A Year with the Gemilut Hasadim Closet

On Wednesday, August 2, a few BZBI congregants and one of our Tikkun Olam leaders, Alyssa Bailkin, gathered in the Spruce Street entrance to open the Gemilut Hasadim Closet. Our Gemilut Hasadim Closet, otherwise known as our Caring Closet, is a monthly pop-up distribution center for toiletries and other daily necessities for Philadelphia residents in need. For one hour on the first Wednesday of every month, the doors on Spruce Street open to allow people “shop” and take what they need. The Closet was created and organized by Alyssa and has been part of BZBI’s growing, congregant-led effort to engage in Tikkun Olam, a way to make the world more just for its inhabitants.

This Wednesday was BZBI’s twelfth iteration of this monthly event, marking a year of successfully distributing goods collected by the congregation to our local community. The Gemilut Hasadim closet has been steadily evolving from the first time it opened its doors on September 6, 2016. Every month, our volunteers get a better sense of what people are truly looking for, adding things like socks to the assorted items on their table.

The congregation has been essential in allowing the Closet to expand, providing enough donations to expand the endeavor past the BZBI walls. After a full year, Alyssa, aided by the overflow of donations, is planning to grow the Closet by sending a portion of our collection to other local distributions centers. So far, Old Pine Community Center and Mercy Hospice have received some our donations, but Alyssa’s always on the lookout for organizations she can help.

Tikkun Olam can be be a global concept, but for us at BZBI it starts locally, with our neighbors in need, and grows from there. We’re happy to have such dedicated congregants to make our efforts to improve the world grow every day. Here’s to another year of the Gemilut Hasadim Closet! We’re excited to see how it continues to evolve.

If you know of any organizations that would benefit from the Gemilut Hasadim closet, please reach out to Alyssa. And of course, if you’re interested in volunteering or donating to the Gemilut Hasadim Closet, we’d be happy to have your help—right now we’re looking to grow our collection, so if you go on vacation, try to pick up as many travel sized soaps and shampoos as you can! If you have your own ideas for how to make the world a better place, join the discussion in the BZBI Tikkun Olam Google Group or reach out to Terri.