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A kosher community fridge in Chicago’s Jewish suburbs arrives amid rising food insecurity
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
SKOKIE, Illinois — Just off East Prairie Road in this suburb of Chicago is a sign that says, “Welcome to Hersh’s Fridge.” At the bottom is a line in Aramaic, quoting the Passover Haggadah: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”
It may not look like much, but the sign points to a pioneering project: an outdoor kosher community fridge that offers free, fresh foods and prepared meals that anyone can take anonymously. The food, provided by volunteers and local kosher restaurants, is available at any time of day or night.
The effort is aimed at providing food support for strapped kosher-observant households in the heavily Jewish neighborhood northwest of Chicago. In the week since it opened, the fridge has been heavily used, said Rabbi Hody Nemes of Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob Synagogue. As one of the organizers, he had already received several letters of gratitude from people who have visited.
While the initiative has been in the planning stage for a year, it has opened at a time of particular need. Tens of millions of Americans who depend on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to feed their households, are expected to lose SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, leading to long lines at food banks across the United States. At the same time, disruptive immigration enforcement raids by federal agents in Chicago — including, last weekend, in Skokie and adjacent Evanston — are putting additional pressure on needy families.
“A lot of our neighbors are feeling vulnerable right now, particularly with uncertainty around SNAP benefits,” Nemes said. “We want our neighbors to feel safe and well fed. We see the fridge as part of making sure that everyone, whoever they are, whatever their politics or their background, feels taken care of and welcome to take food, including people who are not part of the kosher-keeping community.”
The fridge is supported by a volunteer army of local teenagers. After witnessing years of food waste at Shabbat kiddush lunches, including at his own bar mitzvah, Avi Rubin, 17, a senior at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Skokie, volunteered to join the project, which he said reflects the tenets of Judaism he has been taught in school. “Not wasting food is a Jewish value rooted in the halachic principle of Bal Tashchit, which prohibits senseless waste or destruction,” Rubin said.
Anabelle Ashman, 13, an eighth-grader at Hillel Torah Day School, said she got involved after meeting a woman in need while restocking another public fridge. “She explained to us that she was living in a house with three families,” Ashman said. “It was a really happy moment for me, because I realized that I could help the community like that.”
The project is named in honor of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the Israeli-American kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and subsequently murdered by Hamas. Hersh’s parents, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, are originally from the Chicago area and met while attending Ida Crown.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin speak about their son Hersh at the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2025, in Chicago. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images); A sign advertises Hersh’s Fridge, a kosher food pantry in the Chicago suburbs. (Courtesy Hody Nemes)
The initiative is led by Solu, a local Orthodox Jewish organization that regularly partners with non-Jewish groups to address social issues. Solu, which has been working on food insecurity since the COVID pandemic, came up with the idea of a kosher fridge last year in response to spiking kosher food prices. After Hersh was murdered, they decided to name the initiative in his honor.
“Hersh was about doing good work, bringing people together, bridging divides,” said Rabbi Ari Hart, Solu’s co-founder and CEO. “We hope this fridge will be an engine for that in the community.”
Hart said the fridge offers a space for volunteers of all backgrounds to come together, including from a local mosque and church, to package kosher meals for neighbors in need.
The Jewish community and heavily Jewish neighborhoods such as Skokie and West Rogers Park are affected by poverty and food insecurity despite misconceptions to the contrary, said Nemes.
“All it can take is a job loss, or a major medical incident,” he said. “We’re blessed that we have strong social networks in the Jewish community, but even so, people can fall through the cracks.”
Jewish hunger advocates and nonprofits across the country have sprung into action as uncertainty has mounted about the future of SNAP payments. Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger and the Jewish Federations of North America are both pressing Congress to ensure SNAP benefits continue through the shutdown. Local Jewish federations, meanwhile, have begun distributing emergency grants, with the New York federation saying that 74,000 Jewish families in New York alone were at risk of losing their food benefits.
Jewish families in Chicago and its suburbs are also struggling, according to Nemes, who estimates that one-fifth of Jews in the near north suburbs are financially insecure.
The urgent need was highlighted for Nemes when a community member contacted him after the fridge was announced. “Someone said, ‘When will the fridge be up?’ I, foolishly, said, ‘Thank you for wanting to donate, it will be up this fall,’” he recalled. “They said, ‘I don’t want to donate, I need the food.’”
Nemes said the teenage volunteers are critical to the effort. “Kids and teens have already begun to play a deep role in servicing the fridge,” he said. “We hope that role only grows because we believe that to be a Jewish adult means to be a giver, and the best way to learn how is to start young.”
Rubin and fellow Ida Crown student, junior Hillel Lennon, 16, started a club at their school to promote teen involvement in the project. The pair were thrilled when close to half of the student body signed up to clean, check and restock the fridge, including purchasing food from local kosher grocery stores as well as picking up leftovers from nearby kosher restaurants such as Emma’s Cafe and Tacos Gingi, as well as local synagogues. Rubin ended up building the cabinet for the project’s dry-goods pantry.
Lennon said he was excited to be involved in a social effort that reached beyond Jewish institutions to the wider world. “As Jews, it’s very important to help our community and the people in need that live here,” he said.
The community fridge movement has surged in recent years amid a shift toward mutual aid in some communities and activist movements. While Hersh’s Fridge serves kosher-keeping households on Chicagoland’s north side, in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, Congregation Rodfei Zedek operates its own public fridge as part of The Love Fridge Chicago, which has 17 locations across the city.
Volunteers construct Hersh’s Fridge, a kosher community fridge in the suburbs of Chicago. (Courtesy Hody Nemes)
Ezra Skol, 15, a sophomore at Kenwood Academy, is one of the teen volunteers at the Rodfei fridge. Skol said he enjoys seeing the direct impact of his service. “On many occasions, while we’ve been stocking the fridge, the people who are taking the food will come up and thank us for the work that we’re doing,” he said. “When I see these people, there’s a personal connection, I can actually see who I’m helping out.”
Skol has encouraged his friends to volunteer at the fridge. He emphasized how the project goes beyond simply providing food, strengthening the sense of community. “Ultimately, we’re all living in the same neighborhood and we’re sharing the same spaces. There’s a responsibility there, and that’s exactly what the Love Fridge is doing, it’s looking out for one another.”
For Hersh’s Fridge, organizers bought two full-size fridge-freezers as well as building the pantry, creating more capacity than pre-existing public fridges.
For Rubin, one of the most special aspects of the project is its anonymous nature.
“The Torah says you should give back to the poor,” he said. “But this is also discreet. People will just be able to come and pick up food. This fridge will bring an awareness to the issue because people will see that even in the Jewish community, there are still people in need.”
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Abraham Foxman, Former ADL Head and Advocate for American Jews, Dies at 86
Abraham Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, speaks at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Commemoration in the Emancipation Hall of the US Capitol on April 23, 2025. Photo: Mattie Neretin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Abraham H. Foxman, who was the national director of the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades, has died at the age of 86, the ADL announced in a statement on Sunday.
The organization said it “deeply mourns the loss of our longtime national director,” but did not provide details about where, when, and how Foxman died. He is survived by his wife Golda, children Michelle and Ariel, son-in-law Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, and grandchildren, Cielo, Leila, Gideon, and Amirit.
Foxman retired in 2015 after spending his entire 50-year career with the ADL. He was “one of the world’s foremost voices against antisemitism and hate,” as well as an “outspoken, passionate, and tireless advocate for the Jewish people and Israel,” according to the advocacy organization.
Foxman graduated from City College of New York and NYU School of Law. He joined the ADL immediately after graduating from law school and served in various roles in the organization, including assistant director of legal affairs, before being becoming its national director in 1987. When Foxman announced his retirement from the ADL, then-US President Barack Obama said the long-time civil rights activist was “irreplaceable.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the current CEO of the ADL, described Foxman as “an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate and who strongly believed that these scourges could be defeated if good people opposed it.”
“America and the Jewish people have lost a moral voice, a passionate advocate for the Jewish people and the state of Israel, and a remarkable leader,” Greenblatt said in a released statement. “In his storied career, Abe transformed ADL while confronting antisemitism and hate (from both left and right), opposing the global rise in antisemitism, holding world leaders accountable and working to ensure that Israel was Jewish, secure and democratic. Abe’s voice was heard – and listened to – by popes, presidents, and prime ministers, a voice he used wherever Jews were at risk. Abe Foxman spoke on the global stage with moral authority and clarity and was relentlessly dedicated to his pursuit of a world without hate.”
“Abe Foxman helped build the modern liberal era of America,” ADL Board Chair Nicole Munchnik added in a separate statement. “He was recognized across the globe as a great leader and passionate advocate for tolerance, a voice of the generation rebuilding in the shadow of the Shoah, and longtime advisor to American presidents and world leaders. To those of us who knew him, Abe was a warm friend, advisor, spirited antagonist and hugger – all over lunch.”
The American Jewish Committee praised Foxman as a “towering figure in the fight against antisemitism and hatred” and someone who “brought moral clarity, courage, and unwavering conviction to generations of advocacy and leadership.” The AJC said his advocacy “helped shape the American Jewish experience and strengthened the global fight against bigotry in all its forms.”
Born in 1940 to Polish Jews in what is now Belarus, Foxman survived the Holocaust under the care of his Polish Catholic nanny Bronislawa Kurpi, who baptized him and raised him as a Catholic to hide his Jewish identity. He lost 14 family members in the Holocaust but was reunited with his parents after the war. Together they immigrated to the United States, where Foxman attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush as a teenager. He later served as vice chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and was a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, to which he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and reappointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden.
The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF) called Foxman “one of the most consequential Jewish leaders of the postwar era” and a Holocaust survivor who “devoted his life to confronting antisemitism and defending the Jewish people.”
“Abe Foxman belonged to a generation that carried the weight of history personally and transformed it into public service,” said AJCF Chairman Simon Bergson in a statement. “He dedicated his life to ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust were applied to the defense of democratic values, human dignity, and the Jewish people. His legacy will endure for generations.”
Following the news of Foxman’s death, Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised him as a “legendary leader of the Jewish people, a champion of justice and equality, and a longtime, dear friend of mine.”
“Coming into a world at war, the Holocaust shaped Abe’s character and defined his mission: Combating antisemitism and hypocrisy, calling out racism and bias, speaking up for the Jewish people and the Jewish democratic Israel,” Herzog shared in a post on X. “His story, of rising from the ashes, is our story, the story of our people.”
Israel’s president also described Foxman as “a prominent, distinguished force in the American Jewish community, and a bridge between Israel and the Diaspora” as well as a “passionate Zionist, a humanist, and an outspoken, wise friend.”
“The affection and the respect we had for one another enabled us to openly discuss every challenge and every obstacle,” added Herzog. “I am so grateful for the profound conversations we shared over the years, and for the brave leadership he exemplified. I will miss Abe’s counsel and voice, and I know that his legacy and his message will live on.”
Foxman was a board member of the Met Council on Jewish Poverty, America’s largest organization combating Jewish poverty. Its CEO and Executive Director David G. Greenfield said he was “heartbroken” by the passing of his “dear friend and mentor.”
“At Met Council, we were privileged to have Abe as a board member, adviser, and friend,” Greenfield explained. “He brought wisdom, compassion, and deep commitment to everything he did. Even near the end of his life, Abe continued showing up for the community. Just a few weeks ago, he joined us with his granddaughters at Met Council’s Passover Day of Service at the Spitzer Fulfillment Center, helping ensure that New Yorkers in need could celebrate Pesach with dignity.”
“Public leaders do not always match their public reputations in private,” Greenfield added. “Abe was the rare person whose private kindness, humility, and generosity were even greater than his public stature. All who knew him loved him … His voice, his courage, his friendship, and his leadership will be deeply missed.”
Foxman also served as vice chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.
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George Washington University Says Substance Dropped Near Israel Fest Was ‘Stink Bomb’
Anti-Zionist protesters at George Washington University in May 2024. Photo: Candice Tang via Reuters Connect
George Washington University confirmed on Friday that the substance which injured a Jewish student after being dropped in “vials” near an “Israel Fest” event on campus last month was contained in “stink bombs.”
“We want to reassure members of our community that the vials that were dropped were commonly available ‘stink bombs’ and did not pose a serious health risk to those nearby,” the university’s media relations office said in statement shared with The Algemeiner. “While our ability to provide additional information at this time is limited, we will continue to keep the community informed as appropriate and in accordance with university policies and applicable laws.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Geroge Washington University (GW) Professor Jonathan Turley said on Wednesday that Israel Fest is a “celebration of Israeli food, music, and culture” which “often draws protesters.” Jewish students have been fearing attending the gathering “for weeks,” Turley added, noting that anti-Zionists told everyone it was “supporting genocide.” The anecdote suggests that activists could have set in motion their plan to sabotage “Israel Fest” several weeks ago.
This latest threat against the Jewish community comes amid an epidemic of antisemitic violence in the US. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) latest annual audit of US antisemitic incidents, assaults against Jews increased 4 percent in 2025, and perpetrators are more often resorting to using “deadly weapons” in the commission of their crimes. That raises the likelihood that their actions result in severe injury or death.
The advocacy group noted that the upward shift was reflected in the shocking murders of Jews in antisemitic attacks in the US for the first time since 2019. Two Israeli embassy staffers — a young couple set be engaged — were shot dead in Washington, DC last May, and weeks later a firebombing in Colorado claimed the life of an octogenarian. In both crimes, the alleged killers cited anti-Zionism as their motivating ideology.
Other incidents which stopped short of the worst possible outcome continue to create a sense of insecurity for American Jews. Over the past year, for example, The Algemeiner has reported on a public-school principal’s inveighing against “Jew money,” an attempted arson at the Hillel International chapter in San Francisco, California, and the movement of some conservative students into the far-right ecosystem of antisemitism — a path cleared by Nicholas Fuentes, Candace Owens, Kanye West, and troops of social media influencers.
The American Jewish community has been the target of several hateful acts in recent days. Last week, Jewish residents of the Queens borough of New York City awoke to the carnage left by a spree of vandalism which left at least four Jewish properties — private homes and synagogues — marked with the swastika and other antisemitic graffiti. The perpetrators struck the Rego Park Jewish Center, the Congregation Machane Chodosh, as well as two private homes late Sunday night, according to local lawmakers and Jewish leaders.
The graffiti left a scourge on the buildings — appearing in one case next to a memorial to German Jews who survived Kristallnacht, a November 1938 pogrom when Nazi paramilitary forces launched a coordinated nationwide attack on the German Jewish community. The vandals left no doubt regarding their allusion to that period, graffitiing “Heil Hitler” at the Rego Park location.
At GW, Jewish students have claimed that the problem of widespread antisemitism has persisted there for years.
One ongoing lawsuit alleges that the university enabled an eruption of antisemitic discrimination on campus by declining to intervene in a slew of incidents in which anti-Zionists threw rocks at Jewish students, vandalized the campus office of Hillel International, and uttered slurs such as “filthy k—ke.” Meanwhile, The Algemeiner has reported extensively on the activities of its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, which once threatened a Jewish professor and continues to spread antisemitic tropes about Israel.
Responding to a phenomenon that is common to the point that is a prosaic facet of campus life, George Washington University’s Hillel International chapter said on Wednesday the Israel Fest incident “will not deter our community.”
It added, “GW Hillel will continue to support our students so they can proudly be Jewish.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Trump Rejects Latest Iran Proposal as Hormuz Closure Persists
A woman walks past an anti-US billboard depicting US President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 2, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
President Donald Trump has swiftly rejected Iran‘s response to a US peace proposal to end the 10-week-old conflict between the two countries, describing the Iranian offer as “totally unacceptable.”
Days after Washington floated a proposal aimed at reopening negotiations, Iran on Sunday released a response focused on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where US ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists.
Tehran also demanded compensation for war damage, emphasized its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, and called on the United States to end its naval blockade, guarantee no further attacks, lift sanctions, and remove a ban on Iranian oil sales.
Within hours, Trump dismissed Tehran’s offer in a social media post.
“I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without giving further detail.
Trump’s response has fueled concerns that the conflict, which began on Feb. 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, will drag on and continue to paralyze shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing oil prices higher on Monday.
The US had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran‘s nuclear program.
Tehran responded on Monday by defending its stance.
“Our demand is legitimate: demanding an end to the war, lifting the [US] blockade and piracy, and releasing Iranian assets that have been unjustly frozen in banks due to US pressure,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.
“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and Lebanon were other demands of Iran, which are considered a generous and responsible offer.”
Brent crude oil futures lost some strong early gains on Monday to trade nearly 2% higher at around $103 a barrel, as the deadlock left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war began, the narrow waterway carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, and has since become a central pressure point in the conflict.
Disruption caused by the near-closure of the strait has forced oil producers to cut exports, and OPEC oil output dropped further in April to the lowest in more than two decades, a Reuters survey showed on Monday.
TRICKLE OF SHIPPING THROUGH HORMUZ
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at a trickle compared to before the war. Shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed that three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid Iranian attack.
A second Qatari LNG tanker was attempting to transit the strait, the data showed, days after the first such cargo crossed under an arrangement involving Iran and Pakistan.
Sporadic flare-ups around the strait in recent days have tested a ceasefire that has paused all-out warfare since it took effect in early April.
In the United States, surveys show the war is unpopular with voters facing sharply higher gasoline prices less than six months before nationwide elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party retains control of Congress.
Washington has also struggled to build international support, with NATO allies refusing to send ships to reopen the waterway without a full peace deal and an internationally mandated mission.
Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, which has been liaising closely with the US, Iran, and mediator Pakistan since the start of the war, will hold talks in Qatar on Tuesday on the conflict and on ensuring navigational safety in the strait, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
TRUMP SET TO DISCUSS IRAN IN BEIJING
The next diplomatic or military steps remain unclear. Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, where Iran is set to be among the topics discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping as pressure mounts to end the conflict and the energy crisis it has triggered.
Trump has been leaning on China to use its influence to push Tehran toward a deal with Washington.
Iran‘s foreign ministry spokesperson Baghaei suggested China could instead use the visit to push back against US objectives in the Gulf. “Our Chinese friends know very well how to use these opportunities to warn about the consequences of the US’ illegal and bullying actions on regional peace and security,” he said.
Addressing whether combat operations against Iran were over, Trump said in remarks aired on Sunday: “They are defeated, but that doesn’t mean they’re done.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war was not over because there was “more work to be done” to remove enriched uranium from Iran, dismantle enrichment facilities, and address its proxy forces and ballistic missile capabilities.
Netanyahu told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that the preferred route was diplomacy, but he did not rule out the use of force.
Despite the ongoing diplomatic efforts, risks to shipping lanes and regional economies remain high.
On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted two drones launched from Iran, while Qatar condemned a drone strike on a cargo ship in its waters. Kuwait reported that its air defenses had dealt with hostile drones entering its airspace.
Clashes have also continued in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, despite a US-brokered ceasefire announced on April 16.