Where's the Matzah?

Despite efforts by Jewish groups to provide kosher-for-Passover food to as many as 2,000 Jewish troops involved in the Iraq War, several Jewish soldiers and chaplains complained to The Jewish Week that there is not enough for the eight-day holiday that begins Wednesday night.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) said he heard some of the same complaints but has been rebuffed in his efforts to get the Air Force to fly more Passover provisions to Kuwait and Iraq.

Nadler explained that the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, which is responsible for sending Passover food to the troops, told the Air Force that supplies were adequate.

"So I have the chaplains telling me they need food and the Air Force saying the JWB says the food there is sufficient," he said.

Nadler said a Manhattan group asked for his help in sending the Jewish service personnel 1,300 pounds of Passover food it had collected after hearing about the shortage.

"Bureaucratic red tape" has provided obstacles, he said, so the congressman said he plans to meet with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to get the goods sent.

A Jewish member of the Air Force in Kuwait, Senior Airman Leah Dunne of Patchogue, L.I., was not sure whom to blame when she complained about the shortage of kosher-for-Passover food.

"It is very unfortunate that the Air Force will not be more supportive," she wrote in an e-mail. "I'm honestly very disappointed."

Told that Jewish organizations had raised tens of thousands of dollars to have the JWB send Passover food, Dunne, 23, wrote: "That amount can buy a lot, where is it all? We don't have much food for Passover--matzah, matzah ball soup and some tuna fish. We might be able to get some eggs. Absolutely No Food has reached us; everything we have we purchased. . I don't think that is enough food to last eight days - and definitely not very nutritious."

Dunne added that she has notified her family about the problem and that "they are going to send a package, and I will share with the others what I receive."

Nadler said the mix-up apparently stems from the fact that no one expected to be in a war during Passover.

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