Jewish police plan Passover food drop

A delegation of Jewish police volunteering for charity are planning to deliver a week’s worth of kosher-for-Passover food on Sunday to poor people, their families, shut-ins and the elderly.

Bags packed with matzoh, eggs, gefilte fish, fresh vegetables, grape juice, matzoh-ball soup mix and more will go out to some six dozen recipients across Long Island so they can observe the Passover holiday, which begins at sundown on April 6 and ends April 14.

The volunteers are members of the Shomrim Society of Nassau County, a fraternal organization of Jewish law enforcement officers.

The delegation also includes Shomrim members such as current and retired probation and sheriff’s officers.

Passover commemorates the Israelites’ path to freedom from slavery in ancient Egypt. During the holiday, observant Jews don’t eat leavened bread in solidarity with the Biblical story of the Israelites, who are said not to have had time to wait for their bread to rise during their escape from Egypt.

The food is funded through a mix of donations, fundraisers and Shomrim membership dues.

The cops go on their own time in their own cars and often bring their own children along.

“They’ll wind up sitting there for 20 minutes, a half-hour, or more, talking to some of these people who are lonely or are in need,” said Lt. Alan Hirsch, a longtime Nassau cop and past Shomrim president.

The beneficiaries tend to be clients of Hatzilu Rescue of Plainview, a local Jewish social services agency, which helps pack and distribute the food, or are suggested by synagogues to be in need.

The volunteers plan to muster Sunday morning at Nassau Provisions, a kosher food distributor in Freeport.

The experience is especially valuable for the officers’ children.

“It gives them a sense that there are people living on Long Island in Nassau or Suffolk counties that are in need and not doing well,” Hirsch said.