A Fair Deal
How one person can make a difference across the globe.
On a chilly afternoon we found ourselves in Emmanuel’s warm basement office under the Bradford Mill building. The space is filled with mortar guns (a nifty construction tool his company invented to make laying bricks more efficient) that almost look like toys with their bright colors and Nerf-Gun shapes. Fitting, because the other half of the space is occupied by Zero Toys (their other company that, despite the name, does in fact make and supply great toys!). Emmanuel Aronie greets us and sets out a few chairs in the office for our conversation. Emmanuel has been a great customer in our ice cream shop for many years; he’s always smiling and bringing coffee back for his family and co-workers. Every day he comes in, walks down the line, scans the flavor board for Aztec Chocolate to put in an affogato, then comes to the counter to greet the staff. At the root of this cheerful demeanor is a kind heat, which is what has brought us to this basement today.
Emmanuel has been working to bring cheer into this world by way of helping others. Right now, he is working on what he calls a Fair Deal to help expand his efforts of making and delivering clothing to Syrian refugee kids in Istanbul. This journey started somewhat unassumingly many years ago in New Mexico, stemming from a crash and introduction to Subud.
It was 1971. Emmanuel had recently graduated from college and was helping his brother-in-law build a house in New Mexico. One night they went out for hamburgers. As dinner was winding down, Emmanuel went out in search of a phone booth to call a Mrs. Peacock about a side job painting her house. The first booth he found was missing a phonebook, but he quickly located another across the highway. It was dark and there were clearly no cars coming so he set out across. After three lanes he felt a sudden danger, looked up, and saw headlights from a car that launched him 100 feet down the highway, breaking his leg. He was rushed to a hospital and woke up eight days later. Emmanuel spent six weeks in the hospital regaining mental and motor function.
After his release, his brother-in-law suggested they go and see a woman he knew, Monique. The instant he met her, he was entranced.
Everything she does has this aura - her laugh, her walk, her snacks, everything was different.
They met only briefly as, shortly after their arrival, Monique realized she had a Subud meeting to attend but couldn’t explain what that meant at the time. This was the first time he’d ever heard the word but it stuck out. The second time it came up was again at Monique’s house, many years later at their second meeting. Being in the area, Emmanuel stopped by to say hello. His knock was answered with shouts of praise and a plea for him to watch her kids. He obliged. The kids asked for a story. He declined. That didn’t go over well, so he began, “Once upon a time…” He magically received and relayed a story: the Blue Bonnet about a world that turns blue and what happens afterward. Emmanuel considers this the second point of connection as the energy in the house allowed him to create this story from nothing and to tell it so well that he later retold it on the radio.
There was something in the aura of this woman that was so engaging. It was clue number two that something was cooking with Subud.
The third clue came during mass, having accidentally found it in a book. The fourth was on a return trip to Santa Fe to get a rod removed from his leg from the previous operation. He opened another book called The New Religions by Jacob Needleman straight to a page about Subud. At this point he turned to God, “I know you’re trying to tell me something but I’m not as brilliant as you think I am, so help me out here!” Through a friend, Emmanuel was put in contact with a Subud group and he’s been a part of it ever since.
So what is Subud? In essence, it is a spiritual exercise or training called the ‘latihan’ which is open to people whatever their religion or belief. Through this practice, a person may spontaneously experience inner changes that allow one to be more fully human, more sensitive to higher values and usually manifest themselves in a person’s everyday pursuits. Subud involves no doctrine and is not based on following a particular leader/teacher; people form their own beliefs based on their personal experiences.
The single most important aspect of Subud to me is that it enables one and me particularly to find within myself a reason to be cheerful. You know, a connection with my inner truth or my true inner self. I think that if anyone can find that through one thing or another, whether it’s religion or meditation or reading or sewing or playing sports, what have you, that can be a great thing. Subud does not prescribe that you should join, it’s only for people who are kind of touched by the simplicity of the process.
Studying Subud has taken Emmanuel around the world. His first opportunity came and pestered him until he finally got the hint that this was something he should do. A friend called and asked him to go on a program to Ukraine, which he initially declined. Later, in a moment of clarity at home he realized his mistake and immediately started calling about availability. The contact he reached seemed interested and asked him for a write up of what he would talk about as well as to come up with $1000 to be able to go. Having only $200 to his name at the time, this seemed a little daunting. However, as further confirmation that he was meant to go, he suddenly became a magnet for money with the last bit coming at a funeral: a friend, Ruslan, got him talking and asked if he needed anything, getting Emmanuel’s address. Shortly afterward, Emmanuel received a check for $1000. All Ruslan asked in return was to hear that one person had been opened to Subud. Emmanuel made him a very “cheerful man” when he sent him a list of 99 names.
Subud has been a driving force in Emmanuel’s life both seen and unseen. It gave him an opportunity to meet incredible people and build a network of friends around the world. This has come in handy with his work in Istanbul.
One night, leaving a Subud gathering, Emmanuel was driving home thinking about how messed up it is that there are all these Syrian refugee kids who have nothing and that no one is doing anything about. He was suddenly filled with an incredible understanding about the situation in Syria and Turkey and how these kids are the helpless victims of a terrible interlocking system between governments and people and religions and money. So what could he do? He told God that he would do something, that he’d put in as much as he could and go from there.
The first step was to reach out to a friend in Turkey, Orville, who he’d met in an online game of Scrabble and sent toys for his grandson. Orville helped connect Emmanuel to Kizilay, a network in Istanbul, with whom he formed a plan to send a few boxes of toys. On his next trip to the area, Emmanuel went and met the kids and the people who worked there (though he couldn’t tell the kids he sent the toys or he would’ve been treated differently). Seeing all the kids happy and playing with the toys, Emmanuel thought he could do more; toys are ephemeral.
Next, he reached out to his girlfriend in Ukraine who makes clothes under the brand, Seluji, asking her to make clothes for the children. They formed a plan to purchase fabric in Kharkov, make the clothes in Ukraine, and take them to Istanbul. So far they’ve had two successful donations, with Emmanuel hand delivering the second, for a total of 108 outfits. The kids absolutely loved them--he was thrilled to see their faces as they got to come and pick out a yellow or green outfit that was made just for them and that they got to keep for their own, to see kids who have nothing get something. The 108 outfits sounds like a large accomplishment for one person to pull together, but Emmanuel is already hard at work trying to expand. He’s focused on the 1.5 million Syrian refugee kids who are living in Turkey today. This is where his Fair Deal comes in; he hopes to partner with a Turkish company to employ Turkish or refugee workers to make clothes for these kids, offer jobs, and help them build a profit.
If you have any information that would help Emmanuel in this endeavor, please let us know! Everyone should have a reason to be cheerful and it’s amazing to see the impact one person can have to make that happen. As Emmanuel said at the beginning of our interview, “I’m doing what I can to help out and let the politicians sort themselves out.”
What can you do?