November 21, 2011 | 3:27 pm

Spreading the Thanks at Thanksgiving

Posted by JewishJournal.com

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Nashuva at Hope Street

Last night three local news channels carried segments on a special early Thanksgiving feast at Hope Street Family Center in downtown Los Angeles.  The TV stations—KNBC, KCBS and Univision—were all on hand to capture the moment, but only Univision, the Spanish-language station, got the full story.

Hope Street helps families and women in need find employment and social services.  It serves a predominantly poor, Latino, Catholic population in and around downtown Los Angeles.

For the past seven years, Nashuva, a Jewish congregation, has provided a Thanksgiving feast for the Hope Street residents, usually one or two weeks before the actual holiday. 

Nashuva is a Jewish outreach congregation led by Rabbi Naomi Levy.  The congregation holds services the first Friday of each month at the Brentwood Presbyterian Church, and holds a social service project the third Sunday of each month around Los Angeles. 

“It’s service that leads to service,” reads the group’s web site.

Social service coordinators Julie Drucker and Carol Taubman have worked with Hope Street to coordinate the annual feast.  Some 80 Nashuva volunteers cooked and served kosher turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes, salad and desserts.  Other volunteers conducted games and crafts for the many Hope Street children, while others prepared gift baskets to take home.

The idea, Drucker told Univision, is for two groups of Angelenos to celebrate the holiday together, and to share the bounty of the holiday with those who may not have as much.

To get involved in Hope Street Family Center click here.

To read more about Nashuva, click here.

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All photos by Scott Tansey

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