Tzedakah, Tikkun Olam and Social Action
This High Holiday Season, Congregation Mickve Israel offers many opportunities for you to help our community.
Operation Isaiah
Isaiah was a prophet whose words are read each year on Yom Kippur. Join the Savannah Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Services during Operation Isaiah by doing a mitzvah this High Holiday season and donating food to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. Donation barrels are located at Congregation Mickve Israel, Congregation Agudath Achim, Congregation B’nai Brith Jacob, Jewish Education Alliance, Rambam Day School, Chabad of Savannah. Visit WWW.SAVJ.org to make a monetary donation.
Feeding our Neighbors
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Join our Mickve Israel family as we work to feed the hungry. Congregation Mickve Israel partners with the Lutheran Church of the Ascension to serve dinner to those with food insecurities one Tuesday night per month. Volunteers are needed to prepare and serve the food for the meal. Please check your e-blast for volunteer sign ups. Monetary support is also needed. Food costs run between $300 - $350 each month as we prepare food for 90 meals. Donations can be made by calling the office or on Congregation Mickve Israel's website. Earmark your donation for the Social Action Fund and note on the check or online "Feeding the Hungry."
A special thank you goes out to Jonathan Schwartz, Ron Fagin, Harriet Meyerhoff and Toby Hollander for sponsoring past months meals.
Backpack Buddies
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We are beginning our 16th year providing weekend meals and school supplies to children at The Early Learning Center (formerly East Broad Elementary), Shuman Elementary and STEM Academy. We invite you to help us with packaged meals, healthy snacks, and school supplies again this year. Below are sample items that will help the children be nourished and ready to learn.
Packaged Foods: canned chicken or tuna, Mac/Cheese, canned meals (such as Chef Boy-ar-dee ravioli, stews, beans and franks), fruit juices, or fruit cups, raisins, cereal, shelf-stable milk (plain or chocolate), pudding cups, sandwich crackers (peanut butter or cheese), applesauce cups, trail mixes or healthy snacks and cookies.
School Supplies: #2 pencils, pink erasers, spiral notebooks (wide ruled) glue sticks,
crayons, blunt tip scissors, plastic pocket folders, box of tissues, hand sanitizer
These items may be placed in the barrel located in the atrium and in the back of the sanctuary.
If you cannot bring in foods, please consider making a financial donation to our Social Action Fund online (please note it is for Backpack Buddies).
If you would like to volunteer to pack or schlep items for delivery, contact Kt Celiz at KtCeliz@MickveIsrael.org
J.U.S.T. - Justice Unites Savannah Together
No one can deny that there are serious issues in Chatham County which affect our community. For years, we have seen increases in local violence, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, and, of course, Covid-19. In 2020, Mickve Israel joined with over 20 other religious institutions throughout Greater Savannah to form J.U.S T., a social action group focusing on a collaborative effort to improve the lives of people in need in Chatham County. J.U.S.T is the acronym for Justice Unites Savannah Together.
WHAT WE DO AND HAVE DONE
The theory behind the organization is that by having a grass-roots effort among multiple religious organizations, people of all beliefs gain a greater understanding of the needs of our community, and though a unified voice, can create a "political" force that insists our local governmental officials take action to correct issues we as a group deem important.
We have previously helped encourage the City of Savannah to place almost ten million dollars of federal monies into the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. We then showed support for the city to continually place money each year in the fund from city funds. We also worked with the Chatham County School District to hire a superintendent who supported the “Science of Reading” Program in order to improve literacy in our area and continue to meet with representatives of the school district to stay abreast of the implementation of this program.
J.U.S.T. is now working with Chatham County Official as well to help solve the housing crisis. Members of our group met with local authorities, political leaders and grass roots organizations tackling the issues we were focusing on for several months.
BACKGROUND
J.U.S.T is a local Savannah operation and is modeled from a larger not for profit organization called DART. Founded in 1982, DART (Direct Action & Research Training Center) is a national network of over 20 grassroots community organizations who bring people together across racial, religious and socioeconomic lines to pursue justice in their communities. Since its inception, over 10,000 participants have worked together to improve conditions all over the country. 400 other congregations in 22 different cities have previously tackled problems that need addressing, because they got large numbers of people involved.
Our "power" to effect change remains directly related to the collective numbers we bring to the table, and Congregation Mickve Israel is committed to show the Chatham County community that although we will continue to unit with other houses of worship and work to improve our county.
MOVING FORWARD
We need you to join us in our efforts and ask you to consider participating in some manner. This is a great opportunity for you to become involved with important issues being addressed by our congregation with or without an extensive commitment.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
We need both active and passive supporters.
1) We need volunteers to help us with our research. This year, we will continue focusing on Affordable Housing and how best to make use of the money allocated for this issue. In addition, we have chosen to also focus on the issue of “cash bail” and how it affects mostly low-income and minority individuals, who languish in jail only because they cannot afford to pay bail to get out. There are multiple organizations, civic leaders and community not for profits who we will be meeting with throughout the year to learn about the specific ways our organization can help. These meetings take place either in person or over ZOOM and usually last about an hour.
2) We need volunteers who can help us spread the word to other members of our congregation (and community) about the work we are doing and engage them in joining our efforts.
3) We need passive volunteers who, when called upon, will join in a group Zoom meeting solely to show their support for the work that is being done. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PART OF OUR EFFORT. When leaders come on a ZOOM call or enter an auditorium with hundreds and hundreds of people (assuming people are meeting in person!) the power of numbers cannot be understated. Total commitment is a few hours spread over several months.
4) Finally, we need a minimum of 150 of our Mickve Israel Congregation to join in a community “assembly” on the day we make our presentation to the individual or individuals who have it within their power to make change in order to show them that we are all ---as members of their constituency—behind the efforts and insist they hear what we have to say. At that event, we expect well over 1000 people, and we want our CMI family well-represented.