Beyond the Funds: Boro Park’s Legendary Kimcha d’Pischa

As we approach Pesach, we turn our focus to the incredible phenomenon that is unique to this Yom Tov, more than any other; our overflowing desire to assist our less fortunate brethren to make Pesach with a feeling of freedom.

 Although the aura of chessed and tzeddakah personifies Boro Park—and those Boro Parkers who are not on the receiving end, R”l, are certainly on the giving end of Pesach funds; there are no neutral people—there is still one legendary kimcha d’pischa fund that the vast majority of Boro Parkers are familiar with.

 The Shomrei Shabbos Shul’s Pesach campaign.

 The congregation now marks its centennial—100 years since its establishment by the Shomrei Shabbos Yidden of old Boro Park—and this tradition is probably likewise as old. But the one who has made this fund famous is the unforgettable Reb Hillel Moses, sheyichye.

 Although he has curtailed some of his exhaustive schedule at Shomrei Shabbos— which he carried out with such fierce dedication for forty years (!), this is one custom that the indefatigable Reb Hillel refuses to give up standing so he stands there at the bimah—a microphone in one hand and the yellowed receipt book in the other—never tiring of making his exhortation about the needy Yidden of Boro Park is one that will never be erased from our minds.

 Now, the younger ones among us may not remember the days before Shomrei Shabbos modernized, and installed digital screens. But for many of us, entering Shomrei Shabbos for a tefillah meant that your eyes wandered to the bulletin boards, where the names of the donors carefully written out in beautiful calligraphy, between the penciled lines.

 But the need unfortunately still exists, and the campaign must go on.

 Reb Hillel—like his namesake—has taught us patience and giving. The lesson of his forty years at his post inspires and obligates us all—and his plea to help our fellow Yidden for  Pesach will reverberate for many years to come in our Boro Park shtetl.

 “Beyond the…” series goes behind the sites, sounds, establishments and personalities of our Boro Park shtetl. Comments & suggestions welcome by email at [email protected]