Finding Common Ground Through Jewish Service: Savannah Parson’s Service Journey

When Savannah Parson (she/her) first joined Repair the World in Pittsburgh, she expected to spend a year volunteering before deciding what came next in her career. What she didn’t expect was that service would shape the next chapter of her life.

“I knew I wanted to live in Pittsburgh, and I also knew I wasn’t ready to make a job decision,” she recalled. “That’s when I found Repair the World.”

Savannah joined the Repair the World Fellowship in 2018. Early in her time in Pittsburgh, tragedy struck when the Tree of Life synagogue shooting shook the city and the Jewish community. For Savannah, service became a way to show up in a moment of grief.

“That was a very swift introduction into the Jewish community. I felt very welcomed in the space and I remember thinking, ‘How can I support?’”

Like many non-Jewish participants in Repair programs, Savannah was initially drawn by the opportunity to address urgent community needs through hands-on service. Through the Fellowship, Savannah built relationships across non-profit partners addressing pressing local needs in Pittsburgh, including carceral injustice, housing insecurity, and food accessibility. Most impactful was her time serving at the Allegheny County Jail with the Carnegie Library System, supporting incarcerated individuals preparing for re-entry by sharing library resources and resume writing support. 

Service didn’t just allow Savannah to contribute, it connected her to leaders, neighbors, and institutions that pursued common goals across differences.

Eager to deepen her impact, Savannah committed to another year of the Fellowship. By then, she realized something remarkable about how service had shaped her life in Pittsburgh. “I had this broad network of non-profit and community leaders in Pittsburgh and nearly all of them I had met through service work.”

A few years later, Savannah moved to New York. Starting over in a new city can be isolating, but Savannah already knew one way to build community. “Volunteering was such a huge part of my life in Pittsburgh, so when I moved to Brooklyn, I knew that I could find community in doing so here.” She reconnected with Repair and began volunteering locally, quickly rebuilding the sense of connection she had found in Pittsburgh. “I feel so much more connected to my neighborhood, and I am so glad to have had the inroad to begin serving through Repair.”

In the fall of 2025, Savannah deepened her commitment by joining the New York Repair Service Corps alongside 12 peers. She served weekly at the Crown Heights JCC Food Pantry, coordinating deliveries, packing grocery bags, and restocking food items. Though not Jewish herself, Savannah embraced weekly Jewish learning and reflection with her cohort. Through Jewish texts and conversation, she encountered values that resonated deeply with the service she was doing. Savannah reflected, “I learned how to connect with groups who weren’t necessarily Jewish by lifting up the universal values within the tradition and tying them directly to our service work.”

After the Service Corps ended, Savannah kept on showing up to volunteer at the food pantry. As the pantry’s needs grew, Savannah took on a new role as volunteer coordinator. “I am now officially part of their team,” she shared, smiling. “Service changed from something that was more sporadic, or time-off based, to something that’s… just a very regular part of my life now.”

In a time of rising division, Savannah finds comfort in Jewish service. “One of my very favorite things about the food pantry is that politics, religion, everything aside, we all think people deserve to have nourishing, healthy food.” Savannah discovered a common truth about Jewish service: by centering universal human needs and pursuing a shared purpose, volunteers build connections across differences. 

Savannah (she/her) has contributed more than 269 hours of service and learning.

As she looks to the future, Savannah offers this advice: “Go be somewhere with people who are different from you, think differently than you do, and do something where there’s a goal you all are trying to achieve. We can exist in a space with people we disagree with on many things, but not on the fact that our neighbors should be taken care of.”

To date, Savannah has attended 79 Jewish service programs and contributed more than 269 hours of service and learning across Pittsburgh and New York, developing leadership skills and a commitment to service that goes far beyond her volunteer hours. Savannah’s story exemplifies what the Jewish service movement makes possible: communities strengthened through service, people connected across differences, and volunteers who carry those values with them wherever they go.

Are you looking for a hands-on opportunity to connect Jewish values with meaningful service? Join the Jewish service movement in your community today.