Repair the World

Gear Up for a Summer of Meaningful Service

Summer is in the air, and all over the country high schools and colleges are gearing up for nearly three whole months of summer vacation. Not sure what you’re doing this summer yet? Don’t fret.

Make this year your summer of service by plugging into a meaningful service or volunteer opportunity. You’ll have a great time helping others and will build up lots of fun “what I did this summer” stories to share with friends next fall. To get you started, check out these summer volunteer programs from Repair the World’s grantee-partners and beyond:

• Uri L’Tzedek: Combine innovative social activism (specifically working on their ethical restaurant program, Tav HaYosher) with leadership development and Torah study. Apply here.
• Livnot : A four week summer program of hiking, volunteering, and spiritual and cultural exploration in Israel. Apply here.
• Jewish Farm School: Join this one-week intensive program in sustainable agriculture, food justice, and Jewish tradition. Apply here.
• Hazon: Get your summer dose of adventure with Hazon’s cross-country bike ride from Washington State to Washington DC, featuring local community service projects along the route. Register here.
• Grand Street Settlement: Join this NYC org’s Pen is Mighty! summer development internship, and gain experience fund raising for non profit social justice work. Apply here.
• Volunteer Match: Find an exciting short-term volunteer opportunity in your neighborhood with Volunteer Match.
• Idealist.org: Search their volunteer database for awesome volunteer opportunities with worthwhile orgs.

How are you spending your summer of service? Let us know by tweeting @repairtheworld.

Celebrate National Volunteer Week – and Win!

Here at Repair the World, we are service nerds and proud of it – the kind of people who think every day offers fantastic opportunities to volunteer and make a difference. So let’s just say we’re extra excited this week. Not because the weather’s been so lovely, but because it’s National Volunteer Week!

Today through April 21, people across the country are honoring America’s long tradition of service and volunteerism (seriously, it goes way back), and celebrating all the people who take time out of their days to make their communities and the world a better place.

Volunteering comes in all shapes and sizes, from helping a neighbor plant a garden or a local school paint a mural, to spending an evening at a soup kitchen or tutoring a student, lending your skills to a non-profit organization or embarking on a immersive service learning adventure. So for this National Volunteer Week, find your volunteer bliss (here are some ideas to get you started) and put your free time to great use.

To sweeten the pot, your do-gooding could win you great prizes. The Vermont-based, farmer-owned dairy cooperative, Cabot, created Reward Volunteers, a mobile app that lets volunteers age 13 and up log their service hours and win prizes for themselves and the organizations they help. Despite being hosted by a dairy coop, the prizes are definitely not cheesy – you can win ski passes, cash prizes, and even a cruise to Alaska – all for taking the time to help others.

Find out how to log your hours with Reward Volunteers here, and let us know how you’re celebrating National Volunteer Week below or by tweeting us at @repairtheworld!

J-Serve Interview: Ryan Ladd

This is the fifth in a series of interviews featuring a handful of the nearly 10,000 awesome teens who are involved with J-Serve – the International Day of Jewish Youth Service coming up on April 22. Below, Ryan Ladd, a 17-year old high school junior in Austin, Texas shares his story. (And check out the first, second, third and fourth J-Serve interviews.)

Can you tell me more about your background with service?
For as far back as I can remember, any service I did was with the Jewish community. My first real introduction was doing service with other teens from my synagogue, and planning a community service project for my bar mitzvah. That experience was particularly eye opening because I got to see community service and leadership blended together. My project was focused on philanthropy, and I threw a benefit concert at a country club to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. I invited lots of people, my friend’s band played, and we had raffles with prizes donated from local stores. The event ended up raising more than $3,000.

This Friday: Celebrate The Third Annual Freedom Shabbat

Feeling matzah’d out and in need of a little inspiration? This Friday, April 13, join Repair the World and 117 Jewish communities across the globe for the third-annual Freedom Shabbat.

A program of Not For Sale – an amazingly cool organization working to curb human trafficking and abolish modern day slavery – Freedom Shabbat encourages Jews from all backgrounds (and their friends too!) to join together on the Shabbat that falls over Passover and call for the end of slavery. (Learn more about what modern day slavery looks like here.)

Whether you celebrate Shabbat every week, or have never attended a Friday night dinner before, Freedom Shabbat offers the perfect opportunity to share a meal with friends, learn about a super-important issue, and begin a conversation about creating a more just, slavery-free world.

Find out more about Freedom Shabbat and Not for Sale at the video below. Then, join in the fun by locating a Freedom Shabbat dinner near you.

Freedom Shabbat | Teaching from Not For Sale on Vimeo.

How are you planning to celebrate Freedom Shabbat? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting @repairtheworld.

On Passover: Thinking About Modern Day Slavery

Passover is the perfect time to celebrate freedom. During the seders we retell the story of the Jewish people’s freedom from slavery under Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. And eating matzah (aka “the bread of affliction“) instead of bread helps keep the story fresh in our minds throughout the week of Passover.

Unfortunately, people around the world are still enslaved – even if they are not literally living in chains. Too many farm laborers, including those in America, work in abusive conditions and are paid next to nothing for their work. And according to an article in The Huffington Post 2.4 million people across the globe are trafficked for sex and forced labor like working in sweatshops (yep, they still exist) and domestic work. That’s practically the entire population of Chicago, living in modern day bondage!

Repair the World has written before about the Slavery Footprint, an eye-opening website that lets us get a visual sense of how our own consumption habits are connected to modern slavery – even in ways we never imagined. This year, the Slavery Footprint teamed up with Rabbis for Human Rights to create a special edition of the slavery footprint for Passover.

If you never considered the idea that your Passover matzah, hard boiled eggs, grape juice, and the leftover charoset in the fridge could be tied to slavery, this Passover resource is a must-read, and a must-share with your friends and family. Want to find out what you can do to help curb modern day slavery during Passover and beyond? Check out Made in a Free World’s smartphone app, which lets you investigate the supply chains of the food, clothes, and other goods you buy, right at the store.

Monday Link Roundup

Happy Monday! We hope you enjoyed amazing Passover seders filled with song, great food, family and, of course, thoughts of freedom. To keep you in the Passover spirit for the rest of the holiday, here’s your weekly roundup of service and social-justice stories from around the web.

• JTA writes about one of our favorite service-focused Jewish singer-songwriters, Regina Spektor.
• The Forward reported that food pantries swelled at Passover this year, as the number of Jewish families facing poverty and hunger grew.
• The Huffington Post, meanwhile, published an essay by the President of the US Fund for UNICEF about helping to nourish hungry children around the world this Passover.
• HandsOn Blog shared some really interesting (and encouraging!) statistics about volunteering in America.
• GOOD published a school teacher’s passionate reaction to seeing the movie Bully.
• Have Fun Do Good ends things this week with a call for more great reading: their suggestions for eight, great change-making blogs.

Modern Day Passover Heroes: Aaron

Each year during the Passover seders, we recite the ages-old story of the Jews’ exodus from ancient Egypt – a tale which can seem far removed from our lives today. But each year, we also have the opportunity to breathe new life into the story as we join together to put ourselves in our ancestors’ shoes, and make connections that help bring the story closer to our own reality.

In recent years, modern adaptations of the Ten Plagues have been created, additions (like oranges and olives) have been added to the seder plate and tons of versions of the classic Maxwell House Haggadah have been written. The Exodus story has provided endless inspiration. But what about the story’s main characters?

Some serious game changers starred in the epic story of Passover, and we think they deserve some attention. So this year, Repair the World decided to have a little fun and explore modern day heroes – today’s leaders who work tirelessly on behalf of others and tikkun olam – and see how they remind us of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron.

Last but not least: Aaron.

Modern Day Passover Heroes: Miriam

Each year during the Passover seders, we recite the ages-old story of the Jews’ exodus from ancient Egypt – a tale which can seem far removed from our lives today. But each year, we also have the opportunity to breathe new life into the story as we join together to put ourselves in our ancestors’ shoes, and make connections that help bring the story closer to our own reality.

In recent years, modern adaptations of the Ten Plagues have been created, additions (like oranges and olives) have been added to the seder plate and tons of versions of the classic Maxwell House Haggadah have been written. The Exodus story has provided endless inspiration. But what about the story’s main characters?

Some serious game changers starred in the epic story of Passover, and we think they deserve some attention. So this year, Repair the World decided to have a little fun and explore modern day heroes – today’s leaders who work tirelessly on behalf of others and tikkun olam – and see how they remind us of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron.

Next up: Miriam.

Modern Day Passover Heroes: Moses

Each year during the Passover seders, we recite the ages-old story of the Jews’ exodus from ancient Egypt – a tale which can seem far removed from our lives today. But each year, we also have the opportunity to breathe new life into the story as we join together to put ourselves in our ancestors’ shoes, and make connections that help bring the story closer to our own reality.

In recent years, modern adaptations of the Ten Plagues have been created, additions (like oranges and olives) have been added to the seder plate and tons of versions of the classic Maxwell House Haggadah have been written. The Exodus story has provided endless inspiration. But what about the story’s main characters?

Some serious game changers starred in the epic story of Passover, and we think they deserve some attention. So this year, Repair the World decided to have a little fun and explore modern day heroes – today’s leaders who work tirelessly on behalf of others and tikkun olam – and see how they remind us of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron.

First up, Moses:

Repair Interview: Andrew Tepper and the Jewish Disaster Response Corps

Since 2009, Repair the World’s grantee-partner organization, the Jewish Disaster Response Corps has mobilized hundreds of Jewish students in helping to rebuild communities after disasters (like hurricanes, fire, and floods). Recently, JDRC was down in Alabama, rebuilding homes for victims of last year’s tornados.

Andrew Tepper, a senior at NYU who recently volunteered with JDRC, took the time to tell Repair the World about his first experience with manual labor, the trip’s interfaith focus, and the exhilaration that comes from building a home for someone in need.

How did you get involved with JDRC?
I first learned about them last year. One of the Rabbis at the Bronfman Center at NYU spoke about the need for people to help out in Alabama – and particularly about how there had been very few Jewish volunteer groups to go down. Several months after the tornados struck, the initial sensationalism had died down, and support for the area was dwindling a bit. This was a chance to not only live our Jewish values and help others, but a chance to say to the people of Alabama, “we haven’t forgotten about you.”