“The Jewish community should be extremely proud.”
Led by Barry Kaseff, the local Jewish community banded together to build a “Mitzvah House,” for Heartland Habitat for Humanity. Mark Naster, Heartland Habitat’s director of corporate and foundation relations, announced the coming together of an entire Jewish community “has not been done by any other Habitat affiliate in the country.”
Naster’s remarks were made at a Home Blessing ceremony Sunday, Jan. 31. Speakers included rabbis and Heartland Habitat representatives.
The Mitzvah House build was spearheaded by Kaseff and a committee including Jeff Goldenberg, Asher Herbet, Alan Edelman, Dave Herbet, Stacey Belzer and Harold Kaseff. Kaseff has been inspired by the project in many ways.
“Home ownership gives a dignity and pride that so many of us take for granted. When you have a whole neighborhood of these homes, the sum is so much greater than the parts. And when a piece of our general community is uplifted, the ripple effects are dramatic,” Kaseff said.
As Tom Lally, president and CEO of Heartland Habitat, explained it, Habitat offers “simple, decent, affordable housing for God’s people, built by God’s people.” The Kansas City, Kansas, home will be owned and inhabited by the Agurrie Family, who were required to put in 350 sweat equity hours, a lot of it done at the Heartland Habitat for Humanity ReStore (a public retail outlet that sells quality new and used surplus building materials and appliances that are priced at 20 percent to 80 percent off retail.)
In the beginning
The idea to build a Mitzvah House was several years in the making. It began with Kaseff’s friends and family celebrating both his 40th and 50th birthdays by volunteering for Habitat. It was after his 50th birthday, about a year and a half ago, that the idea of a Jewish communal Habitat for Humanity project began to take root. After some initial exploration, the committee came together and began raising funds and gathering the volunteers to work on the project.
Kaseff is thrilled with the way so many people contributed either with donations or physical work.
“I am so proud to be a part of our amazing Jewish community. In this crazy world, it is so comforting to know that I am surrounded by caring, giving and loving individuals,” he said.
“Seventeen Jewish agencies and congregations came together to complete this project that allows a responsible family to be free from their current situation and move into home ownership,” he continued. “Every agency came together and they all had enough people to do this.”
Kaseff estimates approximately 200 people volunteered on the house build. Generally, it takes about 16 weeks to build a Habitat house, but this one took 13. The Jewish community worked on Sundays — not a typical day for Habitat volunteers to work. Habitat provided volunteers on other days of the week.
Joe Carignan, Heartland Habitat’s director of volunteer services, said the Sunday schedule couldn’t accommodate every group that wanted to work.
“There was an overflow of more people than we needed to knock this out.”
Two of the more dedicated Jewish volunteers on Mitzvah House were Barbara and Gary Rogoff, members of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. Kaseff said Gary Rogoff even took days off work during the week to help build.
Gary Rogoff said, “It’s been an honor and a pleasure to work on this Mitzvah House for the past four months. Meeting the Agurrie family was amazing. It showed this is a gift that will impact generations. This was my first experience with Heartland Habitat for Humanity but it will certainly not be my last. I’m looking forward to the next Mitzvah build — whenever that may be.”
The financial commitment
According to Habitat’s Naster, it takes about $140,000 to build each home. In order to sponsor this project, Mitzvah House was required to raise $65,000 before construction could begin. Kaseff thought he might face resistance as he tried to raise funds. Instead he found just the opposite.
“In the back of my mind I don’t think I would have done it if I thought it was impossible,” he said. “Every aspect of the project the committee took on, they found people smiling and happy to be involved.”
“It reaffirmed my idea of how great this community is.”
Heartland Habitat homes are sold to approved families with a no profit, no interest loan. Monthly mortgage payments (including taxes and insurance) range from $400 to $550.
This Mitzvah House is a reverse story and one-half featuring three bedrooms (two in the basement and one on the main floor), two bathrooms (one in the basement and one on the main floor), a full kitchen, a full basement and a combined living and dining room. The all-electric house is energy star rated to 3.0, has an attached one-car garage and a deck off of the kitchen.
The future
This isn’t the first time a group from the Jewish community has banded together to work on a Habitat house. A group of Jews, Christians and Muslims have come together every two years for the past several years to work together on a project known as The House That Abraham Built. It was a project the late Susan Choucroun championed along with Congregation Ohev Sholom’s Rabbi Scott White.
Kaseff hopes all the Mitzvah House volunteers will join next year in this or a similar interfaith effort.
“Our community comes together so often for so many acts of tikkun olam. I hope we will participate in another effort in Kansas City, Missouri, that will be a coalition of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.”
He also expects the committee will gather in the fall of 2016 and see if there is interest in doing another Mitzvah House in 2017.
Everyone involved with the Mitzvah House project at the Home Blessing enthusiastically joined in as the Shehecheyanu blessing was recited “giving thanks to God for enabling us to experience a new or special occasion.”
One of the owners, Ted Agurrie Sr., gave a short thank you speech.
“This is perfect for us and we will try to cherish this place for ever and ever.”
Kaseff will treasure the experience of being able to help someone in the community, regardless of their religion, in such a tangible way and the way the entire community worked together to accomplish the task.
“The point was having all these different agencies, all these different congregations sitting around the table, coming together on something we can all agree on. We finished the project and we should be proud of that.”
“I want to say thank you to all those involved in building this house, I knew we could do it, and I look forward to the possibility of doing it again.”