Mitzvah Day brings interfaith cheer to needy families

On Christmas Day, if you're Jewish or Muslim, what to do? Here's what: Mitzvah Day puts into action the Hebrew word that's come to mean "good deed."

Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press
5:52 p.m. EST December 25, 2015

Shy smiles turned to wide grins on four children’s faces when volunteers arrived Christmas morning at a neat brick house near the Ambassador Bridge.

“We got a soccer ball!” exclaimed 9-year-old Luis Perez. His three sisters — ages 8, 7 and 5 — were equally thrilled with dolls, Legos and more.

“It’s very good,” said Julio Perez, 36, as he welcomed strangers bearing gifts for his family. Perez, a landscaper who keeps his lawn neatly trimmed but said he’d been laid off from his job until spring, said he was happy his children had been chosen to receive the bounty of Mitzvah Day.

It’s the annual rite of community service performed by Jewish people in Detroit on Dec. 25, said Beverly Phillips, spokeswoman for the Bloomfield Township-based Jewish Community Relations Council, which organizes Mitzvah Day in southeast Michigan.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/12/25/mitzvah-day-brings-interfaith-cheer-needy-families-jews-muslims-detroit-west-bloomfield-farmington-hills/77908592/