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DECEMBER 26, 2024 - JANUARY 1, 2025
HERALD PEOPLE of THE YEAR
Marc MoshE BodnEr & JEff EIsEnBErg
Entrepreneurs turn pain into purpose to support Israel By PARKER SCHUG
In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, two local entrepreneurs turned personal pain into purposeful support, creating a lifeline for Israeli soldiers, displaced families and a community seeking to make a difference. Marc Moshe Bodner, 54, and Jeff Eisenberg, 58, transformed a former bank building, at 1315 Peninsula Blvd. in Hewlett, into the Israel Chesed Center, a dynamic hub of humanitarian aid and community engagement. The center emerged from the immediate crisis and a critical need for supplies. Bodner and Eisenberg quickly mobilized to support the Israel Defense Forces and the civilians hat unity just affected by the conflict. What began basically as a donation collection effort rapidly evolved into a comprehensive commu- helped us nity center that has engaged hundreds pivot from just of volunteers and shipped tons of being a packing critical supplies to Israel. For their efforts, the Herald is center to more proud to name Bodner and Eisenberg of a community its 2024 People of the Year. “People’s heads were spinning,” center, where Eisenberg recalled. “People didn’t we tried to get know where to send money first — people engaged. what was real, what was needed. But people just wanted to do something.” In the initial weeks of the war JEff EisENBERg support efforts, the pair, who are good Co-founder, Israel friends, collected and shipped essenChesed Center tial supplies independently. Eisenberg gathered 62 pallets of medical gear and clothing for families. Bodner manned a warehouse on Mill Road in Lawrence, where people from the Five Towns and surrounding areas dropped off gear, non-perishable food, baby formula and other critical items for the Israeli people. Bodner bounced around to facilities where he could store donated supplies that he planned to send to Israel. The two joined forces weeks later, when Bodner offered warehouse space to Eisenberg, to help him with storage and shipping. Then Eisenberg secured the Peninsula Boulevard building at the end of 2023, and the pair moved in, naming it the Israel Chesed Center. Chesed means kindness in Hebrew.
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Hewlett F.D. member Jeffrey Frank is remembered for his Page 5 big heart.
Five Towns Community Center to be replaced with Page 21 new building.
Vol. 101 No. 53
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“Two is always better than one,” Eisenberg said. “That unity just basically helped us pivot from just being a packing center to more of a community center, where we tried to get people engaged.” Bodner, an attorney with extensive managerial experience, took charge of logistics, managing intake, storage, and shipment of donations. Eisenberg, who built a successful pest control company, Pest Away, which he sold to a Fortune 500 company in 2019, brought entrepreneurial know-how to the endeavor. He focused on the long-term goals of the center. “We complement each other very well,” Eisenberg said. “My strengths are his weaknesses, and vice versa.” The center quickly became more than a mere collection point. It was transformed into a community gathering space where people could actively support Israel’s war effort. Visitors of all ages have taken part in activities ranging from filling care packages for soldiers to organizing bake sales, bar and bat mitzvahs, comedy shows, concerts, discussions with IDF members, conversational Hebrew classes and poker nights. Sara Matathias, an East Rockaway resident and a member of Chabad of Hewlett, described the center as “a sanctuary of support, aid and solidarity” that has inspired widespread philanthropy. Matathias, like many others, approached Bodner and Eisenberg about hosting an event at the center, to bring people in and fill them in on what was happening in Israel. “Jeff and Moshe embraced my ideas with open arms and entrusted me to bring my vision to life,” Matathias wrote in an
Continued on page 2 Courtesy Ido Shemtov
Marc Moshe Bodner, above left, and Jeff Eisenberg hosted this year’s Oct. 7 remembrance event at the Israel Chesed Center in Hewlett, which they founded to support Israel Defense Forces members and displaced Israeli families.