WJCS is privileged to have over 250 active volunteers. Here, Steve Cohn, shares his experience as a WJCS volunteer.

“When I ended my 30-year career as Editor-in-Chief of Media Industry Newsletter in July 2016, I answered a “request for volunteers” post on the White Plains Library’s website. After going through a background check (made me feel like a VIP), I worked on event information on library flyers. In March 2020, with the onset of COVID-19, the library shut everything down. (The reopened library now posts announcements online-only, with the writing done in-house.)

That initial experience put me on a volunteering kick, and through New York-Presbyterian Hospital, I became aware of Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS). I contacted Jodi Maxner at WJCS. Jodi would regularly bring up volunteering opportunities at our monthly meetings and, in October 2021 I began delivering children’s clothing, toys, and learning products from (914) Cares to Blythedale Children’s Hospital and various White Plains Public Schools. Since August 2022 I have delivered Kosher food prepared in the WJCS kitchen each Wednesday to four families in North Yonkers.


My work is self-rewarding. My contacts–Rabbi Michael Goldman at WJCS and Nichole Culotta and Sarah Carmona at (914) Cares–are terrific. The thank-yous I receive from the recipients make me feel good. The spirit of giving has long been a part of the American experience (my son Corey delivers food to needy New York City families each Thanksgiving), and I am glad to be a part of it

I am a septuagenarian who is happy to have less time on my hands, thanks to WJCS. It is said that people are more self-centered in 2022, and I confess that I can be among them. But my volunteering for WJCS is a welcome–and needed–exception.

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