8 Responses

1. the ad states bnei torah to let people know that there suits arent going to the salvation army or other non-frum orginazations but rather to frum bnei torah who just cant afford a new suit for yom tov

2. this is incredible chesed!!

3. can this be expanded to childrens clothing also?

4. They are an unbelievable organization and are mamish oskim b’tzorchei tzibur b’emunah! May they have much success in all their dealings!
   Tizku L’Mitzvos!

5. misterzee- there are a few children clothing gemachs in operation already . this is the first real mens suit resource for people who cant afford suits.

6. Would jackets only help? My husband has a few older, nice suits that the pants wore out, but the jackets are fine.

7. Just a few words on your gemach and on other childrens gemachs that are out there.
   You guys are doing incredible work. Hats off to you and much hatzlacha in this endeavor. In your quest to do chesed, please be careful to maintain everyone’s integrity and not to make people feel badly about asking for hand-me-downs.
   I had a question about who your intended recipients are and I wanted to share my experience with one of the local gemachs that I had, which was not so pleasant. The purpose of my telling it is to avoid the same embarrassment and shame that I felt to another person.
   As for your gemach, is it just for people who are in kollel and less fortunate and how exactly do you define those that are less fortunate? There are many frum people out there with large families. (ours included) Their husbands may not be in kollel. (Perhaps they learn b’chavrusa or go to a shiur.) The wife may even have a job to help feed the kids, pay the tuition and the rent.
   Large families don’t always have the means to buy clothing and would be very happy to accept a good hand-me-down. (However, I don’t think that these people feel less fortunate. On the contrary, they may feel more fortunate for being blessed with a large family.)
   I recently called one of these children’s gemachs to inquire if I may be able to receive some good hand-me-downs for my child. Since there are several years and a few children in between my youngest two girls I had given away most of the older child’s things to another family that needed it. My impression would be that if someone had something that another fellow yid could use, and they had no use for it, they would be happy to help them out and give it to someone that could use it.
   Let’s face it, it’s embarrassing enough to have to turn to a gemach. Can you imagine my horror when the woman on the phone started asking me, well, what does your husband do? I didn’t even tell her that we BOTH worked to keep up with the bills. Who knows, next she would ask for our tax returns and copies of our grocery bills. I politely told her that she could make a person feel badly with her inquiries and she started to explain that there are people who would take advantage and she doesn’t know me…… I said thanks but no thanks and hung up the phone.
   Anyway, yes, it is possible that people would look to take advantage. Anything is possible but shouldn’t that be on the recipient’s cheshbon?
   So thank you in advance for treating this new venture with sensitivity and if there are good children’s gemachs out there that don’t put people through the ringer if they ask for a hand-out, I think this would be a good place to list them.
   Kol Tuv and hatzlacha.

   PS – a word to #6 – I think good jackets would be great for boys who need a minyan jacket. (they always seem to lose them!) Maybe they can set up a seperate section for jackets only.

8. #7-less-fortunate is not reffering to the family in general but rather saying that they are not fortunate enough to be able to buy new suits for the whole family for yom tov and those who are able to buy should help those who arent. our gemach is mostly run through recomondations from people we know and rabbonim or community leaders, so therefore there is no questioning to the recipients and they are treated with the utmost kavod