Nurturing Jewish Social Justice Activists
Involve yourself in our many Tikkun Olam, social justice projects.
At Or Ami, “we travel together down Jewish paths which inspire our hearts and souls, and transform us to seek justice and nurture compassion in the world.” Too often, the pressures of daily life combine with compassion fatigue and provide an easy excuse for Jews to focus on spiritual matters without investing themselves in social justice mitzvah work. Too often, young social justice activists are stymied in their attempts to find suitable mitzvah projects that accept volunteers under 16 years old. Too often, mitzvah volunteers are not taught the Jewish values which underlie their work; consequently, the “warm fuzzies” of a mitzvah project may not provide motivation for continued commitment to Tikkun Olam (social action) work.
Our Or Ami Center for Tikkun Olam will repair the world by integrating a full calendar of social action projects, with education about Jewish values and social justice activism for our kindergarten through high school students. It creates successive generations of Jews experienced with, committed to, and skilled at repairing the world.
Initial endeavors include:
- Engaging a B’nai Mitzvah Project Coordinator (congregant Debby Pattiz, dpattiz@sbcglobal.net) to guide students toward deeper involvement
- Creating VolunTEENS, Future Coaches, and Madrichim, through providing 7th-12th grade students with social action project planning and youth mentoring experiences
- Holding Mitzvah Project Fairs in which post-B’nai Mitzvah students present their projects to younger students
- Hosting a NFTY SoCal’s Social Justice Kallah for 210 teens
- Developing a social justice values curriculum to be implemented within all learning programs
- Creating a list of organizations which will allow younger students to volunteer.
Thanks to the generous donations of so many congregants and foundations, Or Ami deepens our compassionate congregation to meet the needs of our increasingly broken world.