Tikkun Olam Council
In attendance: Ellen Hanson, Sharon Marks, Norma Salz, Leslie Sternlieb, Patricia Worth
We began with exercises that enabled us to identify our values and special skills, concluding with an attempt to answer the following questions: What does tikkun olam mean to you, and what would you do if you possessed all the time and money you needed to foster tikkun olam in the world?
We as a community bring many skills to the table, including organizational, artistic, problem-solving and listening. Any or all of these may be used in any tikkun olam endeavor.
As a group, we felt that it was important for any tikkun olam undertaking be built from the bottom up, and not the top down. Simply put, we want our values and intentions to be the force behind whatever work we do, and not have a charitable project imposed on us by the will of particular people. We identified some of the areas of involvement that we felt strongly about: hunger and basic needs fulfillment, environmental affairs, children and
Most of all, we felt strongly as a group that we wanted to roll up our sleeves and do real work. That said, we also realized that there are three components of an ongoing tikkun olam effort that generally complement one another: fundraising, direct service and issues advocacy. We also thought it would be important for the
In its ideal form, our tikkun olam work would match members’ skills with projects. For instance, someone with artistic ability could work on a mural to beautify a youth center in a poor area; an attorney could assist with migrant worker issues; teachers could mentor at-risk children or those who simply need someone to listen.
We identified a project for immediate action. We would like to encourage people attending the Progressive Dinner in January to bring a can of kosher food (marked by the appropriate symbol on the label) that would be distributed to the Kosher Food Bank. In fact, we thought it would be good policy that whenever there was a community meal or event including food for everyone to bring a can for the Kosher Food Bank. In essence, when we eat, the hungry may eat.
Because we feel that it is important for the Beth Or community to get behind this effort and ensure maximum participation and continuity, we thought a town meeting or similar forum would enable other members to participate in this process. We want this to unfold with its own logic.
We have not yet scheduled a follow-up meeting.