SOCIAL ACTION
TZEDAKAH AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Click here for links to some organizations _________________________________________ Current Ongoing Programs: Beth El members participate in the life of the community-at-large in a variety of ways including volunteering in area shelter kitchens, serving meals-on-wheels, and serving on the local neighborhood council. Monthly, Beth El volunteers cook and serve lunch and dinner at the Interfaith Council shelter in Chapel Hill. Since January, 1992, members of Beth El and Judea Reform have joined forces every month to cook and serve meals for the homeless and hungry in Durham. Beth El Current Ongoing Programs Include:
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Community Connections SEEDS OF PEACE (SOP) A multi-denominational group, including Jewish, Christian and Muslim representatives, is planning to bring SOP to this area in April to inform us about their efforts (and, of course, to help raise funds). SOP is a non-profit organization whose goal is to train young Israelis and Palestinians in methods of reconciliation and dialogue. The hope is that these future leaders can return to their native societies and help in the work needed to advance the peace process in the area (SOP has also started programs for people in other conflict areas ). Details of the planned events for SOP in the Triangle area will be provided in the future but in the meantime, I invite you to look into the wonderful work that SOP is involved in by going to their website www.seedsofpeace.org. If you are interested in more information about local efforts here, or about other social action intiatives, please contact David Bronstein at 932-5657 or brons003@hotmail.com. Congregations, Agencies, and Neighborhoods --We're currently looking for members interested in working with Congregations, Agencies, and Neighborhoods (CAN). We are trying to get a group of people at Beth El who would be interested in coming to a training session with CAN. It's a true old style Saul Alinsky style community organization here in Durham. If you are interested, please contact Jennifer Sosensky, jwsos@aol.com or 489-8202 Volunteers needed for the Beth El Gift Shop -- If you are interested in working in the Gift or are interested in more of a leadership position, please call the Beth El office. Tuna Casseroles Needed for Community Kitchen Dinner the fourth Sunday of each month! -- Several casseroles are needed for the Community Kitchen dinner that is served on the fourth Sunday of each month. For your convenience, the recipe (click here or scroll down) is printed below. Please deliver the casseroles to Judea Reform before the fourth Sunday of each month during their regular office hours. If you are unable to deliver the casserole, please contact Erica Gringle or the Beth El office to make alternate arrangements. This mitzvah is an easy one in which to involve children. .......
(use very large rectangular or oval disposable tin) Social Action Shelf in the Beth El kitchen - We have designated an area in our kitchen for regular supplies needed for the meal we serve monthly at the Community Kitchen here in Durham. The following items are used on a regular basis: 2 lb. bags of noodles (penne, elbow or rotini), cans of cream of mushroom soup (about 70 ounces and preferably low sodium), Costco sized cans of tuna and green beans, and large canisters of iced tea mix with lemon and sugar. Community of Caring – No meetings to attend; only wonderful mitzvot to perform. Can you occasionally provide a meal for the bereaved, ill or new parents in our community? Are you available to bring community members to Beth El for services? Do you need a ride to services? If you can help those in need regularly or occasionally, or if you need assistance yourself, please contact Mardi, 932-5663 or the office, 682-1238 Local food pantry needs donations -- The Client Services Program of Association of AIDS Services- Carolina operates a small food pantry. For many of their Durham and Orange County clients, their weekly stop at the pantry provides the best source of nutrition they have. They need tuna, beans and other inexpensive sources of protein as well as canned goods. If you have the capacity to help, call Keith or Charles at 596-9898. Food may be dropped-off at the synagogue office during regular office hours. The Inter-Faith Council food pantry is in urgent need of non-perishable food: for a complete list of what they need most please visit: http://www.ifcweb.org/foodneeds.html Please help them collect the following items for their pantry shelves. A Mitzvah Opportunity to help our Jewish Elderly: On the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month Jewish Family Services provides a program and lunch for seniors in our community. This is a wonderful opportunity for our elderly seniors to get together on a regular basis spending time together chatting over a good lunch. We are looking for small groups of friends, a family or two, a Hebrew school class, a Bnei Mitzvah student to consider preparing or sponsoring a lunch in honor or memory of someone or just for the fun of it, for between 15 - 20 seniors. This is an easy and wonderfully rewarding mitzvah opportunity. For more information please contact Michele Pas at mjbpas@aol.com or 493-3175. Volunteers cook and serve lunch at the IFC shelter in Chapel Hill the first Wednesday of every month. Contact Gladys Siegel to volunteer. Volunteers cook and serve dinner at the IFC shelter in Chapel Hill the second Tuesday of every month. Contact Meyer Liberman to volunteer.
Help change the life of Durham's abused and neglected children. For some kids, childhood means soccer games and family picnics. For others, it means abuse, neglect, and a life of hurt. But, you can help by being a powerful voice in their lives. Volunteer as a court appointed Guardian ad Litem and change a life of hurt into one of hope.
Medication and Medical Supplies Drive Members of our synagogue are participating in this December’s Triangle Mission to Cuba. Through this trip, we hope to bring tzedakah to Cuba, while getting to know the Jewish community of Cuba. We hope that Beth El members will support our endeavors through contributions to a drive. We will be focusing our efforts on medical supplies. Boxes will be in the Beth El Library. Items needed for donation are: · Donated prescription medication – Any unused but still current medication you may have at home. · Prescription medication (new prescriptions) – Any Triangle physician or NP who may be willing to donate samples. Cuban Drs. will provide us the specifics as we approach travel time. Always needed are antibiotics, medications for stomach, reflux, heart, arthritis, circulation, diabetes, hypertension, asthma inhalers, etc. We may have need for other medical supplies, to be determined. · Over the counter medications: adult & pediatric vitamins; bandages, antibiotic creams, anti-fungal creams, ointments, cold/flu medications, cough syrups, pain relievers, allergy medication, diarrhea/constipation remedies, antacids, etc. · Dental products – toothpaste, toothbrushes, denture creams We also hope to raise money to help us to buy these items. If you are interested in making a cash donation, please send checks to: Jewish Community Relations Council Attention: Cuban Mission - Mel Bernay – Director Finally, we hope to make connections with physicians or nurses in our area with access to a range of donate-able supplies or materials. This way, once we have specific needs, we will get in touch with these clinicians to see if samples are available. If you are able to help with this, please get in touch. If you have any questions, please contact Abby Goldman at eagoldman@verizon.net
The Social Action Committee has begun a new long-term project to contribute to the Triangle-wide efforts to end homelessness in the region. The project, "Circles of Support", began with a presentation to the Beth El community by representatives from the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition, United Way, Housing for New Hope, and Durham’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness. The City and County of Durham, with support from the federal and local governments, has committed funds and resources to address the homelessness issue, and we are planning for Beth El to be a small, and hopefully growing, part of those efforts. As a first step, the Beth El community will be paired with one family that is transitioning from homelessness to long-term housing. The aim is to provide this family with a broad net of support services over the course of the coming year or two. We are currently assembling a list of Beth El members who have particular skills and abilities that may be useful for this family (e.g., legal expertise, counseling skills, job-seeking skills, skills regarding parenting issues). We also hope to serve as a source of community connectedness, providing the family with holiday meals and gifts. Jennifer Sosensky, who will be the family's primary contact person from our community, will assess how and when help is needed and who from Beth El is best suited for the particular need. The plan is to have many volunteers so that the commitment for any one individual will not be too taxing. If you would like to participate in this project please contact Social Action Committee Chair David Bronstein or Committee Member Abby Goldman. If you can imagine baking their kids a birthday cake, buying a holiday present, mentoring a child, moving or picture hanging, or lending any other professional or personal skills, please join us! Once we build a solid list of interested volunteers, we’d hope to extend our work to other families who are trying to leave homelessness. So please, join us!
Beth El Co-Sponsorship of Habitat for Humanity house
The Habitat house that Beth El co-sponsored and helped to build is done! Even though the house is finished, we will continue to collect money to help cover Beth El's share of sponsorship. Donations for this project should be sent to Beth El with "Habitat Project" in the memo line.
House: o The home is located in Hope Crossing, a “green” Habitat development in Durham o We are building a ranch-style house with energy-efficient features. Home owner: o Robin Bell, a single mother who works for Health and Human Services in Durham, will own the home we help build. o Robin is required to contribute 200 hours “sweat equity” and to pay for the house o Habitat provides a 0% interest 30-year mortgage Financial Commitment: o Sponsorship of a house requires $50,000 o Beth El has committed at least $10,000 toward sponsorship, the first $5,000 of which has been provided by an anonymous donor. o Please send contributions to Beth El marked "Habitat project” o Please contact Laura Svetkey with fund-raising ideas Work: o Beth El is responsible for providing crews for the 7 Sunday build dates o No special skills or tools are required. o Habitat provides tools and crew supervisors who teach us what we need to know o Rules: · Age less than 14: Not allowed on the site for safety reasons. Sorry! · Age 14-15: Must be with a parent. Can help with painting and landscaping, site clean up, serving lunch or bringing water to volunteers · Age 16-17 can use hammers but no power tools · Age 18+ can use power tools · No upper age limit! · Everyone must sign a waiver Thanks for your commitment to Tikkun Olam in Durham!
click image for more photos September 30, 2007 Beth El – Habitat work dayAbout 25 Beth El members turned out at the Habitat for Humanity Hope Crossing building site in Durham on Sunday, September 30. We were joined by about 10 folks from the Young Adult Division of Federation. Habitat provided supervisors, tools, and lots of good instruction. There are 9 houses under construction in Hope Crossing, and the development will eventually have many more Habitat homes. Several of the homes have "green" features, and the development will include green space, native plants, and other environment-friendly ideas.We worked from 1-4:30 pm on a gorgeous Fall day. Some of us worked on a house that was ready for interior painting: we prepared the area, taped windows, and primed the walls. In another house, we did "sheathing", which essentially involved lots of measuring, hammering and some power sawing. In a third house, there were people climbing ladders and hammering nails on high. And on a fourth house, we were putting on siding. As you can tell from this highly technical description, it was not necessary to know anything about building, and there were jobs for all levels of skill, strength, and coordination. We were well-supervised and instructed by Habitat crew chiefs, which kept us productive and safe. At the end of the afternoon, there was visible progress on each of the houses we worked on. There was general enthusiasm for doing this again soon, particularly if we can go back to Hope Crossing and see the houses’ progress. I'm working with Habitat to schedule another date this Fall, and will inform the Beth El community as soon as that's arranged. Thanks to all those who volunteered. Many commented on how great it was "to work in the community while simultaneously bringing together the Beth El community."
THANK YOU. We got a wonderful response to the request for help in bringing an end to the terrible situation in the Darfur region of Sudan. Your generosity led to nearly $3000 being raised. This money will be split between two organizations that are at the forefront of efforts to pressure the Sudanese government to take actions to end the genocide and human displacement that is occurring: the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and SAVE DARFUR, a coalition of social action and religious groups of all denominations. (you can read more about their work at ajws.org and savedarfur.org). Similar to tactics used previously with South Africa, there are efforts to apply financial pressure on the Sudanese government; in that regard, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (of which Beth El is a member) recently passed a resolution to divest from targeted companies that is a source of money for those in power in Sudan. To those of you who gave of your time and/or money on behalf of Darfur, I thank you deeply. To all Beth El chevra/members, I encourage you to consider taking small steps, in whatever way suits you, to improve the world you live in, i.e., tikkun olam. If you’re interested in sharing/discussing new or ongoing initiatives, or want to be more “socially active”, feel free to contact me. David Bronstein, Social Action Chairman (June 2007)
2nd Annual Blood Drive –We did it again! Sunday February 3rd,2008, we held our 2nd Beth El Blood Drive. Our total unit donation this year was 40 units (see note from the American Red Cross below). Clearly this effort will positively affect the lives of many who are in need of blood. Our 3rd annual blood drive will be in February, 2009! From the American Red Cross: On behalf of the American Red Cross, and more importantly, the patients and families that depend on your efforts, thank you. We are proud to have you on our team-the largest volunteer team in the world. Drive Results: 40 people presented to donate blood 8 were first time donors 40 productive units were collected.
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Yom Kippur to Pesach Food Drive was a HUGE Success! In September, 2008, our community began a Yom Kippur to Pesach food drive. Our goal was the collection of 1000 pounds of food and pledges of $1.00 per pound for a community donation to Mazon. When the final SUV-load of food was delivered to the Food Bank the afternoon before Pesach began, we had exceeded our food goal by more than 40% with a grand total of 1,451 pounds. Even more amazing is the amount by which we surpassed our financial goal - not only did we receive $1.82 per pound in pledges, we collected an additional $762.50 in other donations. Using the formulas provided by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, we have provided 15,686 meals. In more concrete terms, we raised enough in the way of food and money to provide three meals a day to a family of five for TWO YEARS, TEN MONTHS, and THIRTEEN DAYS. THANK YOU BETH EL!!!! Please remember that Beth El collects travel size toiletries and non-perishable food items year round.___________________
The Back Pack Project Hadera Kids Hadera is a small coastal city between Tel Aviv and Haifa with a disproportionately large number of Ethiopian immigrants. The Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation has supported Ethiopian immigrants in Hadera since 2004. We were able to fulfill basic needs, mainly of school age children, of the Ganei Alon community. We have established a computer room with PCs, a library, and an awning for the children to be able and spend time outdoors protected from the sun. We have already started to raise money for the next few projects paying attention to the needs of teenagers and senior citizens. As part of our relationship with the Hadera project we have started a tradition bringing backs packs for children every time any of us is visiting Hadera. The kids seem to enjoy the back packs enormously! We are aware of several groups from our area that are going to Israel this summer and visiting our project in Hadera. We would like for every visitor of our community, who is willing to be a witness to a wonderful project that our community efforts are building, to bring with him/her at least one back pack and hopefully visit Hadera. |
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The Knitting Chevra May 4th, 2008, we concluded year 4 of our monthly tzedakah knitting meetings. As a group, we will be contributing more than 12 hand knit baby sweaters and hats to an orphanage in Lilongwe, Malawi. Thank you to Cheryl Marcus (in advance!) for hand-delivering the sweaters and hats again this year directly to the orphanage in June. Once again, I extend a heartfelt thank you to all of the regular-meeting-knitters and satellite-knitters who contributed and thank you too, for your generosity of spirit and time. Hunter Levinsohn, Amy Oates, Barbara Poleski, Sharon Halperin, Lois Ryen, JoAnn Rubin, Sue Slatkoff, Gladys Siegel, and Ivy Wingate. We will begin a new year of tzedakah knitting and crocheting on September 14, 2008. We will begin this year making hats for women undergoing chemotherapy. New members and new ideas are always welcome! 'Satellite knitters', folks who can't come to the meetings but still want to contribute, are also invited to join.Contact Carla Fenson with any questions
Sept 14
children wearing sweaters knitted in 2006-2007
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American Jewish World Service ATZUM Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Family Services The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service http://www.ifcweb.org Lifeline for the Old (Yad Lakashish) Jewish National Fund Bema’aglei Tzedek MAZON SAVE DARFUR SEEDS OF PEACE Urban Ministries of Durham Yad Sarah ZAKA For links to more organizations:
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