Thank you to everyone who donated their items and time for our winter collections! Because of your energy and commitment to repairing the world, we donated more than two carloads of cereal and salmon to Family Table, an amazing amount of toys to Rofeh International, Boston Childrens, and Christmas in the city, and a truckload of winter clothing to St. Francis House and Rosie's Place. A special thank you to Julie Kreiss, Sarah Docktor and Marisa Fisch for helping organize this effort.

Do you want to help with our spring collections? Reply to this email if you are interested!

Green Fund for Environmental Sustainability

The time is now to reduce our carbon footprint and reverse the effects of climate change. Give a gift of any size to help TBE fulfill our vision of becoming carbon neutral. This campaign, which is separate from and in addition to our Annual Fund Campaign, will support efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and invest in renewable energy. Donate in our Tzedakah Box in the atrium or at the link!

Family Table

Family Table is Greater Boston's only Jewish food pantry. As a community, each month we are responsible for supplying 50 cans of salmon and 50 boxes of whole grain cereal for families in need. Please bring in a can of salmon or a box of cereal the next time you come to TBE! 

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will be joining the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) for their annual service event. We will be working on beatification and revitalization projects throughout the Blackstone Elementary School in the South End. After the projects, there will be a lunch and discussion about MLK and why it has become a day of volunteering. Please join other TBE families and Jewish community members at this meaningful and fun event! Siblings welcomed.

Start 2018 with CASA’s small-group, hands-on social justice projects! This month we return to Community Servings in Jamaica Plain. Our CASA team will help prepare and pack delicious, medically tailored meals for individuals and families facing critical and chronic illness. Community Servings provides 675,000 meals annually to 2,000 clients with HIV/AIDS, cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Our volunteers receive breakfast, lunch, and a great orientation to the Community Servings kitchen and program.

Please join us in conversations, reflection, sharing and learning, as we begin to think about various life transitions* and the challenges and opportunities they can hold. 

This program promises to be engaging and thought-provoking, and we hope to use it as a catalyst for TBE member-led efforts, such as support groups and an expansion of our wellness resources. 

(* Some examples of what we mean by ‘life transitions’: divorce; death of a loved one; life’s ‘curveballs”; illness; life cycle events; ‘empty nesting’; new parents, and more.)

David has been involved with Community Servings since it's inception in 1989, where he began as a volunteer. He became CEO in 1999. Under David's leadership, Community Servings has evolved from a small neighborhood meals program delivering dinner to 30 people to a critical regional program providing medically-tailored meal plans to 1,850 people with acute life-threatening illnesses, their dependents and caregivers in 20 Massachusetts communities.

TBE presents an exciting way to approach and celebrate Tu B'Shevat. Learn and take action with our TBE clergy, educators and lay leaders as we draw on our tradition's connection to the environment.

Enjoy a dinner with the Syrian families our volunteers continue to support. Then hear Robert Ford, former US Ambassador to Syria from 2010 to 2014, at Shabbat Services.

Walk alongside homeless and formerly homeless participants and share a meal together while listening to stories of the Boston’s homeless community. The Winter Walk, a two mile walk through the streets of Boston that begins and ends on Copley Square, is an event raising funds and awareness towards an end to homelessness in Greater Boston. The event supports a number of service organizations that are working on homelessness prevention and support and care of Boston’s homeless population. Contact Sheri Kassirer at the link to learn more.

The Massachusetts Jewish community has been taking strong and varied action around the immigration and refugee crisis in this last year. Learn from one another's work and act together as a broader Jewish community committed to immigration justice. Supported by the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA), the Tzedek Reflection is Jewish social justice coalition that integrates learning, sevice, and advocacy to create pathways to act on our jewish values.

Join TBE’s Racial Justice Initiative in exploring housing and racial inequities by reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein and participating in a discussion group lead by Nova Biro and Henry Korman on February 27th. Follow up with March 26th’s World of Wellesley event, featuring author Rothstein at the Wellesley Community Center.

Read the third installment in Jenna Russell's series of articles on the Syrian Families resettling in the Boston area, and the local people assisting them. This article in particular is about the Hayani family, who our TBE volunteers are supporting.

VP of Tikkun Olam Julie Kreiss explores how 2018 can be a year of many mitzvah days . Page 6.

Jessica Rosenbloom writes about how her family welcomed the Haynis and Aljelous, the Syrian refugee families TBE has been supporting, to their first Thanksgiving celebration in America. Page 13

Andy Schiller writes about his experiences on the Israel a ride, a seven day transformative cycling journey benefiting the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon. Page 16

The TBE Green Team explores how eating healthy can also fight climate change. Page 18.

The Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (MANHR) is the only consumer advocacy group in Massachusetts fighting on behalf of people forced to live in nursing homes. We need your help to continue the effort to ensure quality care, safety and dignity in living for 40,000 Massachusetts nursing home residents. You can help by joining TBE member Martin Alintuck and 1) clicking on the link below and making a contribution to the fight; 2) sharing the link with your friends and contacts on Facebook, Instagram, twitter and via email as the more people who see it, the more successful the campaign will be. 

TBE Physicians - Retired, Semi-Retired, In Industry and In Practice: 

Use your clinical expertise and make a difference - join us for an easy, fun, flexible and rewarding opportunity! The MAVEN Project is seeking physicians to volunteer 4 hours per month to provide clinical consultative advice to communities with limited access to clinical expertise via telehealth. Join TBE Member Lisa Bard Levine in this exciting and meaningful opportunity! Click the link to learn more or volunteer.

Ma'asim Tovim Group Leaders Needed

Volunteer alongside our 6th and 7th graders and guide them through conversations about social justice.

Contact Sandy Aronson for more information

Volunteers Needed for TBE Literacy Program

Share your love for reading with children in a one-to-one setting. Join our literacy team at the Potter Road School in Framingham for a rewarding volunteer experience reading with a child (or two) for one hour during the week. No prior experience required.

Contact Judy Zimmerman for more information

Support Congregants in Times of Joy and Sorrow

Our tradition tells us that deeds of loving kindness are equal in weight to all of the commandments. Learn more about opportunities to mark sacred moments and offer meaningful outreach to guide our community. The TBE Caring Community works in partnership with Cantor Sufrin and Rabbi Sherman and invites congregants to join our committees.

Contact Carolyn Kohlman for more information

Be a Big Brother or Big Sister

Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, one of the nation’s oldest mentoring organizations, transforms lives through friendship. Be a mentor to children and adults with disabilities. Approximately 40 Little Brothers and Sisters, and a roughly equal number of adults with disabilities, are waiting on a right-fit match.  

Contact Joni Kusminsky to be a big!

This Mitzvah Moments monthly e-newsletter provides a monthly snapshot of upcoming Tikkun Olam events, with links to more information. The goal of the newsletter is to improve communication, lift awareness of Tikkun Olam events and provide opportunities for the TBE community to come together throughout the year to combine community, compassion and connection.

The ultimate goal of Tikkun Olam at TBE is to provide integrated “Mitzvah Moments” throughout the year which enable the whole temple community to participate in direct service opportunities, education about social justice, and/or collection drives—thereby linking our Jewish values to the act of doing/serving, compassionate giving, and affecting change—in ourselves and in the world around us.