Colel Chabad’s Together We Rise Concert

One night in Deal can turn music into hesed and meals for families across Israel

On Thursday, July 30, the community will gather for the annual Colel Chabad Deal Concert, An evening of family and music that turns generosity into hesed, meals, groceries, and care for families, seniors, widows, orphans, and children across Eretz Yisrael. Last year’s “Am Yisrael Chai” concert showed how much one night can do. This summer, the community is coming together to do it again.

To understand what that support makes possible, consider a single kitchen in Ashdod. It began when Albert and Claudette Savdie visited Colel Chabad’s Pantry Packers with their family and asked the organization’s director, Rabbi Sholom Duchman, a simple question: was there something they could help with? There was.
A small soup kitchen in Ashdod was feeding about a hundred people a day, and with the right support, it could feed five hundred. Albert shared the need with his family, and within an hour, the entire amount was donated. Today, that kitchen carries the name of the grandmother whose Shabbat table they all grew up around, Nona Fortunee, and it serves hundreds of hot meals each day.
“Every dollar you give to Colel Chabad, every check you write, is spent beautifully,” Albert says. “It’s going where it needs to go.”
Nona’s Kitchen is one story among thousands. Founded in 1788, Colel Chabad is Israel’s oldest continuously operating charity, and it now supports 42,000 families through monthly food assistance. As sirens sounded across Israel throughout the year, that same network reached the most vulnerable within days, delivering hot meals to thousands of homebound Holocaust survivors and turning empty daycare centers in sixteen cities into overnight shelters where elderly residents could eat, rest, and feel safe.
Many families in the Syrian community first met Colel Chabad through Pantry Packers, where volunteers pack essentials for families and seniors throughout Israel. The work is simple, and its impact is lasting. Few say it better than Eli Braha of West Long Branch, who packed food there for his Bar Mitzvah project. “Don’t be afraid to raise money. Ask many people, and you’ll be surprised by what you get,” he says. “Everyone wants to help. They just need that opportunity.”
That instinct to help is something the Syrian community has long been known for. When there is a need, they respond. The Edelstein Family, the Zaytoune Family, Mayor Sam Cohen, Commissioner David Simhon, and many others have made this work possible. They are part of something every family here can take pride in. It is a tradition of giving where generosity comes naturally, family and faith come first, and helping another Jew is simply who we are.
That is what Thursday, July 30, is really about. The music and the energy fill one beautiful evening, but the impact is felt far beyond it, in the home of an elderly person receiving a hot meal, in the kitchen of a family that now has food for Shabbat, in the heart of a widow who feels remembered, and in the life of a child who feels cared for.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, July 30, and join Colel Chabad for an evening that turns music into meals and brings warmth from Deal to homes across Eretz Yisrael.
To purchase tickets for the Colel Chabad Deal Concert, visit www.colelchabad.events/img or scan the QR code. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Rabbi Efraim Duchman at 718-676-8109.