strips to both sides of a kipah to anchor it around the ears. They later switched to clipping the bands since it is faster and just as sturdy. Food Not Bombs is helping hand out the masks to those in need.

“My parents, brothers and I worked very hard to sew elastic bands on them. It was so great to see how I was able to help out, and people were so appreciative,” said Matthew. “There’s a lot of people out there that really need help and anything can help even in the smallest way.”

(JNS)

{Matzav.com}


12 COMMENTS

  1. Take down this article. It reeks of the implication that a yarmulka is better used as a face mask than as a head covering.

    Congregation Brith Shalom is a Conservative synagogue and should be noted as such in the article. I’d guess the majority of readers, when reading the article, imagines a synagogue that is k’das Moshe Veyisroel, not a non-Orthodox group.

  2. Problem: these homemade masks (it is the same for all other similar homemade masks made by well-meaning people of any religious opinion) not only will hardly filter, but, especially when used incorrectly by people who have not been trained with PPE, will grow viruses and bacteria, maybe not COVID-19 but surely the user’s own (we all have, even when healthy) and they may cause problems, say, the flu or cold, or even a toothache or gastrointestinal symptoms. Not to mention that at this time, anyone with respiratory tract symptoms is suspected of COVID19 (it is proven that the new virus can coexist with other viruses, including the old coronaviruses) which means likelyhood to catch the virus in the covid ward.
    Is there a MD who could reach out to them and gently explain?

  3. So he is conservative…hitler would have came for him too….he is a yid who is doing chesed and making a kiddish hashem in the side …..all those “predicting” mashiach should remember that just as sinas chinum destroyed the beis hamikdadh ahavas chinam will bring it back!!!!

  4. Negative posters, have you considered that maybe Hashem is sending all of us a message that if we don’t open our hearts to make space for ahavas Yisroel then stay home in isolation?
    This family had a lot of unused yarmulkas sitting around and thought of how to put them to good use in a way that helps those who can’t help themselves. Why is it absurd and a misdefined kiddush Hashem? Where does it impy that a yarmulka is better used as a face mask than as a head covering? This boy says that they wear kippot and that these were extras sitting around from various occasions. This is not about giving a hechscher to the synagogue or its hashkafa – it’s irrelivent to the message that it simply highlighting a family doing innovative chessed. It is incumbent upon us to see the good in every Yid no matter what his religious affiliation. Middah k’negged middah – if Hashem were to put every action of yours under a microscope, how would you come out? 100% l’shem shomayim with no cheshbon of ego? Having full kavana for every bracha and tefilla? How about looking at others with an ayin tova and giving them credit for thinking of others?! In this area, this family might get a higher mark than you. There are taryag mitzvos and we are measured for each and every one. Giving tzedaka doesn’t compensate for bittul Torah, keeping Shabbos doesn’t compensate for pushing ahead of someone at the supermarket. Each mitzva and aveira is meticulously measured…

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