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DECEMBER 30, 2021 - JANuARY 5, 2022
VOl. 99 NO. 1
His chessed comes from the heart
By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com
F Facebook xx/Herald
xx Inwood lost its unofficial mayor when Peter Sobol died at 64.Page 0
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Francesa Cimato-Perna xx/Herald
The Santa Marina Society celebrated xx its 100th anniversary.
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Blakeman campaiign xx/Herald
A.B. resident Bruce Blakeman was xx elected county executive.
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rom his school years to fatherhood, Hewlett resident Gabriel Boxer has always been doing good, from chessed (the Hebrew word for kindness) projects as a youth in his native Hillcrest, Queens, to feeding essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic, to large giveaways to aid people in need. Having learned from his parents about helping family and friends, and now aiming to instill those values in his children, Boxer, 41, created Kosher Response in March 2020, as the pandemic was shutting down most businesses, especially restaurants and other places that made their money selling food. That charitable organization has morphed into one focusing on all who n e e d h e l p. Ko s h e r Response also organized Feed A Family and Fuel A Restaurant (in which gift cards were given to those in need so they could get food with dignity and support local eateries), and partnered with the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC to provide food during the pandemic. Boxer also got involved with the Leon Mayer Fund, and in tandem with Rabbi Simcha Lefkowitz, who oversees the fund, and his own Kosher Response, he operates the Mark Ramer Chessed Center, which is open to all and offers an assortment of items, from clothing to bicycles and housewares, to those in need. Boxer runs the fund’s day-to-day operation as a volunteer. For all of these efforts, the Herald is proud to name Boxer its 2021 Person of the Year. “I grew up in a house where we’d always tried to help out our fellow neighbors, our friends, our family,
HERALD PERSON OF THE YEAR
GaBRiEl BoxER
H ‘
e has a huge heart — really cares about community members.’ MoSHE BRaNdSdoRFER Executive director, JCCRP
and then learning and doing from school and the local synagogue where I grew up in Queens,” Boxer said, sitting in an office at the Leon Mayer Fund building in Hewlett, which also houses the chessed center. The fund, founded more than 30 years ago, has subsidized meals, offers financial assistance and helps with school placement and family issues. “Then, when you get married and have children,” Boxer said, “you want to imbue that same doing-good into your children, and the best way of actually teaching them is actually by showing, not only by saying.” Boxer and his wife, Rebeka, have four children, Johnathan, 19, AnnaRuth, 16, Deena, 11, and EllaRosa, 6. Johnathan is currently in Israel, and the Boxer daughters all attend the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway. Boxer works for a firm that offers merchant cash advances to small businesses, and previously worked in the kosher food industry for caterers, manufacturing companies and supermarkets. For a time he had his own catering business, and he is also known as the Kosher Guru, the name of a consulting business that he started roughly seven years ago after getting calls from startups asking for advice. “With the advent of social media and Instagram, which I first resisted, after a year I said, I have to get in on this, and everyone has a fun name,” Boxer recalled. “Kosher Guru came to mind” — and took off on Instagram, becoming what Boxer called “a pheContinued on page 17 Jeffrey Bessen/Herald
Hewlett resident Gabriel Boxer, who began Kosher Response at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, is involved in many charitable endeavors.