Jewish organizations provide for needs in the general community

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer, December 2009

If you walked into the lobby of Beth Abraham Synagogue in October or early November, the first thing you’d see would be two racks of used winter coats, a box overflowing with children’s books, a large metal bin filled with canned goods, and a table loaded with packages of coffee and donated coffee mugs.

“It just amazes me,” says the synagogue’s social action chair, Bonnie Beaman Rice. “We will promote within our synagogue that we’re doing some kind of collection and our congregants — every single time I’ll walk in, there will be a pile of stuff there — so generous and so giving.”

Beth Abraham Synagogue Social Action Chair Bonnie Beaman Rice (R) and congregant Penney Fraim with some of the 350 pairs of eyeglasses the synagogue collected

Rice and her co-chair, Helen Abramovitz, are among the social action volunteers with local Jewish organizations who reach out to help people in the general community who have fallen on hard times.

“We’re calling it Tikun Olam: Our Temple Inside and Out,” says Temple Israel Social Action Chair Marcia Cox, using the Hebrew phrase for repairing the world.

“We’re doing advocacy work and outreach at Artemis, Daybreak, The Other Place,” Cox says. Temple Israel Executive Director Alan Halpern says congregants have collected close to 1,500 pounds of food this year; most is donated to the Jewish Federation Food Pantry, which serves the general community.

“We’re encouraging people to bring a can of food every time they come to temple,” he says. “We’re encouraging kids to do this through their religious school. Each of the classes has set a goal for itself.”

Temple Israel volunteers also prepare and serve meals at St. Vincent de Paul and the House of Bread. For its next project, members will collect for Clothes That Work.
In 2005, Marilyn Klaben established Beth Jacob Synagogue’s social action committee. Since then, Beth Jacob volunteers have served homeless families at St. Vincent’s on the fourth Sunday evening of each month.

“We just delivered nine huge bags of coats to St. Vincent’s,” Klaben says. “People do want to help. When you leave St. Vincent’s, you feel very good. Just that smile that you can give across the counter. That’s why I think serving the families is especially rewarding.”

Klaben says her social action committee’s projects have  included donations of baby items, furniture and even decorating a room for Daybreak.

Rice says that Beth Abraham — which also prepares meals at St. Vincent’s — makes certain that each social action project has a Jewish theme. She says her committee tries to tie it in with the Jewish holidays.

“I always like to come up with theme names because it always helps to promote the project,” she says. “Every year we do a coat drive, and that includes gloves and scarves. This year, we did it for Sukkot and we called it Su-COAT. We added a nice little element. We collected a bunch of yarn (and put it) out near our social hall and anybody can come pick up the yarn and bring it back as a scarf. We’ve got a whole basket full of scarves that people have taken and knitted, which is really sweet.”

In the early spring, at Purim, Beth Abraham holds a prom dress collection drive. “We’ve done it for three years,” Rice says, “and we donate the prom dresses at prom time to Stivers High School for the Performing Arts. Our theme is Our Queen Esther Project: Because Every Girl Should Feel Like A Queen.”

For Purim megillah readings, congregants are asked to bring boxes of macaroni to use as grogers (noisemakers). Then, they drop them in the food collection bin.

Each month, volunteers with Jewish War Veterans Post 587 run a Monday night bingo game at the VA Medical Center. “When we do the bingo games, we bring prizes and refreshments,” says Post Commander Steve Markman. “We’re not just there for Jewish veterans, we’re there for all veterans.” One or two members of JWV participate in the monthly naturalization ceremonies for new American citizens, usually held at the Federal Building. Along with other community groups, a JWV member talks briefly about citizenship and gives each of the 75-100 new citizens a pamphlet containing the Bill of Rights.

Jewish organizations keep the Jewish Federation Food Pantry well stocked to aid anyone in need

“With BBYO, we try to do a community service project once a month,” says DJCC Youth, Teen and Family Coordinator Yale Glinter. “Last night, we played bingo and visited with Covenant House residents.” On March 14, BBYO teenagers and synagogue youth groups will join together for J-Serve, a day of community service.

Temple Beth Or’s major social action project over the past year was its work with the local Rwandan community. “We collected so much furniture, so many clothes,” says Temple Beth Or’s rabbi, Judy Chessin. “I just got a new lead to work with people from the Congo. My desire has been to connect our kids up with those kids and get some language tutoring going.”

Along with all area synagogues — as well as Federation sites, Hillel Academy and Chabad — Beth Or continues to collect food for Federation’s Food Pantry and toys for the Federation’s annual holiday drive. Chessin says that over the past two months, she’s seen more people than ever before walking into her temple asking for food. “We say, ‘Here’s the bin, take what you need.’”