What does Colonel Stephen Bernstein of the US Army have in common with two women in Rockland County, NY?
Sara Fuerst and Ava Hamburger, both of Sephardic heritage started an organiation that has been sending food and holiday baskets to US soldiers for the past couple of years.Colonel 
Bernstein is a recipent of one of these baskets.
What started out as a small bat mitzvah project turned into a full time organization that reaches a few hundred troops and service members around the world. Each holiday, Ava and Sara collect money, food and letters from local schools. The two women carefully pack everything and send packages to Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea or wherever else a Jewish soldier might be 
stationed. The packages also contain siddurim, mezuzot, tzitzit, popcorn makers and coffee makers. Sara and Ava even sent a tallis and tefillin to a soldier in Pakistan.
The funding for most of the items comes from friends, neighbors and other generous members of the community.
As word gets out that there is a source for kosher food and Jewish-related articles their list of service members grows.
Recently, Sara and Ava were more than pleasantly surprised when they opened a package postmarked “Iraq,” Colonel Bernstein and the soldiers at Camp Taji sent them each an American flag that had been flown over the skies of Baghdad, as a token of appreciation for the support that Koshertroops has given them over the past couple of years.
To spread the word and share what they do they have set up a website: www.koshertoops.com. They are preparing for the High Holidays and invite individuals, businesses, schools and communities to visit their website and partner with them in this great mitzvah.
