Jewish organization making holiday donations to nonprofits

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. - One organization is aiming to help hundreds this holiday season.

"Tikkun Ha-Ir" means "repair the city" in Hebrew. It’s the name of the group working to do just that.

In the upstairs of a small office space in Whitefish Bay, the holiday spirit is hard at work.

"We have lots of hats, scarves, gloves," Tikkun Ha-Ir executive director Sami Stein Avner said. "This is an outpouring of love, of support for our wider community."

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

Volunteers helped sort through donations, creating piles from hats to clothes and books to toys. These gifts will be given to hundreds throughout Milwaukee.

The group has been collecting donations throughout the community through 11 different Jewish organizations, benefitting 13 nonprofit organizations in the area.

"We see this as an important way of living out our Jewish values doing this work from a very Jewish perspective," Stein Avner said. "All of them are serving different parts of the community. Folks who are struggling to be able to afford gifts on their own."

Volunteers like Ruth Irvings are helping with the holiday drive for the first time.

"Each organization is in a different room and a list of different things they would like," Irvings said. "Not only do they get donations, but they get what they need."

It’s a way to give back and help during a time that it’s needed most.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.

"We certainly aim to be a bridge to the wider community," Stein Avner said.

The gifts will be sent out to be distributed to the 13 nonprofits starting Monday. More than 500 people will benefit from the donations.