Professor, wife pass along program to provide for kids
Three Washington
and Lee University students left Wal-Mart two weeks ago with armloads of
bags containing $175 worth of pink garments.
They were purchased for a kindergarten girl from Natural Bridge
identified as “needy” by her teacher.
“All her sneakers were duct-taped together,” said Arie George, a W&L
senior who helped with the shopping. “She almost had nothing to wear.
The feelings we got were that everything she had was very tattered and
very dirty.”
Hillel co-President Whitney Rothstein displays the group's purchases for one local girl. Photo courtesy of Joan Robins of W&L Hillel.
The trip to Wal-Mart marked the first time students from
Hillel, a Jewish organization at W&L, took full ownership of the “Novack
Fund,” an initiative aimed at meeting the needs of poor children in the
area. It was started in December by W&L Sociology Professor David Novack
and his wife, Lesley, with a $10,000 endowment from Novack’s brother,
Kenneth, a securities attorney in Boston.
Each year, the endowment produces about $500 to buy necessities like
clothing for impoverished children. The endowment operates through W&L.
Typically, the university requires a minimum of $50,000, but it made an
exception provided the minimum be raised eventually, Novack said.
Novack said he wanted the initiative, the David and Lesley Novack Fund
for Jewish Responsibility, to be run by students in Hillel to emphasize
the sense of social responsibility and service that is central to the
Jewish faith.
This central precept of the faith is called tzedakah in Hebrew, a word
with “justice” in its root and meaning more than just charity. This
responsibility and service is often performed anonymously, and is an
obligation of all, not just the well-off.
Novack said he hopes students will realize how rewarding such acts are,
and will be able to carry those values with them after college. To do
that, he said, it is important that his role be one of an adviser
instead of an active participant.
“We decided it was better for us to be supportive,” he said. “We want to
treat our students as responsible adults.”
Hillel will begin to identify needy children by establishing contacts
with teachers throughout the county, though Novack said there is no
formal mechanism in place yet to do that. He said he assumes students
will initiate contact with local schools to discuss the fund.
Novack said he and his wife began giving out-of-pocket to a few children
in the area when they established contact with a local teacher who is a
friend of their daughter.
“We have learned of individual children who have had some very difficult
times,” Novack said. One of the first children he and his wife helped
wore tattered clothing and shoes that were in poor condition.
“The little girl had trouble understanding how the [new] clothing was
really for her,” Novack said.
He stressed how sensitive one must be when donating items.
“You don’t want the parents of the child to think it’s some sort of
charity case,” he said. Instead, he said, the donated clothing was given
to the children as a prize or reward for winning a competition at
school. He said this is a “way that is helpful but not demeaning.”
Privacy policies restrict students from interacting with the needy
children they help, but they can learn about them and their reactions to
the donations through teachers.
After the teacher picked up the clothes the three students bought at
Wal-Mart, George got an e-mail from her. It said the little girl was
excited about her new wardrobe.
She was telling everyone how pretty the clothes were. She was happy.
George felt moved as well, he said, “that I had something to do with
that.”
Graham Sheridan, a freshman at W&L and Hillel’s vice president of
community service, said he thinks the initiative has solid goals and
direction.
“The clothes obviously won’t fit that girl forever,” he said. “She’ll
grow and need clothes again, [but] we’re all trying to do a little bit
to help people.”
Novack said that as the endowment grows he sees more needs being met in
the county.
“Our long-term goal had been to set up something … to allow this giving
to continue.”
W&L Hillel
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Brian Richardson
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd