Eleven months out of the year, Benjamin Packard is a pretty normal guy.
Packard, 37, lives in Oakland, California. He enjoys a rewarding career as a “mild-mannered financial advisor who helps millennials prepare for retirement.” He’s an enthusiastic dad to two young kids.
But as Hanukkah approaches, everything changes. “Every holiday season, for about thirty days, I turn into a superhero,” Packard said. His chosen mission is a little unusual: “I answer customer service complaints from Jews all around the world.”
This might sound like a weird Jewish remake of all those made-for-TV Santa Claus movies. But it’s actually a very true story about a garage hobby that grew into an international business and now transports a very special piece of Judaica to about a thousand Jewish homes each year.