SOCIAL ACTION
TZEDAKAH AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
TZEDAKAH AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 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. We always welcome new members of the committee and new volunteers. If you are interested in contributing to any social action projects, please contact Debbie Goldstein.
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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
Tuna Casseroles Needed for Community Cafe Dinner the fourth Sunday of each month! -- Several casseroles are needed for the Durham Community Cafe 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. .. Besides making casseroles, Beth El's commitment is to provide servers for the community meal on the fourth Sunday of each month (5:45 PM - 7:15 PM). If you are interested in participating in this community service project, please contact Erica Rapport Gringle. Pre-teens through adult can serve so this too is great mitzvah to do with your older kids. We usually feed over 200 men, women and children.
(use
very large rectangular or oval disposable tin) 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 the office at 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.
Volunteer as a court appointed Guardian ad Litem and change a child's life of hurt into one of hope.
Durham County's Guardian Ad Litem Program
Beth El Co-Sponsorship of Habitat for Humanity houses
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)
Our 6th annual Blood Drive will be on February 26, 2012. Sign up NOW!! Did
you know... Every minute of every day, someone needs blood, yet only 3 in 100 Americans give blood? There is no substitute for blood. We rely on donors. Please consider helping to maintain a safe and stable blood supply in our community. To find out if you are eligible to donate blood, visit the American Red Cross website at http://www.redcross.org. To give blood: you must be healthy, at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and have NOT donated blood in the last 8 weeks (January 1). For more information contact Carla Fenson at car.fen@hotmail.com Our 5th annual Blood Drive was another success! Sunday February 20th,2011 we held our 5th Beth El Blood Drive. Our total unit donation was 35 units-a bit short of our 40 unit goal but still an immeasurable gift to those in need. As in the past, the success of this blood drive was the result of the support, efforts and involvement of many. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this mitzvah. Thank you to each individual donor who came out to donate as well as our volunteers. |
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Chapel Hill/Carrboro: Sunday, March 25, 2012 Durham: Sunday, April 1, 2012
Thank you Team Beth El for walking and raising
money for hunger relief in the Video
footage from the 2011 CH/C walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHvl6pZVEIk Find
the walk you wish to join and/or financially support at:
Durham walk:
Chapel Hill/Carrboro walk: Why We Walk
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Food
& Toiletry Drives Make
a habit of checking grocery stores' specials for Wednesday, February 1 thru Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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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“Books for Prison Libraries” Project If donating used books, please "black-out" names or any other ID information. Books that are welcomed:
Questions? Contact Rhoda Silver 919-688-0077 |
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The Knitting Chevra The Knitting Chevra meets the second Sunday* of each month (2011/2012 dates: Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 13, Dec. 11, Jan 8, Feb 12, March 11 & May 13) from 10 to 11:30 in the Beth El library. In addition to people coming to the meetings we have "sattelite" knitters who work on the same knitting projects that we have but do them independently. We welcome all! *We will not be meeting in April, 2012 Hats, Hats, Hats! June, 2011: Knitting
Chevra wraps up another year!
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Please
support: American
Jewish World Service
Lifeline for the Old (Yad Lakashish) Jewish
National Fund Bema’aglei
Tzedek MAZON SEEDS
OF PEACE Urban
Ministries of Durham Yad
Sarah ZAKA For
links to more organizations: |
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