Shabbat Service is a weekly column of Torah-inspired do-gooding, brought to you by Repair the World and our grantee-partner American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Read on to see how these ancient stories can apply today. Seem far fetched? Check it out:
The story: In this week’s parsha (Torah portion), Vaera, God comes to Moses and tells him that he and the Israelites will soon be free of Pharoah’s harsh rule in Egypt, and will inherit the land of Israel. “I will bring you to the land,” God says, “concerning which I raised My hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage.”
The takeaway: The idea of “land” is a huge focus of this week’s parsha. The story brings up all sorts of questions about homeland, about land ownership, and about what happens when a group of people find those rights taken away. Think about more recent times when indigenous communities across the world – especially in South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia – have lost– and continue to lose their land and traditional way of life to logging, industrial agriculture and other outside pressures. What happens then?
The “to-do”: There’s not much we can do about the olden days, but today, we can support peoples’ rights to live on their land without industrial interference by volunteering with or donating to organizations that work to preserve healthy indigenous communities, like AJWS, Indigenous Community Volunteers in Australia, and Rainforest Action Network.
Read the full Torah commentary, on which this excerpt is based, over at AJWS’ website.
Got plans for spring break? How about joining celebs like Chris Rock, Natalie Portman and Alicia Keys, as well as 1,200 other students and peers, for a groundbreaking conference focusing on the most pressing topics facing our world today? (Yeah, we thought so.)
The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) brings together student leaders from around the country and world to discuss how to make meaningful change in five focus areas: education, environment & climate change, peace & human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health. Participants take part in inspiring conversations and tap into a growing community of young leaders. They also get to make Commitments to Action – pledges towards taking real-world steps that will change their campus, their communities and the world. (Think everything from launching campus bike share programs to designing medical backpacks for doctors in Africa.)
CGI U is an outgrowth of the Clinton Global Initiative – a powerful network of leaders and change makers founded by President Bill Clinton. So why expand it to CGI U? Because the organization understands that students and young people, as President Clinton put it, “have more power to change the world today for the better than in any time in human history.”
CGI U 2012 will take place at George Washington University in Washington DC from March 30-April 1. Sound like a good fit for you? The deadline to apply is January 23rd. Find out more by watching the video below, then fill out an application here.
Danke, gracias, spasiba, domo arigato, todah rabah. However you like to say “thank you,” now is your chance to say it even more. January is National Thank You Month – a time dedicated to sharing our gratitude with the people, places and things that make us feel truly thankful.
Hopefully you’re already saying thank you a lot. But when it comes to saying “thanks,” we think there’s always room for one more. So this month, celebrate your thanks by sharing it with others. Here are four ideas to get you started:
Make a list. There are lots of people to be thankful for in life: parents, teachers, friends, siblings, mentors. Make a list of all the people you feel grateful for and aim to thank one person each day. Extra points if you say it in person or over the phone!
Thank someone new. Think outside the thank you box. Leave a thank you note for the mailman, say thank you to a fire fighter, or bring a cappuccino to your bus driver. Often, these unexpected thank yous are the most meaningful ones.
Say it in the AM! Judaism’s daily morning prayer,modeh ani, which is traditionally recited right when you wake up, offers an opportunity to say “thank you” for the miracle of life every single day. Learn the two-line prayer here. Feeling thankful enough to sing it? Check out this adorable music video for modeh ani, “Texas style” (complete with singing cows!).
Pay your thanks forward. Make a donation to an organization you love in honor of the person (or people) you’re thankful for. Two thank yous for the price of one – it doesn’t get much better than that.
Who are you feeling thankful for this month? Let us know below or tweet us at @repairtheworld.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
You probably know by now that today’s MLK Day is a nationally recognized Day of Service. Looking for ideas on how to do your part? Check out Repair the World’s round up of service ideas and opportunities here and have a gander at this week’s round up devoted to Dr. King’s legacy.
An Open Letter For Martin Luther King Day: Give Back and Pay it Forward by Lynn Schusterman in the Huffington Post
Wondering where could MLK’s career have led if he was still alive today? Check out this opinion piece in The Forward
Some thoughts (and a great video!) on why MLK day offers such an important opportunity for service in The Hands On Blog
Learn some service history! An interview in RepairLabs with Repair’s Aaron Miner.
Check out five ways families can serve together on MLK day in The Huffington Post
An essay about how, for Dr. King, freedom and education were inextricably linked in The New York Times
A roundup of service events across the country in USA Today
A fun story about a coffee shop in South Carolina that has helped to redefine community service in GOOD.
Read any other great MLK Day-related stories? Doing something Awesome today?! Let us know about them below or on Twitter via @repairtheworld (#MLK)!
Two years ago on this day, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake took the lives of over 300,000 Haitians, displacing thousands and thousands more, and causing vast amounts of damage to the region. Like many natural disasters and world-events, the earthquake may have happened two years ago, but its impact is still felt today. Today, one and a half million people are still displaced, 550,000 people continue to live in camps, and the number of orphans nearly doubled. Thanks to the support of devoted volunteers, NGOs and service-workers who rushed down, some progress has been made. According to the The Huffington Post, 50% of the debris has been removed and 20% has been recycled. Nearly 369,000 people have been provided access to clean water, 2.4 million with health services and hygiene education, and 3 million with cholera treatment prevention. But the work is far from done.
As global citizens – and as Jews – we are responsible for helping to alleviate each others’ suffering. Below are some ways you can still give your time and effort to help Haiti in its efforts to rebuild:
Volunteer, Support & Learn
AJWS: AJWS’ long-standing partnerships in the region made it possible for them to respond within 48 hours of the earthquake. Today, AJWS funds 40 extraordinary organizations in Haiti and is a leader in the U.S.-based movement for Haitian-led redevelopment.
JDC’s Inside Haiti: Volunteer with JDC in the fields of medical assistance, educational support and humanitarian relief.
Tevel B’tzedek’s Haiti Program: The IsraAID – Tevel b’Tzedek delegation began its work in Haiti one month after the quake. They’ve been implementing community development techniques such as women and youth groups and informal education in three villages in the Leogan district ever since.
Habitat for Humanity: Habitat’s commitment to Haiti dates back 27 years before the 2010 earthquake. Today, they continue to be a leading organization in helping to rebuild Haiti.
Aid Still Required: “Just because it left the headlines, doesn’t mean it left the planet.” Aid Still Required has helped support Haiti’s growth to self-sufficiency, including women’s empowerment efforts, child services, and reforestation. Use hashtag #AidStillRequired to spread the word about Haiti.
American Red Cross: Two years after the Haiti earthquake, the American Red Cross is helping Haitian people rebuild their homes and their lives and improving communities with health, water and sanitation projects.
On1Foot.org: Interested in hosting a text study on disaster relief in general? Check out this resource for texts which explore a moral obligation to respond to humanitarian crises.
Dr. Martin Luther King was a hero – but not just because of the work he did to promote civil rights in America. He was a hero because he helped to build a movement. He inspired other people (including many Jews like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel) to take up the cause of freedom as their own, and to spread the messages of love and tolerance farther than one person, no matter how heroic, could on their own.
One of Dr. King’s most famous quotes reads: “Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” His words ring as true today as they did when he first spoke them a generation ago. On Martin Luther King day – and in the weekend leading up to it – we have the opportunity to take his legacy of service and inspiration and bring it forward. Here are some ways that synagogues around the country are getting involved in the celebration, and some ideas to help you plug in and make Martin Luther King day a “Day On” not a “Day Off.”
What synagogues are doing:
Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC is holding its 8th annual MLK Shabbat dinner, commemorating the collaborative work between Reverend King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Philadelphia synagogues are gearing up big-time. Check out the wide range of activities going on throughout the weekend to celebrate King’s legacy.
Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco will co-host it’s annual interfaith service in honor of Dr. King.
Temple Sholom of Chicago will host a musical Shabbat focusing on freedom and justice tomorrow night.
How you can get involved:
Shabbat Suppers: Join Repair the World and the Points of Light Foundation in celebrating Dr. King’s message by hosting a Shabbat Supper.
Join the White House in service. President Obama’s office has put together a great and user-friendly database where you can easily tap into MLK Day service events all over the country. Just type in your zip code to find one near you!
Let us know what events we missed in the comments below!
Has anyone ever encouraged you to push a little harder, go a little further, and inspire you to be your very best? If you answered yes, then consider yourself amongst the lucky – you had a mentor!
Created in 2002 by the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR, January is National Mentoring Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of mentors in young people’s lives. National Mentoring Month has been celebrated since 2002, but youth mentoring in America actually dates back to the early 20th century, when New York City-based Ernest Coulter created a program that paired caring and adult volunteers with under-served youth. That program, called Big Brothers Big Sisters, has since spread to all 50 states and has changed the lives of thousands of young people.
This January, celebrate National Mentoring Month by making a difference a young person’s life. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
imentor: Join imentor’s network of more than 2,000 mentors working with under-served youth all across New York City.
girls inc.: Help inspire young girls to be “strong, smart, and bold” at once of girls inc’s 1,400 sites across the U.S. and Canada.
Big Brothers Big Sisters: Be a mentor, make a difference and build lifelong friendships with one of the country’s best known mentoring programs.
Mentoring USA: Participate in MUSA’s site based, one-to-one mentoring model.
dosomething.org: Think your school could benefit from a peer-mentoring program? Here’s how to start one.
The Jewish tradition of hevruta is based on the importance of learning with and from others. This month, become somebody’s hevruta – become a mentor!
Last year Repair the World featured an interview with Sheva Tauby, co-founder of iVolunteer – a great organization that pairs volunteers with Holocaust survivors for weekly home visits. Since then, we’ve been super enamored with their work, which engages young people of all backgrounds (Jewish and otherwise) in meaningful service, and brings comfort and companionship to the survivors.
Now, iVolunteer is getting ready to celebrate and make a toast to the people who keep the organization going strong: their volunteers. On January 26, they will host their annual volunteer gala to raise support for and awareness about their home visitation program. The gala also serves as a huge thank you to the people who take time out of their busy weeks (volunteers range from students to freelance artists to practicing doctors – and everything in between!) to make a regular commitment to volunteering.
iVolunteer’s Gala, which will be held at the historic Angel Orensanz Center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, will feature music and dancing, nibbles and drinks, and a silent auction of travel, entertainment, and fashion items. The proceeds of the auction will support iVolunteer’s programs, and their new SuvivorStories.org project, which collects and shares invaluable footage of Holocaust survivor’s.
Click here for more details about the gala. And if you’re interested in volunteering, check out iVolunteer’s website.
Happy Monday, and welcome back from weekend-land! To get you raring to go this week, here is your regular round up of inspiring service-related stories from around the web.
The HandsOn Blog started celebrating MLK Day a week early, with a sweet tribute to Dr. King’s tireless service and civil rights advocacy work. (Celebrate MLK this Friday night with Repair the World’s Shabbat Suppers!)
The Forward, speaking of heroes, featured a story about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on the first anniversary of the shooting that left her seriously wounded.
The Forward also published a stirring essay by Rabbi Steve Greenberg on why he recently chose, as an Orthodox rabbi, to marry a same-sex couple.
The Worcester Telegram reported a story about a local Massachusetts bill that would enable restaurants to donate leftover food to help feed hungry people.
GOOD is calling all college changemakers for their new GOODmaker challenge.
Sustainablog rounds things out with a DIY project for the new year: make your own eco-friendly cleaning products! The “recipes” are fun, effective and cost less than you might think.
During his lifetime Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked tirelessly toward a dream of equality. He believed in a nation of freedom and justice for all, and encouraged all citizens to live up to the purpose and potential of America. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 16) is a way to transform Dr. King’s life and teachings into community service that helps solve problems. MLK Day programs meet tangible needs, such as revitalizing schools and feeding the homeless; but also build a sense of community and mutual responsibility by spurring conversation. On this day, Americans of every age and background celebrate Dr. King through volunteering and unite to strengthen communities, empower individuals and bridge barriers.
In commemoration of Martin Luther King Day, the Hands on Network and Points of Light Foundation are rallying people across the country to organize “Sunday Suppers” – communal dinners that bring together people from diverse backgrounds to share a meal and discuss the issues that impact their community.
We at Repair the World love the idea of gathering around the table for conversation, of commemoration and, well, having a special meal. We also think it sounds a lot like Shabbat. In that spirit, we invite you to also host or organize a Shabbat Supper on Friday 1/13, and set aside some time during your dinner to remembering King’s inspirational legacy, and talking about how to bring it forward to today.
And guess what–there are even some Gift Certificates in it for you!
HOW IT WORKS:
Register your Supper here and list Repair the World as your organization The Supper can take place anytime between now and MLK Day. After you register, you will receive the toolkit with easy instructions on how to plan your Supper.
Let us know that you’re doing it! We’ll send you a code for a Gift Certificate* at Restaurants.com!
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.
