Tzedakah/Social Action

The CHJ Social Action Committee thinks globally and acts locally.  Throughout the year, we make volunteer and tzedakah opportunities available to our members through our own programs and also through partnerships with other congregations and local social agencies.  The Committee presents a number of Adult Education or evening programs during the year, as well as interactive presentations to the Sunday Schoo during their Shalom sessions.  We are exploring long-term tzedakah opportunities, service trips for our Sunday School students and adult members, and have established a  Teen Tzedakah Club to engage our older and post-mitzvah students.

CHJ is a member of the Westport-Wilton Interfaith Council and, as such, we participate in many of their activities throughout the year and have a permanent CHJ representative at all their meetings.

In the past, we collected non-perishable food and clothing and toiletries for a number of shelters and soup kitchens throughout the year, but especially during the High Holidays and at Thanksgiving and during December.  Raising our awareness that hunger and food insecurity are year-round problems and that the CT Food Bank is better equipped to provide the right kind of food, we now focus on raising and collecting money for them throughout the entire year.

The Social Action Committee also has a donation budget.  The Committee solicits proposals from the Congregation, and then makes a proposal to the Congregation at the Annual Meeting about which groups should receive a donation.  For example, this year we gave money to:

• The CT FoodBank
• Mazon: The Jewish Response to Hunger
• Books for Zim
• Jewish Funds for Justice

We hope you will consider joining the Social Action Committee.  Our emphasis continues to be on local volunteer and tzedakah opportunities, alleviating hunger, ending the genocide in Darfur, and healing the environment.  There are numerous opportunities to teach, share your passion for volunteering, and address matters of social justice both in the Jewish community and the larger world in which we all live.

Please contact either Gail Ostrow ( fullgail@optonline.net ) or Elsa Cantor ( elsacantor@yahoo.com), Committee Co-chairs, for more information or to join.