Houston teen brothers create face masks from kippahs for the homeless

The brothers have so far collected nearly 700 kippahs through donations.

By AARON REICH
$167,000 kippah (photo credit: VERYFIRSTTO)
$167,000 kippah
(photo credit: VERYFIRSTTO)
A pair of teenage brothers from Houston, Texas, have started a new project to make face masks for the city's homeless out of kippahs, CNN reported.
Brothers Matthew and Jeremy Jason came up with the idea for the project, called Kippahs to the Rescue, during a Shabbat dinner. They were discussing the new recommendations released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which advised Americans to wear face masks in public in an effort to help stem the further spread of COVID-19.
The brothers then realized that a kippah had a similar shape to a mask.
"The community has given us a lot, and my family wants to be a part of that," Matthew Jason told CNN. "We want to be able to help others."
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many countries and municipalities have reported a shortage of protective medical supplies such as face masks.
Understanding this, the Jason brothers went through their home and scrounged up at least 60 different kippahs, many from various bar mitzvahs or other events.
"We knew there was a mask shortage, so we used those kippahs to start production," Matthew told CNN. "From there, the idea took off."
The Jason brothers are no strangers to volunteering efforts, and spend Fridays helping to feed Houston's homeless with the nonprofit Food Without Bombs, CNN reported. It was due to this that they were keenly aware of the significant amount of risk the homeless faced due to the pandemic.
"They don't have a lot of money or access to masks," Matthew explained to CNN. "So we're like, 'Hmm, that'd actually be kind of cool to see what we could do with it.'"
Since then, the brothers have enlisted the help of the rest of the family as well as members of the family's synagogue, Brith Shalom, the latter of which set up a drop box for kippah donations, having gathered nearly 700 at the time of writing.
In a video uploaded to YouTube, Matthew explains how to convert a kippah into a mask. The steps are simple, needing to only sew a six-inch elastic strap.
"If you like this idea, I hope that you can do the same in your community and make more Kippahs to the Rescue," he says at the end of the video.


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