Daniel Lubetzky

Boston Globe:  Finding Love in the Unlikeliest of Places

By Eric Moskowitz

WRENTHAM — Even by the standards of jury-assembly rooms, the basement space at Wrentham District Court is grim, calling to mind a driver’s ed classroom or maybe an interrogation den, with exposed pipes, stained carpeting, and bleak lighting.

Suffice it to say, it was not where Melissa Ananias or Peter Butler expected to find love — or, for that matter, where anyone has expected to find it. Ever.

On that Tuesday morning, two years ago in October, Melissa arrived uncharacteristically early. Pete, uncharacteristically, cut it close.

She was 45 and had been divorced eight years, a single mother from Needham with two daughters in elementary school. Match.com, JDate, blind dates, she had tried them all, dismissing most guys quickly, not one of them ever reaching the point of meeting her girls.

Pete was 44 and also had two kids. Divorced officially for 21 days, he was was trying out Match.com; only later would he realize he had seen Melissa already, quickly clicking past her because she had two cats. He was allergic.

But now she stood out to him amid the groggy faces as he ducked through the low doorway. She noticed him, too — tall and blue-eyed, in a crisp dress shirt and fleece — but tried not to stare, turning back to her book. Why not, he thought, as he walked past rows of empty seats and picked the one beside her.

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Doniece Sandoval repurposes transportation buses into showers & toilets on wheels, and through her organization Lava Mae, she provides mobile showers and other services to San Francisco’s homeless. Doniece demonstrates what she calls ‘Radical Hospitality’, explaining that “the way that you serve people is as important as the service itself.” I couldn’t agree more, and I’m inspired by the kindness and respect with which Doniece and her team care for their community.
We are proud to award Doniece with the #KINDPeople grand prize to enable her to continue her important work.

I recently visited a friend in the hospital who just had a baby girl, and she showed me the congratulations gift from the “nutrition” department of the hospital. We both thought it was quite ironic!

What an inspiring and heartening act of valor and kindness!

Call them Israel’s American volunteer fire brigade.

Dozens of firefighters from across the United States put their lives on hold – leaving behind jobs and families – to help subdue the wildfires that swept Israel over the past week. While they all share a love of Israel, only a handful of them are Jewish.

“We’re just firefighters. When guys hear about a situation like this one, where the Israelis are working as hard as they can, they want to come help,” said Billy Hirth, a Protestant who retired last year after a 24-year career as a firefighter in Arlington, Texas, and has been coordinating the American effort from Jerusalem.

“It’s a brotherhood. Firemen are firemen,” he said.

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