LAKEWOOD – A group of community leaders from the town's Orthodox Jewish community on Tuesday delivered two vans full of food, drinks and basic essentials to members of the town's Latinx community, whose members have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The vans were packed with 75 boxes of food, as well as drinks, snacks, toiletries and 1,500 medical face masks as part of a donation drive for Voz Latina, a Lakewood group that provides emergency support for the town's Latinx community.

"We live side by side," said Eli Liberman, part of the group that organized the donation drive. "Many of the people in the Hispanic community work in a lot of businesses owned by those in the Orthodox community.

"We've always felt close to them, but we wanted to show it to them not just with words but with action," he said.

The donation drive was organized by Liberman, Mark Tress and Nechama Basser, along with Bikur Cholim, a Lakewood-based charity named for the Jewish commandment to give aid to the sick.

Bikur Cholim has also donated meals to local hospitals and health care workers on the front lines fighting COVID-19.

During a Facebook Live interview with the Asbury Park Press last month, Yeshiva Beth Medrash Govoha President Rabbi Aaron Kotler called on the Orthodox Jewish community to support the Latinx community, specifically asking them to continue paying idle domestic workers and other employees "even though you may be suffering yourself.

“The Latino community, we are brothers and sisters. We are all distressed and we all have to stick together,” Kotler said. “All races. All religions, especially at this time — we show our best when we all pull together.”

Kotler was specifically quoted on the online fundraiser page set up by Basser last week, specifically asking for help for "our Latino neighbors.

"I haven't left my house at all for weeks, and neither have most of my neighbors, but this was just such an urgent need," Basser said.

The GoFundMe had an original goal of $5,000 but has hit nearly $6,800 in donations. The donations made Tuesday didn't use all of the online donations, as some products were donated by local stores and businesses, Liberman said.

The GoFundMe page notes that the group will use the remaining funds — and any more donations that come in — to make more purchases and deliver more supplies to the Latinx community.

"This show of solidarity really touches my heart," Voz Latina president Alejandra Morales wrote on Facebook. "It comes during a very difficult moment for all of us in Lakewood and beyond. These donations we have received in the last couple of days are already helping Latino families in Lakewood. We're together in this and we'll make it through."

Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and basically whatever else is happening. Contact him at mdavis@gannettnj.com or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.