Tikkun Olam

Welcome to JRF's Tikkun Olam Pages

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:35:54 -0500

Shawn ZevitJRF is committed to leading and supporting congregations in Tikkun HaNefesh V'Olam, the healing and repair of the individual person and the world at large.

Browse our growing library of tikkun olam resources, organized by type.

"Justice, justice you shall pursue" (Deut. 16:20).

“A theology which is not a plan of social action is merely a way of preaching and praying. It is a menu without the dinner.” (Mordecai Kaplan, Not So Random Thoughts)

Today, much of the Jewish world understands tikkun olam as social justice and global repair. However, this is only one part of the equation that leaves out the holistic vision that emerged over preceding centuries in the religious tradition and culture of the Jewish people. Tikkun in its fullest sense includes not only the idea of tikkun olam, but tikkun hanefesh (rebalancing and repair of the individual soul) as well. JRF and our member communities strive for an integrative approach of tikkun hanefesh v'olam in our personal, communal and societal efforts.

Tikkun means, I look at what the work I need to do individually for my my own physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being. Tikkun also means actively participating in engagement with the larger world for the sake of communal and global well-being, healing and justice. At the same time, we strive to be mindful of the interdependence of, and need to, seek balance between particular and universal needs.

I really believe that we must now talk and act on a level of political, social, economic, environmental and spiritual sustainability if tikkun hanefesh v'olam are to be actualized beyond the occasional mitzvah day or tzedakah collection (worthwhile ventures to be sure, but not end goals in and of themselves).

We hope the resources, external affiliations and programs contained in these Tikkun Olam pages will help you and your community or organization pursue responses to the many areas of concern we face in North America and around the world.

As a Jewish community, social, economic or environmental problems are realities to be fully met in the broadest coalitions and the smallest local initiatives. Together we can pursue the Divine call to do what is just for tikkun hanefesh and tikkun olam. Please be in touch and let us know how we can best partner in this sacred endeavor.

Together we can make a difference: JRF's Sustainable Synagogue Initiative

Lisa Tuttle — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:43:57 -0500

With the enthusiasm around JRF's Omer Learning Initiative, as well as the solid response of JRF congregations in the Climate Change Initiative, JRF is continues to deepen its greening work with member communities next year.

Our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead, recognizing those JRF communities who excel at sustainable practices at the JRF Convention in Boston, 2008.

Learn about the Sustainable Synagogue Initiative on the JRF website's environment pages at jrf.org/green-call and jrf.org/climate.

For more information contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, SZevit@jrf.org

Darfur Action

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:20:00 -0500

Photo of a child from Darfur.Do not stand idly by while your neighbor's blood is being shed. —Leviticus 19:16

What is at stake is our own humanity. —Elie Wiesel

Whoever can prevent any person throughout the world from committing a sin but does not, is responsible for that person's sin. —Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is participating in the Save Darfur Coalition effort to stop the atrocities and impoverishment in the Darfur region of Sudan.

View our Darfur resources.

JRF is a member of the coalition (supported by AJWS and JCPA), and is encouraging our member congregations to show strong participation in this effort, through tzedakah relief efforts and organizing nationally and regionally to aid in this effort.

Activities occurred worldwide, with thousands of people taking part in SAVE DARFUR NOW: Voices to Stop Genocide to urge the United Nations to deploy a peacekeeping force to Darfur and to raise international awareness of the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.

The April 30th, 2006 rallies in Washington, DC and across the country demonstrated the impact that Americans could make on our congressional and political leaders. The September 17th rally in New York and internationally, redoubled Save Darfur Coalition domestic efforts while engaging the international community in a more coordinated manner.

We hope your congregation will continue or deepen its involvement in trying to end the violence and impoverishment being perpetrated on the people of Darfur. NOW IS THE TIME!

Please use the resources and read the news gathered on these pages to support your efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur.

For info on JRF efforts contact: Rabbi Shawn Zevit, JRF or 215-885-5601, ex. 24

Places to Donate to Support the People of Darfur

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:11:49 -0500

American Jewish World Service Logo The American World Jewish Service, The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief and The Save Darfur Coalition recommended agencies for making donations to support the people of Darfur.

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) - Genocidal crisis in Darfur
Since April 2004, American Jewish World Service has been providing humanitarian aid to many of the displaced and traumatized people who have been violently forced from their homes and are now living in camps in Sudan and Chad. Recognizing that humanitarian aid is crucial but will not stop the genocide, AJWS is engaged in a simultaneous education and advocacy campaign to put pressure on United States and world leaders to end the crisis.

AJWS is accepting donations by check to their Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund at: AJWS Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund, 45 West 36th Street, 10th flr, New York, NY 10018, or donate online.
The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR) - Sudan Relief
JRF is part of a multi-Jewish organizational coalition which is addressing the crisis in the Sudan.

To date, the Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief has raised and distributed over $445,000 to help the victims of this crisis. Grants have been made to the International Medical Corps (IMC) and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children to support their humanitarian, nutritional and reproductive health efforts.

Coalition support is also being given to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to help conduct a psychosocial assistance program in two of Chad's refugee camps. A grant to the International Rescue Committee is helping support their educational and support services with refugees and the local host community in Chad. Recent grants have been made to other international organizations to improve the quality of emergency obstetric medicine in Nyala, Darfur, and to support a psychosocial program for refugees in Zalingei, Darfur. Click here for JCDR's online donations page.

Save Darfur Coaltion The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of over 130 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organizations, assembled to raise public awareness and to mobilize efforts to help end the atrocities and reduce the suffering in Darfur and nearby refugee camps. Donate to the save Darfur Coalition.

Jewish World Watch (JWW) has been instrumental in working directly with KoZon, the organization on the ground in the Iridimi camp om Darfur. JWW helps them complete the outfitting of the camp with solar cookers.

The price of each solar cooker is $30. JWW has raised so much money that they have actually been able to not only pay for the training and the cookers, but also fund the construction of a workroom for the manufacture of the cookers. Additionally, JWW has paid the women back wages for making the cookers. JWW has also funded both the production of the hay baskets and of carrying bags for the cookers. They have funded the purchase of seeds to give the women a chance to grow some vegetables, something they have not had before. JWW wants to build on its successes and offer even more. Donate to Jewish World Watch

Omer Week Four - Advocacy: How and When Do We Take a Stand Within Our Communities?

Brian Fink — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:45:48 -0400

This week's omer study packet, on advocacy, features articles on how to make our synagogues into vessels of tikkun olam, and how to make decisions on controversial issues, as well as tachlis policy documents formulated by JRF congregations: Adat Shalom, Mishkan Shalom, and Tzedek v'Shalom.

This topic will also be featured on the last of our tikkun-olam-themed PEARL tele-conference calls, on Wednesday May 14. To register, click here.

Tikkun Olam committees have promoted a wide range of such projects: internal programming to educate members about how to live in environmentally sound ways, political lobbying and demonstrating to protest genocide or welfare cutbacks, volunteering in inner city soup kitchens, turning synagogues into homeless shelters, declaring sanctuary for illegal immigrants fleeing political oppression...

Many Reconstructionists have their most profound experiences of God through tikkun olam: working together, fighting injustice, acting to help others. It is not out of charity that they ally themselves with those who are oppressed or less fortunate, but rather out of the teaching that all human beings are worthy of respect and opportunity. If that is true, then injustice and discrimination deprive people of their birthright, and tikkun olam may be the most concrete and palpable way to make God’s Presence manifest in our world."

- Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach, Rebecca Alpert and Jacob Staub, p. 59-60

Make a Difference for Victims of the Myanmar Cyclone Disaster

Lisa Tuttle — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:07:29 -0400

Donate to Myanmar Disaster Fund here.JRF is an ongoing coalition member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's (JDC) Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR) during times of natural disaster and human suffering in the world.

AS UJC's overseas partner, the JDC has opened an emergency mailbox to raise relief funds for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated portions of Myanmar (formerly Burma) on May 3.

Read the JCDR Myanmar Cyclone Situation Report.

Funds are being collected for non-sectarian aid for the estimated several hundred thousand cyclone victims left without shelter and safe drinking water. The efforts are part of JDC’s International Development Program, which responds to natural and man-made disasters, providing immediate emergency relief and long-term assistance.

Congregations may download Web banners, found in UJC's central library, for use on their Web sites to help support the JDC efforts. For more information on the Web tools, contact UJC's Andy Neusner at andy.neusner@ujc.org.

Living our Values of Tikkun Olam - PEARL tele-conference call

Brian Fink — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:55:57 -0400

Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm, Eastern Daylight Time

Click here to register for this and other PEARL: Providing Education And Resources for Leadership tele-conference sessions.

Processes and Programs in our Congregations; Taking Action in the Larger World; Living our Values of Tikkun Olam Inside and Outside.

This call will explore best practices for creating committees and buy-in for effective social justice work in our congregations, including integrated youth and adult education and tikkun programming, as well as service-learning, decision-making and advocacy outside our communities.

Facilitator:

Rabbi Shawn Zevit, JRF Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam

Guest Presenters include:

Rabbi Fred Dobb, Adat Shalom, Bethesda, MD, presenting on Adat Shalom's congregational advocacy process and policy
Cliff Goldsmith, Dorshei Tzedek, Newton, presenting on service learning program resources for JRF's Teen Service Learning Week
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Kol Tzedek, Philadelphia, PA, presenting on starting a congregation with a Tikkun Olam focus
Rabbi Cheryl Weiner, Kehillat Israel, Pacific Palisades, CA, Outgoing Director of Religious School and Youth Programs at Kehillat Israel Religious School and Director of the "Menschlekeit Matters" Program

Omer Week Three - Hunger and Poverty

Brian Fink — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:41:51 -0400

This week's Omer Study Packet on hunger and poverty highlights teachings from the 2006 JRF Omer Study and from our partners at Mazon: A Jewish Repsonse to Hunger and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA).

Especially time-sensitive is the action alert on the 2007-2008 Farm Bill, currently making its way through Congress.

We also feature innovative programming from JRF congregations Dorshei Derekh, Mishkan Shalom and Darchei Noam.

In the packet's introduction, Rabbi Shawn Zevit reminds us that Mordecai Kaplan once wrote: “A theology which is not a plan of social action is merely a way of preaching and praying. It is a menu without the dinner.”

Jewish values provide us with recipes for repairing the world. As Jews and fellow travelers, our challenge is to discern how to embody these values in our lives and in our communities.

Often times this task can seem daunting. With so much brokenness in the world, where is one to begin to attempt to return the balance to the world?

To this end, we might view the holy task of tikkun in the area of hunger and poverty as expanding Kaplan's view of Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish People. That civilization must be a spiritually, economically, socially, politically and ecologically sustainable religious civilization.

Hopefully, this information and the study texts that represent centuries of Jewish wisdom will inspire each of you to discover ways in which your communities can assist in alleviating the shadow of hunger and poverty that hovers in the light of all the abundance in our society.

Omer Week Two - Sustainable Communities: Environment and Social Justice

Brian Fink — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:07:33 -0400

From constructing new buildings out of recycled materials, to installing a compact-fluorescent ner tamid, to joining together in song, JRF congregations are engaged in protecting their natural environment, reducing their carbon footprint, and ensuring a inheritance for those who come after them.

In partnership with COEJL and JCPA, our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead. Building upon the resolution on the environment passed by JRF in 1990, our movement continues to labor towards facilitating a globally sustainable approach to living in faith community.

During this second week of Omer teaching, we are highlighting these many environmental sustainability initiatives taking place ...

Below, as an attachment, you will find a PDF resource packet and the recording from our environmental sustainability - PEARL tele-conference call, featuring:

A teaching by Rabbi Shawn Zevit of JRF
Links to environmental material on the JRF website
Notes from the Sustainable Synagogues Conference Call, held on June 6, 2007
A derash by Cantor Eric Schulmiller, from the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore
News clippings about the new building constructed by the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL - the greenest synagogue in America
The "Green Year Initiative" instituted by Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee, WI
Urban Environmental Sustainability programming
created by Kol Tzedek in Philadelphia, PA.

As you read through the teaching, feel free to add comments on this page about your own experiences or use the listserve or web page to ask questions.

For more information, please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.

Omer Week One - Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO)

Brian Fink — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:46:31 -0400

During our first week of Omer teaching, we are highlighting the efforts and energy within our congregations engaged in congregation-based community organizing (CBCO). As you read through it feel free to add comments on this page about your own experiences in community organizing or use the listserve or web page to ask questions.

Below as an attachment, you will find a PDF resource packet and the recording from our Community Organizing and Congregational Advocacy - PEARL tele-conference call, featuring:

Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam for JRF
Shuli Passow, CBCO consultant for the Jewish Funds for Justice
Rabbi Steve Carr Reuben, Kehillat Israel, CA
Kathy Kaufman and Irene Zipper, Chapel Hill Kehillah, NC
John Goldstein and David Weingrod, Shir Hadash, WI

For more information, please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.

Today, increasing numbers of synagogues are engaging in interfaith campaigns on vital issues of local concern, from expanding health coverage for low income workers to building affordable housing.

Since 2006, The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation has been partnering with the Jewish Funds for Justice, helping to develop a network and resources for Reconstructionist communities in Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO) work.

As well, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College began offering training in the model of CBCO activism in the winter of 2007.

Information on community organizing can be found:

In 2002, JFSJ launched a national initiative to encourage and support synagogues as they deepen their social justice efforts through CBCO. Their goal was to address the lack of sustained engagement in activities beyond direct service programs and to challenge congregations to address systemic issues relating to domestic poverty and social injustice. The CBCO model of activism unites a diverse range of people, primarily through religious congregations, in the shared goal of building a civic power base capable of making change to promote the public good.

What is congregation-based community organizing?

Three core components of the synagogue organizing model are essential to the process:

congregants engage in one-to-one conversations within their synagogue, and often with other congregations, about their social justice passions.
leaders engage in extensive clergy and lay leadership training and development.
Synagogue leaders work side-by-side with dozens of faith institutions and progressive organizations in their community, across lines of race, class, and faith.

NEWS UPDATE: JRF member community "Chapel Hill Kehillah" of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has helped launch a chapter of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) to do the work of Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO). Their first event, Sunday, April 27th was a successful, powerful and inspiring event.

http://www.chapelhillnews.com/front/story/14211.html

"We had hoped for founding member commitments from 14 organizations and churches and 170 attendees. By the end of the evening we had 250+ people and 29 organizations making founding member commitments and over $19,000 . As the article states, it was a truly historic event here in Orange County. Thanks to JRF for all the encouragement."

L’shalom,
Rabbi Jen Feldman
Chapel Hill Kehillah