How Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway students helped get boots to the Israel Defense Forces

It began with a phone call.

A few days after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, when many of the Israel Defense Forces reservists returned to active duty, IDF officers, including General Daniel Jacobs, saw that the returnees’ boots were very worn.

Jacobs learned that there might be someone in Holliswood, Queens that could help his unit to obtain the needed military boots. He placed the call and Yakir Wachstock answered.

Wachstock noted that Boots for Israel started with shoe wholesaler Avi Shakarov, but now has expanded to multiple sources.

As of press time, at least 46,000 boots have been collected and sent to the IDF.

“The units often send a representative to pick up or we deliver to the base directly,” Wachstock wrote in an email. The largest one-day packing of boots was 6,000 he said.

The Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway schools raised money and purchased and packed 1,800 boots earlier this month.
Middle school Principal Josh Gold attended a Long Island packing event and then contacted Wachstock.

“We thought it was an amazing way to support Israel and support the troops,” Gold said, adding that packing the boots in duffle bags was a great hands-on opportunity for the students to help the soldiers protecting the Jewish state.

The eighth grade students along with parent volunteers oversaw the logistics of packing the boots and moving the boxes as kindergarten to eighth-graders — 800 students — helped with packing the duffle bags. The younger students wrote letters of appreciation to the soldiers receiving the boots.

“I would say that it’s important that the students understand that there is a financial component to chesed (the Hebrew word for kindness),” Gold said. “More than that it is a way of life. Actually giving back is part of the important lesson. It also really manifests itself in HAFTR’s core values. That we are committed and connected to Israel. It is very important we are instilling that value into all of our students.”

Wachstock said it is a wonderful thing when schools such as HAFTR become involved.

“We have found when schools participate and let their community physically get involved by sorting boots, packing the boots into the actual duffels, and finally tagging them in readiness to be brought to El Al (airlines), the excitement is palpable,” he wrote.

Through his experiences, Wachstock said that, “Many of the students are in disbelief that these are the actual boots the soldiers will be wearing while they are up north or in Gaza defending us,” he said. “When we have Sunday boot-packing events, people come out in droves and no matter how long we expect he packing to last, inevitably it is done in a far shorter duration due to the excitement.”

County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Nassau’s first Jewish county executive, was excited to see what the school community accomplished at the HAFTR boot-packing event on March 8.

“I am thrilled to support Boots for Israel and to join in their drive at HAFTR,” he told the Herald. “In the wake of Oct.7, Nassau County residents have mobilized to assist Israel by sending needed supplies and funds.”

Blakeman noted that the amount of boots already sent and the organization plans to send “thousands more.”

For Gold, this act of charity ties in with this year’s annual dinner theme — HAFTR Stands with Israel.

“It is an example and demonstration of a commitment to Israel,” he said.

For information on the dinner, go to HAFTR.org.

To help Boots for Israel, go to TheChesedFund.com/bootsonthe ground/bootsforisrael.