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Shoshana Akabas Barzel, the founder and govt director of New Neighbors Partnership, a non-profit that welcomes refugee households by matching them with native households, was chosen as one of many New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch (previously 36 Underneath 36). This distinction honors leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers who’re making a distinction in New York’s Jewish neighborhood. Akabas Barzel lives on the Higher West Facet.
For the total checklist of this yr’s “36ers,” click on right here.
New York Jewish Week: Inform us a bit of bit about your work.
Barzel: New Neighbors Partnership reimagines in-kind donations by turning what is generally a one-time blind donation right into a long-standing relationship between households. On this mannequin, newly arrived households are matched with native households who’ve barely older youngsters, so garments go instantly from the native households which have them to the refugee households that want them. By matching households, we guarantee newly arrived households may have a supply of youngsters’ garments for years to come back. After three years of working this program as a neighborhood initiative on the aspect of my instructing and writing job at Columbia College, I turned it right into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We’ve welcomed greater than 350 youngsters from 34 international locations with over 1,500 clothes packages.
How does your Jewish id or expertise affect your work?
The Jewish worth of welcoming the stranger was instilled in me from a younger age, so my work at New Neighbors Partnership looks like a pure extension of that basis.
Was there a formative Jewish expertise that influenced your life path?
One expertise was attending Beit Rabban, a pluralistic Jewish day college that was so welcoming and open, and ready college students to be deep thinkers and artistic downside solvers.
What’s your favourite place to eat Jewish meals in New York?
My grandmother’s home!
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