Fascinating: How Hidabroot Books Found Their Way to the Transportation Ministry

People arriving at the office building of the Ministry of Transportation find themselves in a spacious lobby. Sometimes they linger there for a long time until their scheduled meeting, while in other cases they are lucky and stay for a shorter period. But nowadays, you will hardly find anyone complaining. This is thanks to one of the dedicated employees, who introduces herself as M, who decided to arrange for a package of fascinating books to arrive through the Hidabroot project.

The book distribution project began about a year ago. Over 500,000 shekels were raised to distribute 20,000 inspirational Jewish books by Rabbi Zamir Cohen, Rabbi Penger, Rabbi Shalom Arush, children's books, and booklets in public libraries, hospitals, IDF bases, and other random places, where they would be encountered, read, and provide strength. It now turns out that they also arrived at the Ministry of Transportation offices.

A Momentary Decision

So how did it all begin? How did you come up with the idea?

"For a few years now, I have been consistently distributing Hidabroot's Shabbat newsletters to the employees," M shares, "I constantly see how people enjoy reading them and hear that they look forward to them every week, which gives me a lot of satisfaction. Then, one day, I saw an advertisement for the book distribution project on the website. I thought to myself: 'What an amazing initiative, I wish I could help with this too.' When I later discovered that they were looking for strategic places to place the books, I immediately thought that the Ministry of Transportation, where I work, could be ideal for this, so I approached the organization and requested a package of books."

M notes that after the project leaders verified that there was approval from the management and knew where to place the books, they sent a special courier who brought the book packages.

"Initially I placed the books in the library in the lobby, but very quickly they began to be scattered throughout the office. I can walk between the rooms and find a book here and a book there, all in constant use. Of course, I added at the beginning of each book a printed page stating that the books were donated by Hidabroot, and that they should not be taken outside the building."

Who mainly receives the books?

"There are offices here belonging to the Ministry of Transportation, we deal heavily with public reception, and there are often trainings and workshops held here. So there are the regular employees, but there are also those who come and go for meetings and so forth. The books serve everyone here, that's why there is such a high demand for them."

Books That Are an Asset

M says they received a package of books, all in full use, but there are also some that are in special demand, like Rabbi Zamir Cohen's 'Biblical Archaeology', another book on marriage by Rabbi Zamir, as well as books by Rabbi Penger. "Just recently someone told me they purchased one of the books because they saw it here," she recalls. "The response is unbelievable."

At this stage, no one in the office knows that M is the one responsible for bringing the books. "The truth is, only a few know that I am responsible for the newsletters too," she notes. "I think it's good this way."

"And by the way," she adds, "I am always in a dilemma about enriching the library. On one hand, there is a huge demand, and it's clear that the more books we have, the more people will be interested and read. On the other hand, if there's too much, it might lead to disrespect. For now, each book is treated as if it were an asset, and people schedule turns to get it. It’s good like this. I don't want this to change."