Our History

All of us, at some point have cleaned out our closets and found that we posses perfectly good clothing that we simply don’t use.  We may have asked friends or relatives what to do with them and, if it didn’t take too much effort, we may have donated them to a charitable cause.  How the clothing is collected, packaged and distributed is something which we probably gave little thought.

In 2003, Karen (nee' Milch) Thaler, raised in Teaneck, NJ and currently a resident of Beitar Illit, Israel was back home with her young family visiting her parents, Jerry and Anita Milch.  There was some closet cleaning going on during the visit and Karen thought the clothing might be useful to some of her neighbors in Israel.  So she gave up some of her own shopping space and filled her suitcase with used clothing.  When she returned to Israel and began to distribute the clothing, she was surprised at the response.  People were accepting and wearing the clothing, and asking for more.  She suddenly realized that the need was even greater than she had originally anticipated.  On her next trip, Karen was visiting her Teaneck childhood friend, Jessica (nee’ Sosland) Katz, and they spoke about the project Karen that had embarked on.  It was clear that the need was larger than what could be provided for by occasional trips to the US and back.  Jessica thought that a clothing drive might help the situation.  So Jessica did what anyone in search of needed items does, she posted on a local Internet message board.  After posting a few messages and hanging up a few flyers, bags of clothing piled up on the Katz's front porch, Yad Leah was born.

Originally it began as a nice, small chesed project.  Today, three years later Yad Leah has become an organization with a mission to help address the massive affects of poverty by providing excellent quality, new and lightly used clothing and personal items to lower income communities.  Sadly, 24% of Israelis are considered below the poverty line. Through individual donations, schools, synagogues, UJA Northern NJ, and community center clothing drives, Yad Leah collects a range of clothing for infants, children, men, women and maternity.  They also collect jackets, hair accessories, hats, linens, towels, tablecloths, handbags, school bags, and cosmetics. 

Once gathered, each and every item is sorted for quality and style and packed into boxes.  The boxes are then shipped by container to Yad Leah’s growing system of community based clothing thrift shops in Israel.  The aim is to provide daily necessities while at the same time offering slightly more luxurious items such as cosmetics and accessories.  These items boost morale and provide a level of normalcy to young families facing severe economic pressure and threats of terrorism.

The success of the program lies in Yad Leah’s partnerships with Israeli communities, and working with individual community representatives.  These representatives convey to Yad Leah’s volunteers in the US exactly what the community needs.  Through this system, each box is customized to meet the specific needs of the particular community.  When the Israeli community representatives receive each box they are then able to organize the distribution of the clothing in a way that ensures that the most needy receive the goods.

To date, Yad Leah has sent over 120,000 articles of clothing or approximately 3500 boxes of new and gently used clothing to needy Israeli families.  The first shop set up by Karen in Beitar currently houses a bridal room, a baby layette department and a large supply of clothing for children, teens, and adults.
The second shop was established in Ramat Beit Shemesh in cooperation with Lema'an Achai.  Lema'an Achai, a large social service agency serving the Beit Shemesh area, has been at the forefront of helping the displaced Jews of Gaza and more recently of the northern communites.   Together with Lema’an Achai, Yad Leah has set up a store front in the center of one of Ramat Beit Shemesh’s business districts.  Additionally, Yad Leah has partnered with Moshe Goldsmith, the Mayor of Itamar and his wife, Leah.  Itamar is a small Yishuv in the Shomron which has tragically lost a number of its residents to terror, including the Sabo family and, most recently at the beginning of the summer,
Eliyahu Ashrei, the young boy who was kidnapped and later murdered. Many boxes of clothing have also been distributed to refugees from Gaza, Naharyia, Kiryat Arbah and to several, small, needy Russian and Ethiopian communities throughout Israel

When reflecting upon the accomplishments of Yad Leah, what most stands out is the powerful effect one Jew can have on another Jew’s life.  It seems so natural to take our clothing that is either too big, too small, the wrong color or is just not right and relegate it to the back of our closets. After all, it is just clothing.  What the experience of the last 3 years has taught is that a pair of pants, a skirt, a suit, or a baby outfit is not just a piece of clothing.  Rather it is a tool that has the ability to truly transform someone’s life.  When the children of Itamar still crushed by the ravages of terror in their own backyards open a box of clothing that has been sent to them with love, they feel remembered and cared about. 

When a mother of a large family in Beitar or Ramat Beit Shemesh faced with the daunting task of clothing her young children through another cold winter finds jackets, sweaters and all the basics, her life is transformed.  She can walk down the street, send her kids to school and attend shul without fear of embarrassment.  The shame that is replaced with dignity permeates all aspects of her life allowing her to feel self-esteem in her relationships with her friends, children and spouse.

 Kol Yisrael Arveivim Zeh Lazeh. Every Jew is responsible, one to the other.  Indeed, we are one family.