Robin Eisenberg and Judy Gordon show off their wish lists of gifts for people in need. Gordon is one of the original Giving Tree leaders, and Eisenberg is a longtime volunteer and previous education director at Temple Beth El. Photos provided
By Janis Fontaine
More than 35 years ago, Myra Singer, a rabbi’s wife, heard about a family in Boca Raton who had no money to celebrate Christmas and she decided to do something about it.
She rallied her friends, neighbors and local business owners, and using her garage as ground zero, bought and wrapped gifts, then packed them up with a holiday feast and delivered the bounty to the family on Christmas Eve.
Today, volunteers from Temple Beth El still work tirelessly each year to support her charity, the Giving Tree — Inspired by the Legacy of Myra Singer. What started in one neighborhood now has a brigade of volunteers working together to deliver about 10,000 hand-wrapped presents to 1,500-2,000 residents, from infants to seniors, all over the city.
Legacy of a Jewish mother
In 2005, Singer told writer Sandi Altner that the Giving Tree was born in response to a clear need: to make Christmas joyous for families who were having a tough time making ends meet. It’s still true.
Singer was inspired, she said, by the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, a tenet that implores us to “repair the world,” and Singer said that her small acts could do just that. She felt blessed that as she and her congregants were lighting their Hanukkah candles, hundreds of children were opening Christmas gifts. If a Jewish congregation fulfilling the holiday wishes of Christian children seems strange, she told Altner, it misses the bigger picture: “We’re fulfilling these wishes not because these people are part of our synagogue but because they are part of our community.”
Singer died in 2022, but in May, Rabbi Emeritus Merle Singer, Myra’s husband, wrote in a post in remembrance of his wife: “She lived to help uplift others, and through that she became the guiding hand that supported all of us. Her influence was not just in our family, but was spread wide throughout our Temple Beth El community and the further community of Boca Raton in the many ways she found to help alleviate suffering and to encourage others.”
He said she made him a better rabbi.
The Giving Tree at the temple.
Not a toy drive
What makes the Giving Tree unusual is that it’s not an anonymous toy drive but an intimate interaction between a particular child and an individual benefactor. Each wish list leaf is a personal request: a real person’s wish. Through its tried and true system, the charity plans to fulfill 2,000 holiday wish lists, each with multiple specific gifts, in 2025. That means those children, teens and seniors will open exactly what they wished for.
Clients are referred through a vast network of nonprofits that includes Best Foot Forward, Brothers Helping Brothers, Caridad Center, Dixie Manor, Moon of Hope and Vita Nova, as well as schools, police, religious organizations and others who serve local low-income and homeless populations.
“The social service agency caseworker asks what they would like, and we make that happen,” Giving Tree co-president Lauren Gross said. In addition to the gifts, kids get necessities such as clothes and shoes in the right sizes.
Gross got involved with the Giving Tree almost four years ago. When Myra Singer died in 2022, a search for new leadership tapped Gross and Jennie Kreger to serve as co-presidents. Both had previous leadership experience at Temple Beth El. Now they coordinate 30 core volunteers and hundreds of others who help out at peak times, like showing up to wrap gifts every year.
Over the years, the program has expanded to serve people of all ages and religions, Gross said. Seniors at the Menorah House and Jewish Family Services are gifted with blankets and fuzzy socks, the two most popular requests.
“Last year we did a jogger set,” Gross said. “We ask the senior centers what is most needed, and blankets and socks are always on the list.”
The spirit of giving drives her as it did Singer, Gross said.
“The real meaning of Tikkun Olam is to repair the world, and we just keep chipping away at it, one little act at time. It all comes down to that core Jewish value. Everyone is a human. Everyone deserves to feel respected, honored and worthy,” she said.
Gross believes the Giving Tree does that.
“The feeling we get when we hear back from the caseworker makes it worth it,” Gross said. “For me, it’s about making one small difference in someone’s life, then doing that as many times as possible. My grandmother was very philanthropic and I got that gene from her.”
There are two other branches on the Giving Tree. The Quiet Giving portion of the charity operates year-round assisting as many as 400 families in dire straits with emergency needs annually. The Back to School Program provides backpacks full of school essentials to about 500 local students each year. But the Holiday Program is the biggest.
How it works
The process is simple. The Giving Tree has a website, so you can pick a leaf online or from the tree in the lobby at either Temple Beth El campus.
Then, you shop. Don’t wrap. Drop off your gifts at Temple Beth El or email thegivingtreeboca@gmail.com to learn an alternate drop-off location and hours.
Gross says that as gifts come back, they’re checked for accuracy to be sure they match the wish list, then sent on to gift wrapping. Once a Giving Tree captain is certain her batch of gifts is complete, the nonprofits pick up the gifts for distribution.
The only exception is Dixie Manor.
“We deliver the gifts to them each year because that’s where it started,” Gross said.
It takes tremendous coordination, but every wish is eventually filled. If someone takes a leaf and doesn’t fulfill the wish, Gross says there’s a plan for that.
Just like Santa, Gross said, “We will never let someone go without.”
Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com.
How to help
Choose a leaf in person at Temple Beth El’s Schaefer Campus at 333 SW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton, or the Beck Campus at 9800 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, or pick one online at thegivingtreeboca.org/2025-holiday-wish-lists/ beginning Nov. 1.
Fill the requests on your leaves and drop your gifts off at either temple campus by Dec. 1. You can also leave them at an alternate Giving Tree site. Email thegivingtreeboca@gmail.com for that location and for drop-off hours.
For more info: Call 561-391-8900 or email Susan Stallone, the director of social justice at Temple Beth El, at SStallone@tbeboca.org.
Other ways to help:
If you can’t fulfill a wish list but want to help, gift cards to Walmart, Target, Amazon or Visa/Amex are welcomed, as are donations for supplies such as wrapping paper and tape. Volunteers and corporate partners are always needed.
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