Leah Koenig is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Saveur, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Hadassah Magazine, Lilith, Edible Brooklyn and Beliefnet. She contributes a monthly column on food to The Forward and a bi-weekly column to Saveur.com. She is also the former editor of Hazon's award-winning blog, The Jew & The Carrot. Leah joined Repair the World as a contributing editor in late 2009.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
From a submerged boardwalk in Atlantic City, to the ravaging of the famous Jersey shore, New Jersey made big headlines after Hurricane Sandy. Many of the Garden State’s coastal areas were severely damaged and the area was impacted in countless other ways from extensive property damage, widespread (and long lasting) power outages and the loss of 40 citizens, to the threat wildlife and important ecosystems, and billions of dollars in lost revenue.
While many areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy are well on the road to recovery, New Jersey still has a long way to go. Help New Jersey recover by volunteering with or donating to one of the organizations below:
Occupy Sandy, New Jersey One of the leaders of recovery efforts across the tri-state area, Occupy is committed to seeing New Jersey’s recovery through. Keep up to date with volunteer opportunities by following the @OccupySandyNJ Twitter feed.
New Jersey Relief Fund Set up by Governor Chris Christie and his wife, Mary Pat Christie, donations to this fund to support on-the-ground rebuilding efforts.
New Jersey Strong This grassroots relief organization was founded by a brother and sister team, Lindsay Donald, 24 and her brother Stephan, 21. In the few weeks since the storm, they have rallied local volunteers to help dozens of families across New Jersey clean up their homes and prepare for rehabilitation. Check their website for donation and hands-on volunteer opportunities
Do you know of another organization helping New Jersey rebuild and recover after Hurricane Sandy? Let us know in the comments or by tweeting us at @repairtheworld and tagging #8SandyNights.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
Move over Maccabeats, there’s a new Hanukkah single in town this year! Matisyahu’s Happy Hanukkah song is a super-singable, undeniably catchy tune in that “gets-stuck-in-your-head-and-that’s-a-good-thing” kind of way. And better yet, it’s a song with a serious social conscience.
Through the end of Hanukkah, all donations made through the song’s page will benefit Hurricane Sandy relief. Specifically, they will fund the relief work being spearheaded by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Robin Hood foundation. “I am from New York and wanted to give back to my incredible community in the wake of Hurricane Sandy,” Matisyahu commented. Regardless of what you make of his recently shaved-off beard, you can’t argue with that sentiment!
Take a listen below to the latest from the Jewish-reggae superstar, then click here to make a donation.
What’s your favorite Hanukkah song? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us at @repairtheworld.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
One of the many unexpected consequences of Hurricane Sandy included the cancellation of blood drives across the tri-state area. The American Red Cross estimated that over 300 blood donation drives were postponed or cancelled in the days and weeks after the hurricane. And yet patients’ need for blood in hospitals across the country continued, despite the storm.
Help make up for lost time by scheduling a blood donation today. Anyone over the age of 17 (or 16 with parental permission) who meets the physical requirements (typically over 110 pounds and generally healthy), is eligible to make a donation. To find a blood donation center or upcoming drive near you, check out: The Red Cross for national resources or the New York Blood Center, for tri-state specific resources. You can also register to donate bone marrow via Gift of Life.
You can also take your service a step further by encouraging your school, work, synagogue or community center, to host it’s own blood drive. Find all the details you need to get your drive registered, staffed, and well-attended here (or here if you live in New York City). Then get your friends (and their friends, and their friends of friends!) out to make a donation that could save a life.
How are you spreading good health and good cheer this Hanukkah? Let us know by tweeting @repairtheworld and tagging #8Sandynights.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction, just about everyone felt a strong pull to help out their neighbors and fellow Americans – including super-talented musicians! Now tonight, some of the world’s most iconic musicians and bands (think: Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney among many others) are joining together for an epic event: 12.12.12 The Concert for Sandy Relief.
This one-night-only (and once-in-a-lifetime) live concert will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Net proceeds will be donated to Robin Hood, an anti-poverty organization that has been at the forefront of Sandy recovery efforts. From there, the money will be distributed to local organizations that are serving families and individuals who live in regions hardest hit by the storm.
If you have a ticket, lucky you! But if you can’t make the actual concert, you can watch it on live broadcast and make a donation to Robin Hood here.
Do you know of another Sandy relief benefit concert? Let us know about it in the comments below or by tweeting @repairtheworld and tagging #8SandyNights.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
Believe it or not, giving and receiving presents is not Hanukkah’s main purpose – in fact, until the late 19th century, people rarely exchanged gifts on Hanukkah at all! (And when they did, the custom came in a distance fourth in importance behind lighting a menorah, eating fried foods, and spinning dreidels.)
And yet in recent decades, buying gifts for friends and family has become a central – and admittedly fun – aspect of the holiday season, Hanukkah included. It’s a way to show our loved ones we care and are thinking about them. And it can also provide an unexpected opportunity to give back.
This Hanukkah, make your holiday shopping give back by purchasing gifts where the proceeds go to support Hurricane Sandy relief and rebuilding. Whether you’re on the prowl for the perfect last minute present, or want to give your loved ones a little something extra while benefiting a great cause, check out these Sandy-focused online retailers:
Etsy: New York designer, Jackie Mangiolino, decided to help local communities by rounding up fellow artists in Etsy’s amazing network to donate designs that could grace the cover of small sized art cards. The result: beautiful, hand-crafted gifts that benefit the American Red Cross’s hurricane relief efforts.
Uncommon Goods: This unique gift company paired up with City Harvest to design the “Plate with Purpose” – a stylish, handmade serving plate made from recycled materials and designed by Michael White. The best part is: half of the proceeds support City Harvest’s critical food collection work, in helping Sandy victims and beyond.
Mishka NYC: 100% of the proceeds from this sleek T-shirt with a powerful message written on the back (Relieve. Support. Rebuild.) go to the Mayor Bloomberg’s hurricane relief fund.
Ebay: The massive online auction and shopping site is supporting non-profits providing aid to hurricane victims. Just look for items that display a yellow and blue ribbon.
Help Ink: A portion of the proceeds from these beautiful prints and posters will go to All Hands Volunteers, a disaster-relief organization that is helping with post Sandy rebuilding efforts.
Grey Area: Sebastian Errazuriz, an artist who’s studio was badly damaged in the storm, designed two hauntingly beautiful t-shirts that commemorate the power of the hurricane. 100% of proceeds go to Hurricane Sandy relief.
You can also join the Jewish Education Project’s Give One Night initiative, which encourages people and families to donate one night of Hanukkah presents in honor of victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Know of other shopping sites that are donating proceeds to Sandy relief? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting @repairtheworld #8SandyNights.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
Hurricane Sandy devastated thousands of homes and apartment buildings across the eastern seaboard, leaving the families living in them without a place to stay. Some folks have friends or family to take them in until they figure out their next step. Unfortunately not everyone is so lucky. More than a month after the storm, nearly a thousand people still do not have a place to call home. And since most of New York City’s temporary evacuation facilities have now been closed, many of these people have to stay in hotels, upping financial and logistical hardships.
This Hanukkah, help out by offering a Sandy-stranded person a warm and cozy place to stay – your house!AirBnB, an online service that matches people seeking vacation rentals with hosts that have extra room, teamed up with NYC.gov to encourage potential hosts to offer free space (a couch, a guest bedroom, or a whole apartment) to people left homeless by the hurricane.
More than 1400 people have listed their apartments under AirBnB’s Sandy matching service. Their spaces are listed online with information about the available room, and a big $0 price tag where the price typically goes. (Like all AirBnB rentals, the terms and length of a stay are entirely up to the host, and safety is a priority – find out more here.)
If you’re able, join AirBnB and NYC.gov’s inspiring efforts, and open your home to someone in need. If you are not able, or don’t live in the tri-state area, you can also make a donation to help victims via Mayor Bloomberg’s Hurricane Relief Fund – 100% of proceeds go to relief organizations doing on-the-ground work.
Find more ideas for how to help people impacted by Hurricane Sandy in short and longer-term ways, and bring a bit of Hanukkah’s light into the storm’s darkness here.
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Sandy Service: volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas for the week of Hanukkah to help the individuals and communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Keep track of all 8 nights here.
Many schools across the tri-state area got hit hard during Hurricane Sandy. Some lost power and heat, others got flooded, and still others were nearly destroyed. While damage to any building is a tragedy, the damage to school buildings held the extra weight of making it difficult or impossible for students to go to class, and leaving them without the resources and supplies they need to learn.
Join Repair the World TODAY, Sunday, Dec 9 in assembling literacy kits for students who were negatively impacted by Hurricane Sandy. In honor of Hanukkah, Repair will give the gift of light (and literacy) to the students of PS 253 in Brighton Beach, whose school was damaged.
From 11:30-1:30pm, attendees will assemble literacy kits, which will include a new story book, vocabulary flashcards made by the participants, and school supplies. The kits will also contain a battery–operated reading lamp, a symbol of the miracle of light that runs throughout the story of Hannukkah. Students of PS 253 will receive the kits before they go on winter break, so older students can use them to read to their younger siblings when school is out of session.
Participants will also have the opportunity to learn more about education inequality in America, and will be introduced to Repair the World’s new education campaign, which launches later next year. And just in case you need extra incentive, this HoliDay of Service will take place in Repair the World’s Manhattan headquarters!
Sign up to make literacy kits today, Sunday, Dec 9 here – and let us know how you’re kicking off Hanukkah with service by tweeting @repairtheworld and tagging #8SandyNights.
In the days and weeks following Hurricane Sandy, tens of thousands of people pitched in to help their neighbors and communities – and many people continue to help with the rebuilding efforts today. Their individual and collective generosity of spirit was and is truly remarkable. In honor of their service, Repair the World is interviewing people who saw a need, stepped up and made a difference. Check back often to find more stories and interviews!
Volunteer: Rabbi Ari Hart Who he is: Assistant Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR) and co-founder/executive board member of Uri L’Tzedek.
What compelled you to serve in the days and weeks after Hurricane Sandy?
For me it starts with Jewish tradition. There is a quote from the Torah that says we are not to stand idly by [while witnessing] the blood of our neighbor. Judaism teaches us that above all, human life is so sacred. When the storm first hit, my first impulse was to make sure my wife and I were safe. Then as soon as we realized we were okay, and some of the pictures of the destruction started to show up on the internet, I just felt compelled to see what could be done.
We went down to the Lower East Side the day after the storm. I got together with some students from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and some Uri L’Tzedek people and we went down with water, batteries and food. As soon as we got there, we saw that there was a tremendous need. It was pitch black inside buildings and people were trapped without water, food, heat or medicine. Without power or elevators, many of them – particularly elderly people living on high floors – had no way of getting the things that they needed.
So we started schlepping supplies up and down the stairs over the next few days. We met a lot of people who said we were the first human contact they’d had in days. I know volunteering can be complicated and it is possible to get in the way more than help, but so many of the people we met were alone and needed someone to say, “I’m here – are you okay?”
How many days did you volunteer?
Personally I was down for four days. What is really cool though, is the stories of how people used social media to directly address needs. In the week or two after that, I did a lot of corresponding with different relief agencies and linking people to needs online. One great story was when a woman in Georgia tweeted that a friend of hers in Teaneck, New Jersey needed help. The Teaneck woman had a sick daughter who needed a breathing machine, but they had no power and were running out of fuel for their generator. I saw the tweet and, being an Orthodox Jew, I know a few people in Teaneck! So I called a friend there and he was able to go and check in on the family. In the end everything worked out – but it was such a 21st century example of the power of social media in situations like this.
As a rabbi did you feel like it was your responsibility to rally others to help?
The first Shabbat after the hurricane, I gave a sermon about what I had witnessed. That week’s Torah portion, Vayera, talked about Abraham running to give food and water to strangers who had arrived as guests in his home. It couldn’t have offered a better framing. The next day, we organized a mass volunteer effort that hundreds of people participated in. We filled up bins of donations – foods, battery, water, blankets, clothes, gasoline – and people really stepped up to organize trips to Staten Island, Brighton Beach, the Rockaways. It was amazing to see what a community can do together when it kicks into gear. It reinforced for me how we can take these values of service and leverage them within a communal structure.
Did you work together with other communities?
We did – we were in touch with Occupy Sandy to get a sense of on-the-ground needs. We also connected with a lot of Jewish organizations including the Federation. There was a Google Doc created of schools and synagogues that had been hit very hard. We reached out to a Rabbi in Brighton Beach and he said, “yes, please come.” We also worked closely with a nearby church in the Bronx that was coordinating relief efforts, so there were a lot of overlapping networks.
What are your plans moving forward?
Now that the stage of immediate relief is over for many people, we’re moving into the stage of rebuilding. We have a lay committee of people in our congregation working to figure out how HIR can contribute in a longer term way. It may mean identifying one community in particular to support, or something else. We will see what develops.
Was there a moment that stood out to you as particularly or personally powerful?
We visited a lot of elderly Russian Jewish people in the Rockaways, and I found that very moving. Through the volunteering, I was able to experience a profound human connection. I walked into the home of a 90-year old woman who is not Orthodox but is very spiritual. Her caregiver, a Caribbean woman in her 30s, was there with her. They had no heat, no water, and were very cold. We brought them blankets and coats and spoke with them – it was heartbreaking. At one point we prayed together – we prayed for safety, for warmth, for a return to normalcy. It was very powerful to come together in that moment, three strangers, different faiths, bound together through this tragedy and, ultimately, this rebuilding.
Hanukkah is almost here. That means, it’s time for latkes (and all other types of delicious oily food), spinning dreidels and SERVICE! That’s where Repair the World’s Eight Nights of Sandy Service comes in.
Last year, we launched our “Eight Nights of Service” series, which suggested an awesome volunteer project, donation opportunity or other way to spread tikkun olam (repairing the world) and get involved during the holiday – one for each night. Hanukkah is about miracles, after all, so what better way to celebrate than by doing good? (And eating doughnuts, of course.)
This year, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated many communities throughout the tri-state area and beyond, we’re dedicating our Hanukkah series to ways you can spread both short and longer-term relief to the impacted people and neighborhoods, and shine Hanukkah’s light into the darkness left by the storm.
Starting Sunday, Dec 9 keep your eyes peeled for each Sandy-related service idea – and this Hanukkah, let your spirit for helping other last for eight days and nights!
#8SANDYNIGHTS OF SERVICE POSTS
Night 1! Join Repair the World in Making Literacy Kits Night 2! Donate your Apartment through AirBnB Night 3! Give Gifts that Support Victims Night 4! 12.12.12 The Concert for Sandy Relief Night 5! Schedule a Blood Donation Appointment Night 6! Listen to Matisyahu’s Hanukkah Song Night 7! Help New Jersey Recover Night 8! Support 350.org’s Climate Change Work
What miracles will YOU make this year? Tweet us @repairtheworld #8Sandynights.
Back in 1988 when The World Health Organization (WHO) first established World AIDS Day (which we’ll honor on Dec 1), the virus was still fairly new and largely misunderstood. Today, through medical advances and research, we know a lot more about how the virus works, how it is transmitted, and how people with HIV or AIDS can manage their health and lives.
And yet HIV and AIDS continue to be a global epidemic – particularly because there is still no cure. In the United States, more than 1 million people currently live with HIV, and someone is infected with HIV every 9.5 minutes. Globally the situation is even more dire: across the world more than 33 million people live with HIV and AIDS, and 97% of those people live in low and middle-income countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. And according to the WHO, most people who have HIV or at high-risk for it do not have access to prevention, care, or treatment.
Considering these stats it’s clear that, 24 years after it was founded, World AIDS Day remains vital. This year’s theme is “Working Together for an AIDS-Free Generation,” and true to the name, fighting AIDS globally will require many people working together across the world. Here are some ways you can honor the day and make a difference locally and globally:
Plan a World AIDS Day event: Check out these resources and tips for planning an AIDS awareness event in your neighborhood. Check out other events and updates on the official #WAD2012 Twitter feed.
AFAID: Donate to support the work of this organization, which “provides youth with the tools, knowledge and resources to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, and alleviates poverty” in sub-Saharan Africa.
Firelight Foundation: Support this foundation’s work, which has a mission to “improve the wellbeing of children made vulnerable by HIV, AIDS and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.”
AIDS Quilt: Started in 1987, the ever-growing AIDS Quilt is now more than 48,000 panels big (that’s 8,000 blocks long!). Make a panel for the quilt, or host a section of it at your campus or in your community. Find out how here.
Project Chicken Soup: Volunteer with or donate to support this Los Angeles-based organization, which delivers free, nutritious, kosher meals to local residents living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.
Housing Works: Donate to, volunteer with, (or shop at!) this New York City-based organization/thrift store, which works to “end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts.”
God’s Love We Deliver: Volunteer with or donate to this organization, which prepares and delivers nutritious, high-quality meals, and offers nutrition education and counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.
AIDS Walk: Help to “change the course of the epidemic.” Sign up to walk and raise money for AIDS research in 2013.
For more information, check out this article that Rachel Farbiarz wrote for AJWS called “The Jewish Response to HIV/AIDS.” Then let us know how you’re observing World AIDS Day by tweeting us at @repairtheworld, or leaving a comment below.
Repair the World works to inspire American Jews and their communities to give their time and effort to serve those in need. We aim to make service a defining part of American Jewish life.
