by Leah Koenig | December 22, 2011 | 0 comments
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Service: awesome volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas to bring service to the center of your Hanukkah celebration!
Good teachers can make Shakespeare come to life, turn algebra into a game, or even make physics seem fun. The lessons of a really great teacher lessons stay with us for life. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a shiny red apple was a traditional holiday gift from children to their favorite teacher. We’re all for a good crunchy apple, but we think there are many other ways to say thanks to those who inspire this time of year. This Hanukkah, share your teacher appreciation by checking out some service opportunities that support education and literacy for all. Just some ideas to get you started:
- Barnes & Noble Book Drive: Barnes & Noble is helping to give the gift of literacy with their holiday book drive. Head into participating Barnes & Noble bookstores and look for the “Donate this Book” signs, or ask one of the booksellers about how you can get involved.
- Reading Tree: If you miss this year’s holiday drives, donate your books through Reading Tree – an organization that provides books to disadvantaged families all year round.
- Support Your Library: Libraries open the doors of knowledge to anyone and everyone. Help your local library thrive – check in with them about volunteer opportunities, or make a donation in your teacher’s honor to show your support.
- Donate to UNICEF’s Right to Education Supporting UNICEF’s education programs helps make literacy and learning accessible to children across the globe.
Which teacher changed your life for the better? Give them a shout out by tweeting @repairtheworld and #8Nights.
by Leah Koenig | December 21, 2011 | 0 comments
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Service: awesome volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas to bring service to the center of your Hanukkah celebration!
Winter can mean many things. Warm stuff, like hot cocoa, turtlenecks and home-knit scarves. Cold stuff, like snowboarding, pretty snow (which here in NYC pretty quickly becomes up-to-your-ankles muck) and delicate icicles. But for too many Americans, winter also means painful choices–often one between paying rent and putting food on the table, or buying coats for themselves and their families.
With the recession putting an extra strain on families this winter, we think there’s a need for a little extra warm stuff this year. Fortunately, there’s something you can do.
Got a new or gently used extra coat in your closet? Instead of letting it hang around collecting moth balls, put it to good use in a local coat drive that redistributes gently used gear to those in need.
- New York Cares’ Coat Drive: Help this New York City-based organization collect 100,000 winter coats through December 31 to help the 18.7 percent of NYC families living poverty keep warm.
- One Warm Coat: This national organization helps individuals and local charities organize coat drives for men, women and children in need. They’ve helped distribute more than 3 million coats since 1992. Help them do even more!
- Clothes4Souls: This national clothing donation organization teamed up with outdoor retailer, The North Face, this holiday season. Through December 24, bring your gently used clothing and coats to participating North Face retail locations and help give the gift of warmth.
Hanukkah’s candles bring light and warmth into our homes – this year, share that warmth with others by donating a winter coat!
Know another winter clothes donation spot? Share it with us by tweeting @repairtheworld and #8Nights.
by Leah Koenig | December 20, 2011 | 0 comments
Welcome to Repair the World’s 8 Nights of Service: awesome volunteer projects, donation opportunities and tikkun olam ideas to bring service to the center of your Hanukkah celebration!
This time of year you may be finding it hard to escape emails for last minute sales, an overload of holiday music – be it for Christmas, or by the likes of the Maccabeats (ahem, featuring Mayim Bialik!). You may even have a strange urge to eat lots of lots of oily things and (safely) light some stuff on fire for eight nights by a window. Don’t worry. This is normal: Tonight’s the night to shred those potatoes (watch your fingers…), heat up that oil (careful of the splatters!) and get ready to rock out for Hannukah/Chanukah/The Festival of Lights/That-holiday-with-lots-of-yummy-fried-treats.
The Hannukah story of the Maccabees using oil that lasted way beyond its expected one-day may seem, well, really ancient. But we like to use it to remind us about our everyday dependence on the planet and its everyday gifts to us. So why not make sure we make the world’s resources last a little longer, too? Incorporate eco-awareness, resource conservation and environmentally-friendly practices into your week of celebration. Some ideas to get you started:
- Take the Green Menorah pledge: This awesome idea, pioneered by The Shalom Center, encourages you make a pledge each night (while lighting your candles, naturally) to make one aspect of your life greener – and inspire friends, family and your community to do the same!
- Get sustainable gelt: Skip the waxy, mass-produced stuff and indulge your Hanukkah sweet tooth with fair trade chocolate gelt from Divine Chocolate, or all natural gelt from Lake Champlain Chocolates.
- Fry with organic oils: Crisp your latkes (yummy fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly-donuts) in organically-produced olive and vegetable oils. Hanukkah never tasted so eco-delicious.
- Give homemade gifts: Avoid shopping. Check out CHOW’s homemade gift ideas, or the ones over at Family Education. (You can even make your own wrapping paper using recycled materials!). Even better, skip gifting altogether and make a donation to an organization you love in someone’s honor.
- Switch to fluorescent light bulbs. Hanukkah is the festival of lights, after all. So make the switch to fluorescent light bulbs which, according to Energy Star, use about 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 6 times longer.
Find even more eco-friendly Hanukkah tips and ideas at Hazon’s Healthy, Sustainable Hanukkah Resource list. And let us know how you plan to green your Hanukkah by tweeting @repairtheworld and #8Nights.
by Eitan Press | December 19, 2011 | 0 comments
Whether you spell it Hanukkah or Chanukah – the holiday season is here, which means it’s time to light the menorah, exchange presents and, of course, eat latkes. But beyond landing a gimel on the dreidel and raking in the Hanukkah gelt, this ancient holiday holds a deeper message that’s relevant for today.
Hanukkah, often called the festival of lights, celebrates the story of a small group of people changing the system when everyone else thought it was impossible. During the time of the Hannukah story, ancient Israel was not a particularly friendly place for the Israelites. The Jewish religion was being outlawed, celebrating the sabbath risked the penalty of death, and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled. A small group of Jewish warriors known as the Maccabees, rebelled against the Greek-Syrian rule and, against all odds, succeeded in igniting a revolution that drove them out from the land.
This is where the Menorah, the symbol of Hannukah comes in. The final victory for the Maccabees came when they removed the foreign statues from the Holy Temple and rededicated it. (The word ‘hannukah’ itself actually comes from the word ‘to dedicate’) As the story goes, the Maccabees rekindled the lights of the menorah and a miracle occurred because although they only had enough oil to burn for one day, the light of the menorah burned for eight days.
Flash forward to today: When you light a menorah each night of Hanukkah, you plug into a story that is thousands of years old. And you make a bold statement: you become a light in the darkness, you stand up for a strong and meaningful Jewish community, and you cast your vote with hope and change, even when it seems impossible. In other words, you believe in – and are willing to act for – miracles.
Starting tomorrow, give the gift of Hanukkah miracles through Repair the World’s “Eight Nights of Service.” Keep an eye out for great service and volunteering ideas for each night of the holiday.
This article was contributed by Eitan Press who works as the Social Media and Blog Director for The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.
by Leah Koenig | December 19, 2011 | 0 comments
Happy Monday everyone! Here at Repair the World headquarters in New York City, the weather finally began to match the calendar – turning cold and crisp just in time for Hanukkah. To help get you even further into the holiday spirit, here’s your weekly roundup of inspiring service stories from around the web.
- Pursue’s blog shared some ideas and tips from The Shalom Center for giving Hanukkah a green makeover.
- The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed about the benefits of donating non-perishables and other food vs. giving money to charities that serve the hungry.
- Avodah’s blog posted an essay by Corps member Ilana Krakowski about her work with N Street Village, an organization that helps women transition from homelessness to independent living.
- The Huffington Post shared an essay by Earl Martin Phalen, the CEO of Reach Out And Read, about finding moments to give back to others. The link also includes an awesome video of Whoopi Goldberg reading to kids!
- GOOD talked about a new initiative called rEDesign Education that puts the power of education reform in college students’ hands.
- The New York Times wrote about how some environmental groups are getting down to earth, working harder to reach out to their local communities on behalf of the planet.
What’s on your reading list? Tweet us @repairtheworld and let us know.
by AJWS | December 16, 2011 | 0 comments
This Torah Tidbit is brought to you by Repair the World and our grantee-partner American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Check out the full dvar tzedek on which this excerpt is based at AJWS.
Sometimes, it feels all too easy to get discouraged. Bad news flashes across newspaper headlines, our television sets and our Facebook feeds. Taken together the world’s problems can feel insurmountable, leaving us feeling small and ineffectual – and like our actions don’t really matter.
But, as this week’s dvar tzedek author, Wendi Geffen writes, “Parshat Vayeshev offers a counter-text to the perceived futility of one “ordinary” person’s efforts.” The parsha tells the story of Joseph (yes, the owner of of the amazing technicolor dreamcoat). It describes a chance meeting Joseph has with a man – a stranger – that ends up completely changing the path of his life, as well as the course of the Jewish people’s future.
Read More »
by Leah Koenig | December 15, 2011 | 1 comment
As a wise man named Adam Sandler once famously sang: “Hanukkah is the festival of lights, instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights!”
He’s right. One of the best things about Hanukkah is how many days we have to truly enjoy it. It leaves a lot of room for creativity (and for eating delicious oily foods). But while it’s decidedly awesome to have a holiday that encourages opening a new present every night for more than a whole week, Hanukkah also offers the perfect opportunity to give back.
That’s where Repair the World’s Eight Nights of Service comes in! Starting Tuesday, December 20, Repair the World will suggest an awesome service 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 with service? (And doughnuts, of course.)
Keep your eyes peeled for each service gift idea – and this Hanukkah, let your spirit for volunteering last for eight days and nights!
#8nights of service posts
What miracles will YOU make this year? Tweet us @repairtheworld #8nights.
by Leah Koenig | December 14, 2011 | 0 comments
Courtesy of Erin Schrode
What happens when a makeup-loving, environmental activist teenager learns that the cosmetics she uses are harmful to our bodies and the planet? For Erin Schrode it meant the beginning of something big.
The 20-year old NYU student co-founded (along with her mom Judi Shils) Teens Turning Green, a “student-led movement devoted to education and advocacy around environmentally and socially responsible choices for individuals, schools, and communities.” The organization, which Schrode founded when she was just 13, has lobbied for safer beauty products, launched its own line of eco-friendly cosmetics and initiated tons of grassroots programs — from Project Lunch, which promotes healthier and more sustainable school lunches, to a 30-day Project Green Challenge, which encouraged students to transform themselves from “conventional to conscious” consumers.
These days, between classes, a budding modeling career, speaking at conferences and international travel, Erin works as Teens Turning Green’s spokesperson. Somehow amidst her busy schedule, she found a minute to speak with Repair the World about the hidden dangers of conventional cosmetics and clothing, what it’s like to work with her mom and best friend, and why the Jewish value of tikkun olam has always been her “bottom line.”
Read More »
by Leah Koenig | December 13, 2011 | 0 comments
Happy volunteers. Photo courtesy of SVFI.
Adventure comes in all shapes and sizes. But we think the best kind of adventures let you give back while discovering something new. So, while a trip to Israel on its own might be filled with adventure: new (tasty!) foods, interesting people, exciting experiences, what if you added the opportunity to make a difference in the world, too?
That’s where the Conservative Yeshiva of United Synagogue, a place of Jewish study and exploration, and Skilled Volunteers for Israel, a volunteer placement organization come in. They’ve teamed up to provide a unique service-learning experience called (what else?) Volunteer & Study.
Open to college students and adults who want to enrich their knowledge and contribute their experience and skills to Israeli society, Volunteer & Study participants will spend half of each day learning Jewish texts at the Jerusalem-based Yeshiva (classes include Hebrew, Talmud, Jewish law, prayer, and Tanakh, a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible) and the other half volunteering with their choice of education, environment, community, and development nonprofit organizations. On top of all of that, participants will have the opportunity to explore Jerusalem’s ancient sites, its thriving culture and its delicious and diverse foods. Our guess? They’ll be pretty tired by the end of the day – but also exhilarated.
Interested? This summer’s program sessions will run from July 1-19 and July 22-August 9, 2012. Check one out…or, if you feel like an extra adventure, both!
Find more information at the Conservative Yeshiva’s website or Skilled Volunteers for Israel’s website.
