Make 5770 Your Year for Social Action!

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Ongoing Programs   

Family Table is Greater Boston's Jewish Food Pantry. A program of Jewish Family and Children's Service, in collaboration with the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, the Hillel Council of New England and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, it is our communal response to Jewish individuals and families who cannot afford the basic necessities of life. Once a month, two weeks worth of food, special holiday foods, personal hygiene items and paper goods are distributed to Jewish families in need. Temple Beth David currently collects crackers and couscous as part of this effort. Volunteers deliver this food to the Family Table monthly and volunteers can also help sort and deliver packages to these families.  
For more information, contact our Temple liaison, Amy Fiorino at afiorino@comcast.net.

Yom Kippur Food Drive is conducted each year by our Senior Youth Group, NAWDTY. Congregants donate the food they are not eating during the Yom Kippur fast to help feed the hungry. This food drive annually collects large quantities of nonperishable goods at a time of year when many food pantries have great need. Collections are distributed to Family Table and to local food pantries.

Community Servings, in Jamaica Plain, is always in need of volunteers to help in preparing meals or delivering meals or helping out in their office. For more information or to get involved contact Volunteer Recruitment at Community Servings, 617-522-7777, ext. 228.

Boston Jewish Coalition for Literacy is a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and an affiliate of the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy. The Coalition is funded by Combined Jewish Philanthropies and United Way of Massachusetts Bay. You can organize a book drive or tutor a child who needs help reading through this organization. 
For information or to volunteer, contact the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston
at 617-457-8600 or  email literacy@jcrcboston.org.

Project Ezra is the annual Christmas day feeding program established in 1986 by the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts in which over 1,500 Jewish volunteers from more than 70 synagogues and organizations across the Commonwealth staff shelters and feeding programs, enabling Christian volunteers and workers to share the holiday with family. Temple Beth David has been sending volunteers and desserts to the HopeFound (formerly Shattuck Shelter) in Boston for many years.
Contact Avi Glaser at aviglaser@comcast.net for more information. 

Partakers is an interfaith organization that breaks down the walls which separate prisoners from free citizens. Its long term goal is to promote the rehabilitation of prisoners to our society. Through the College Beyond Bars Program, prisoners at Norfolk County Prison can obtain a BA degree. Prisoners qualify by completing a correspondence course, and then taking courses at the prison sponsored by Boston University. They may take four to six years to obtain their degree. Volunteers mentor the prisoner by meeting with them once a month in the prison. The volunteers do not tutor the prisoner but rather guide and encourage them in their quest. Many prisoners have very little support from family and friends. Mentorship is a very helpful to them. Temple Beth David has become the first synagogue to
join the number of churches already active in this effort. We have four volunteers to visiting a prisoner at Norfolk Correctional Institute every month.  
If you are interested in participating or would like to know more about Partakers,
visit www.partakers.org or contact Joyce Levine at arljol@yahoo.com.

A Mitzvah Project Book is available in our library. This lime green notebook is a mechanism for congregants to share information about an organization or activity that they have found worthwhile. Although many of the contributions to this resource come from Bar and Bat Mitzvah students, any member of the congregation is welcome to contribute or to take a look at the projects.

Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur
Temple Beth David has joined organizations across Massachusetts dedicated to ending war and genocide in Sudan. The mission of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur is to stimulate, support and facilitate the efforts of faith based and secular organizations in Massachusetts to stop the genocide, rape and other crimes against humanity being committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is estimated that 400,000 people have been killed, over 2 million have been forced to leave their homes, and countless women have been raped and beaten. 
Learn more at www.savedarfurma.com. Volunteer to help by contacting Ellenjane Scheiner at ejscheiner@aol.com.