Community Service Articles

Gathering the Tribe: A Personal Reflection on Jewish Service

By MAX KLAU

"When you set out to change the world, the experience is sure to change you."
—Max Klau

Jewish Social Action Month reminds us that all over the world, every day, Jewish volunteers are making a difference, working with Jews and non-Jews alike. Max Klau recently attended a retreat for alums of the Jewish Coalition for Service and realized how greatly he was influenced by his social action experiences, which ranged from playing with a Chassidic rock band to building a school in a small village in Ghana to digging ditches in rural Honduras. He feels forever connected him to a particular tribe of Jews, he says, who are "idealistic, hardworking, socially conscious, and passionate about Jewish values and tikkun olam."

A Father’s Search for Jewish Family Service

Steve August, a Boston attorney, couldn’t find a Jewish group that he and his thirteen-year-old son could join to go build houses for poor people. So he created one himself.

US Jews Answer SOS of Katrina Victims

From teens to mid aged adults, volunteers from all over the U.S. respond to hurricane victims’ needs.

Jewish Values and Service Learning

Acts of compassion, such as visiting cancer patients, differ from repairing the world, such as petitioning against tobacco. Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility describes how distinguishing the halakhic and messianic impulses is one challenge in creating Jewish service learning curriculum.

How to Put Together a Tikkun Olam Family Work Project

By STEVE AUGUST

The director of Tikkun Olam Family Work Project, prepared this very useful manual for families, who, like himself, want to demonstrate to their children that they, too, want to heal the world and are willing to take action.