Dating Ourselves

We at Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger are honored to be included in Jo Ellen Green Kaiser’s “Do What Is Just” (February 2010), but the article is incorrect about our founding date. Mazon was founded in 1985, not 1960, on the basis of an article by Leonard Fein in Moment magazine, during a time of major famine in Ethiopia and lavish celebrations within the Jewish community. Echoing the rabbinic tradition of setting aside “the corners of our fields” to feed the hungry, Fein advocated donating 3 percent of the cost of lifecycle events. Over the last 25 years, Mazon has granted more than $50 million to prevent and alleviate hunger among people of all faiths.