Utah's Jews and Muslims reach out to seniors, refugees on Christmas

Jessica Ravitz - In the Salt Lake Tribune 12/26.07
Article Last Updated: 12/26/2007 07:34:58 AM MST
Sofiya Erenkrants padded down the Preston Place hallway in her housecoat and slippers before peering around the corner to see what all the hubbub was about. Two girls pushing a shopping cart full of wrapped boxes were knocking on doors but going the wrong direction. She wanted in on the action. "Is this for everyone?" she called out in a thick Russian accent. "Of course," the girls yelled back. "We're coming to you, too." About 300 volunteers from the Jewish, Muslim and other communities were out in force Tuesday, bringing Christmas to those in the Salt Lake Valley who wouldn't have it otherwise. The organization, calling itself Shalom/Salaam Shalom/Salaam Tikkun~Olam Tikkun~Olam - meaning peace (Hebrew/Arabic) and repairing the world (Hebrew) - mobilized, in about six weeks, a massive effort to reach homebound seniors and new refugee families. By day's end, they visited more than 620 seniors and 50 families (one with 25 members) from, among other places, Somalia and Burma. Salt Lake City's Rowland Hall-St. Mark's Middle School, which offered space for the project, was an explosion of activity Monday and Tuesday as volunteers scrambled to organize and prepare for the task at hand. There were donated baked goods, jams, towels, hats, shoes, boots, backpacks, purses, hygiene kits, boxes of fruit and bins of toys. The Soup Kitchen gave 600-plus containers of soup. Congregation Kol Ami prepared salads and 1,300 brownies. The Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake offered large bags of basmati rice. Tommy Hilfiger in Park City donated T-shirts for teens. The Utah Transit Authority chipped in 400 tokens and maps. Add to that blankets and clothing from the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City, 400 coats from Les Schwab, and more. And there was an overwhelming amount more. "I don't even know whose coffee this is," said a frazzled and sleep-deprived Eileen Hallet Stone, one of the chief organizers, before taking a swig. Hers was the kind of stress that comes with a new undertaking. For the past 16 years, the Jewish community (and, as of about seven years ago, area Muslims) has served the homeless on Christmas Day at Salt Lake City's St. Vincent de Paul Center. But in recent years, organizers began to feel less relevant. So many groups were clamoring to reach - even seemingly compete for - the homeless, that Stone said they realized they were "feeding people who'd already eaten and throwing parties for kids who'd already had parties." So this year, they decided to try something new. They had visited seniors in years past, but this time they would focus solely on the invisible, going out to those who weren't sufficiently on others' radar screens. A big part of this would be welcoming refugee families, many of whom are experiencing their first winter in sandals. "I grew up as an immigrant in San Francisco, and this really would have helped," said Lucille Hesse-Gebhardt, a volunteer who remembers feeling like an outsider. "We would have felt less isolated." To help make this part of the project happen, Sami Safiullah, a junior at West High, sought out names. He reached out to an ESL teacher, got the school's Muslim Students Association involved and recruited "ambassadors" to help make connections, determine needs and serve as translators. The significance of Muslims and Jews working together wasn't lost on Safiullah, a committee member who is no stranger to the stories about conflicts between the two groups. "It's so nice to see we can come together as one community and make a difference," he said. Though spearheaded by Jews and Muslims, plenty of others learned about the project, mostly through word of mouth, and went to work. Leslie Strandgard and her husband, Don, of West Valley City, loaded up the kids and left the Christmas tree behind. "We wanted to show our children that Christmas is about more than receiving," she said. With Chantal, 15, and Joseph, 11, in tow, Strandgard wound through the hallways of the City Plaza complex, bearing gift boxes for seniors. Not everyone gave them face time, and some that did, maybe shouldn't have. "Well I haven't got my pants on," said one man, before swinging open his door, which left the kids in stitches and made doing good all the more interesting. Meeting new people - whether over food-sorting project or at front doors, sharing smiles and offering gifts of appreciation - that's what the day was meant to be. "To me, this is what the spirit of the Christmas season is about," said Deborah Milan-Niler, one of the committee members. "It's about bringing the people of Salt Lake together." jravitz@sltrib.com