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Activities & PartnershipsHere are just some activities and partnerships to advance Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM). Declarations of SupportThe Chief Rabbis of Israel, England, Romania, South Africa, and Ireland have issued a letter supporting JSAM. We are in discussions with the Chief Rabbis of France, Belgium, Italy, and Norway about their issuing similar letters of support. The Knesset Committee for Aliya and Absorption, chaired by Member of Knesset Colette Avital, held a special session to discuss JSAM and issued a letter of support. Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) has agreed to lead his colleagues on Nov. 2, 2005 in entering into the Congressional Record statements supporting JSAM. He will also lead efforts for the U.S. Congress to acknowledge Jewish Social Action Month. United Jewish Communities, the umbrella for the federation system in North America, will feature at the General Assembly two related plenary sessions on Social Justice and Peoplehood, the latter one featuring JSAM. UJC will vote at the GA, to be held in November 2005, on a resolution endorsing Jewish Social Action Month. International Hillel backs JSAM and lists information,
resources, and many local activities on its website, Hillel.org Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association will distribute information on JSAM to our over 260 member rabbis, and encourage them to have their local communities focus on this effort. The Orthodox Jewish Community of the Hague has endorsed JSAM. The Israeli Organization of Citizens’ Advice Bureaus will be adopting Cheshvan as their Volunteers Day. JCRC Social Justice Initiative, St. Louis, Missouri, is promoting JSAM on line. The JCRC educates and promotes social action in the St. Louis Jewish Community by working with Jewish agencies, congregations, and organizations. For information call Marci Mayer Eisen, Coordinator meisen@jcrcstl.org. The Israeli Center to Empower the Citizen is supporting JSAM. They will use Cheshvan to summarize and evaluate their volunteer work and to consider expanding it. Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York began their campaign with a class on the obligation of tzedakah on November 1st. Their Social Action Committee has begun 'Disha's Dress to Drive' which is a month long initiative collecting clothing, food, toiletries and other goods to donate to New York's homeless. They will distribute the collected items with Midnight Run and Project Share. Drisha are also promoting JSAM among related institutions. Educational InitiativesThe literary supplement for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, which is distributed through Jewish newspapers in a dozen cities to 225,000 people, will publicize and participate in Jewish Social Action Month. Mi Bereshit's weekly Parsha Sheets, which go to Jewish elementary schools around the world, will feature JSAM and may sponsor student competitions around the world. The Parsha Sheets reach 20,000 readers in English, 2,000 in Portuguese, and 5,000 in French. If the Hebrew version features JSAM, 50,000 additional readers will learn about JSAM. Daf Hashavuah, of the United Synagogue of the United Kingdom, will promote Jewish Social Action Month in its Lech-Lecha issue, in a piece written by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is featuring an article about Jewish social responsibility and JSAM by Deputy Minister for Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community. The Cardozo Institute, which runs classes and sends a Torah E Mail around the world, will publicize JSAM. SocialAction.com — this website — is using its network and resources to promote Jewish Social Action Month. JVibe Magazine, as part of its participation in JSAM, features teen activist role models for its readers, more than 10,000 Jewish teenagers. Sh’ma JBooks.com We are what we do.org Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) is featuring Jewish Social Action Month in its calendar for day schools. Three thousand calendars went out at the beginning of October 2005. PEJE will also feature JSAM in its October e-newsletter. The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation's Parashat Noah Project
is providing resources for congregations to grapple with the Torah text and to make
connections to the challenges the world has faced in the wake of a spate of horrific
natural disasters. Resources are available which help congregations confront their
own disaster planning needs. View
resource list Youth MovementsHanoar Hazioni — with branches in Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Belgium, Turkey, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica — is planning activities. Maccabi — with 400,000 members and branches in 57 countries, including the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Israel (28 branches) — plans JSAM activities. Betar — with branches in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina — will observe JSAM with social activism. Netzer — in the U.S., Israel, Canada, the U.K., Holland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina — will engage in Jewish social action to help launch JSAM. Ezra — with 9-10,000 campers in the Haredi Leumi communities of England, France, and Israel, and outreach branches in North America and the Russian communities of the Former Soviet Union — will arrange additional learning events and chesed activities as part of Jewish Social Action Month. The Federation of Zionist Youth (FZY) is committed to a major activity for JSAM, such as a national blood donation day across England. Habonim Dror cadets in Israel. Ninety cadets are assisting with an Olympics for the Elderly to be run by the Joint Distribution Committee in Israel. The event is taking place at the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on November 7th and 8th. Habonim Dror UK are sending out a Social action e-mail everyday for the whole month of November to over 2000 people each day. They are also active in the community and have cleaned up a Jewish cemetery in Manchester and have started a mobile phone recycling scheme in conjunction with the Blue Peter TV programme. StudentsThe World Union of Jewish Students, the Union of Jewish Students in Britain, and its equivalent in Germany will mark JSAM with heightened social activism. Chabad of Stanford University will be baking ‘Challot of love’ on 17 November and distributing it to people below the poverty line. Paideia, The European Centre for Jewish Studies in Sweden will be active in the centre and promoting the idea amongst their alumni. KEDMA is an International student organization with
branches in Israel and the US. We work with university and yeshiva students,
aiming to assist disadvantaged communities in Israel and to promote the concept
of social justice and tikkun olam. Visit www.kedma.org This month kedma is proud to be running a few social action projects focused on health:
SchoolsThe students of Leo Baeck School in Haifa will volunteer in a nursery for handicapped children as just one social action project to observe JSAM. Primary schools in the Tel Aviv area will be reading stories about caring for others, under the tutelage of Benny Bailey. Hillel at Stanford is planning the following activities:
SynagoguesThe United Synagogue in London will be promoting Jewish Social Action Month in all of its communities. The Shomrei Hadat Federation Synagogue in London will advance JSAM, probably in a joint campaign with World Jewish Relief. Congregation Beit Shalom in Visalia, California is a small synagogue of 45 families. Our religious school students are learning about tikkun olam, social action, and tzedakah. We are focusing our efforts during Cheshvan by bringing gently used coats, sweaters, and/or sweatshirts to the synagogue in order to be donated to a needy organization. We are also bringing cans or packages of food for redistribution. They have made and taken home tzedakah boxes in order to contribute a portion of their families' income to others less comfortable. Our students are learning about and practicing tzedakah and tikkun olam as part of Jewish observance through action. The Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York has indicated interest in participating. Amiel and Likrat Shlichut, which train young rabbis to lead Diapora communities, will encourage their members to participate. Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore, Plandome, New York
Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel of Bergen County is a small congregation of approximately 60 families who are have always been involved with Tzedek and Chesed. We are currently collecting warm winter clothes for the Homeless in Hackensack, NJ and for the Hebrew Union College's Clothing Closet outreach program to New York's homeless. Our ongoing monthly efforts include donating food to the Center for Food Action, which supplies food to needy families within Bergen County. We also donate gently used books and games to the Hackensack University Hospital's Children Services department. Other activities include preparing and serving food at a local homeless shelter during the year. Recently we formed a Tzedek committee and have undertaken letter-writing campaigns on social injustices relating to community and national issues. Our committee also sends letters and e-mails to Congressmen and Senators on issues affecting the most vulnerable members of our society when social programs are targeted for budget cuts. YeshivotYeshivat Hakotel will organize activities dedicated to the theme of tikkun olam (repairing the world) on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan. Machon Gold organized learning about social action for Rosh Chodesh Elul. CampaignsBabaganewz.com Recipients of the full-color magazine BabagaNewz — over 40,000 students in 46 U.S. states, in 1,400 Jewish schools and 3,500 classrooms — will read about and celebrate Jewish Social Action Month. The Jewish Coalition for Service will launch a national mitzvah time-pledge campaign. The Joint Distribution Committee plans to participate, possibly through its project of Olympics for the elderly. The Israeli Society of Matnasim plan to do a major event, probably a conference around its social action activities. World Jewish Relief is backing JSAM and will be running special campaigns based on Social Action Month. JLSA is Launching a Tzedakah Project to Help Rebuild
Congregation Beth Israel of New Orleans! Volunteer ActivitiesKolDor member Shlomit Wagman will be leading a weekly volunteer activity in the Negev distributing food and clothes to the elderly, families in need and immigrants from Ethioia. Thanksgiving Meal Delivery, Sunday, November 20, 2005,
10:45 am (prompt) until 2:30 pm. Congregation Rodeph Sholom (in conjunction wtih
Dorot), 7 West 83rd Street (between Central Park West and Columbus Ave.) Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Porto Alegre has collected old newspapers and redeemed them for money to buy food for the poor. They are also planning to donate and bring toys into a daycare center. Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Curitiba has collected food and participated in an event in support for APACN - Association Paranese for Children with Neoplasia. Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Sao Paulo have started a campaign to collect food for the poor and other volunteer activities. Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Rio de Janeiro have a three part campaign. On Tuesday November 8th there will be a movement party where each participant donates one kilo of non-perishable food to be given to the poor. They hope to reach one ton! They will visit a local orphanage and run fun activities for the children and will also run a Kabbalat Shabbat with theater and dancing in the Home of Hope of the local Jewish community. Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Bahia will collect food and clothing for the needy and are also volunteering in a day care center. Habonim Dror Brazil, Snif Recife will be visiting an orphanage to cheer up the kids. They are also planning a competition to collect the most clothing, to be measured in kilometers! Projects by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County:
Bnei Akiva & World Jewish Relief as part of Jewish Social Action Month is helping impoverished Jews in the former Soviet Union. Collections of unwanted, good as new clothes, soft toys, books & videos or brand new stationery, games, puzzles and cosmetics & unwanted gifts to be wrapped and distributed to needy families this Chanukah. When: Sunday 27th November The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel is proud to join in the important initiative of JSAM. The SPNI's support for JSAM is reflected in our commitment to providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to experience and protect the Land of Israel. We believe that environmental action which is organized by and for communities is in itself a form of social action. Our community-based environmental campaigns unify diverse populations in an effort to ensure a healthy future for all.
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