My zeidy, Reb Yehoshua Tzvi Hershkowitz, founded the very first Tomchei Shabbos more than 40 years ago

As told to Sandy Eller

When you hear the words “Tomchei Shabbos,” you probably think of community-minded people getting together to pack groceries for those going through hard times. Or you might even envision drivers making their way through local streets, discreetly dropping off boxes of food to those who are having difficulty paying their food bills.

Me? When I think of Tomchei Shabbos, the image that pops into my head is that of my zeidy, Reb Yehoshua Tzvi Hershkowitz, who founded the very first Tomchei Shabbos more than 40 years ago.

Zeidy was quiet and unassuming and he truly lived to help others. Not only did he never seek the limelight, but Zeidy worked very hard to stay as far away from it as possible. He kept his Tomchei Shabbos efforts under the radar during his lifetime, but having recently marked his fourth yahrtzeit on the 7th of Teves, I think the time has come to share his story, and hopefully bring his neshamah an aliyah.

Zeidy was born in a Hungarian town so small only three families lived there — but that didn’t spare it from being hit hard by the war. It’s true that Hungarian Jews experienced the horrors of the Holocaust for a shorter period than many others, but Zeidy was forever scarred by the unimaginable suffering he saw during his time in Dachau. He promised himself that if by some miracle he managed to survive the atrocities of World War II, he would make sure no one ever felt the pain of hunger that he experienced during that dark time.