Tikkun Olam (Social Action)
Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) Our congregation provides its members with many opportunities for social action. Programs include:
- Nicaragua work trip for teens
- Family work trips in the New York Metropolitan area
- Providing holiday and other meals for those in need
- Sheltering and feeding the homeless of Northern Westchester
- Raising money for local organizations
- Hands-on tzedakah programs through our religious school and early childhood center
- Midnight Runs
- Greening project
Community Center of Northern Westchester.
Temple Shaaray Tefila is a community partner with the Community Center of Northern Westchester. The Community Center of Northern Westchester seeks to improve the well-being and self-sufficiency of neighbors in need in Northern Westchester by providing food, clothing, programs, and other resources. We are committed to treating all with dignity and respect. We encourage broad involvement and participation by residents and organizations in the communities we serve. More information can be found.
Shul Stitchers
Every month, we will be knitting baby blankets and lap blankets to donate to various charities. Experienced knitters or those who want to learn are welcome. Contact Karen Lieberman at knwm64@gmail.com.
HELPING HANDS
Get involved and become a part of HELPING HANDS, the Social Action Task Force. If you are interested in helping and would like to be on the mailing list, please let them know. If you have suggestions for projects in your neighborhood, send them.
For further information and to volunteer contact our Social Action team at SocialAction@tst.org.
Programs
At Temple Shaaray Tefila, we offer a diverse set of programs for all ages. Whether it's volunteering with our social action committee, experiencing our youth programs, engaging in adult learning or finding peace in our new wellness series, we are committed to meeting each generation of temple members where they are at. We strive to cultivate strong jewish identities for all ages with inspirational programs and meaningful ritual experiences.
Tikkun Olam (Social Action News)
Brotherhood and Sisterhood News
Welcome to Shaaray Tefila’s Social Awareness Page
Brought to you by...
The Social Action / Social Justice Teams
Our mission is to connect social action and social justice initiatives with relevant Jewish values such as Tikkun Olam (social justice), Chesed (loving-kindness) and Tzedakah (justice). Our goal to “heal the world” (or bring light where there is darkness) is fostered through multi-generational programming that affects social change and benefits local, national and international communities.
Taking Action Together Partner With Our Shaaray Community In This Important Work
- Join a below mentioned project
- Share an idea with the committee
- Fill a gap in what's missing from our work
- Do you know someone in need who our Shaaray members can help?
- Are you involved in an organization that you would like to bring Shaaray Tefila’s social awareness to?
Email socialaction@templest.org and let’s make a difference
*All affiliated and non-affiliated community members WELCOME!
Ongoing Projects…
Nourishing our Community:
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- Annual Thanksgiving Program: Prepare and deliver meals or groceries or provide supermarket gift cards to over 3700 individuals in our Westchester community
- Annual Christmas Dinner Program: Prepare and deliver meals or groceries or provide supermarket gift cards to over 3700 individuals in our Westchester community
- High Holy Day Food Drive: Provide thousands of pounds of food to the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry and the Community Center of Northern Westchester
- Community Centers in Neighboring towns: Provide meals for seniors
- Cook2Care: Congregants and friends prepare homemade, nutritious, healthy food to donate to our neighbors in need
- Food delivery to quarantined families in need
- Food Distribution for Feeding Westchester and Neighbors Link: Temple members helped to organize, set up and distribute thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables, fruit, dairy and meat
- Kosher Food Pantry: Kosher meal distribution to Northern Westchester’s senior population
- Kosher Meal delivery to Seniors throughout Westchester. Staffed the volunteers necessary to continue this WJCS program
- St. Bartholomew’s Soup Kitchen, White Plains: Provide meals for the grab-n-go lunch program
- Sandwich Assistance Program: Help to nourish the Broadway Manor Homeless Day Shelter and the Community Center of Northern Westchester, with sandwiches. Program started April 2020 and as of June 1, 2022, over 40,000 sandwiches or hot meals have been distributed.
- Shaaray’s Community Garden: Temple members grow vegetables to donate to local pantries
- Somer’s Manor Nursing Home - Bingo and Shabbat Services
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Assisting our Community:
- A-Home: School supplies and Halloween decorations
- Bridges to Community: Cross-cultural humanitarian experience for Shaaray members in partnership with the Bedford Presbyterian Church. Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic
- Clothing and Coat Drives
- Emergency Shelter Partnership: In an effort to address homelessness in our county, Shaaray and a consortium of Tempe’s and churches provide meals, toiletries, and shelter for individual weeks over the entire winter
- Financially support ten organizations (yearly) with monies from the Social Action Fund
- Emergency Shelter Partnership (Founding Member)
- Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry (Founding Member)
- Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS)
- Midnight Run
- Community Center of Northern Westchester (CCNW)
- My Sister’s Place
- Hope’s Door
- A-Home
- Neighbors Link
- Friends of Karen
- Midnight Run: Evening and Breakfast Runs to provide clothing, blankets, food, and hot coffee to NYC’s homeless
- Shul Stitchers: A mighty group making an impact one stitch at a time. Beginners welcome
- 914Cares/CCNW; distributed diapers throughout the pandemic and to present day from 914Cares to CCNW, volunteer on premise to assemble “Bags of Love”
- Big Viv Foundation: provided Christmas toys, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, computers, and clothing
- Most of the organizations above are recipients of our Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner Programs
Specialized And Response Projects...
- Refugee Resettlement- TST is a founding member of ReSet Westchester, aka Northern Westchester Refugee Resettlement Initiative. ReSet welcomes, resettles and helps assure new refugees a safe home and prepares them to lead productive and independent lives. Our assistance includes housing, job placement, health, education, transportation, and successful adaptation to a new country and a new way of life while holding onto the valued traditions of their country of origin’s culture. As of June 1st, 2022, ReSet has resettled three families from Afghanistan and will be resettling fourth family from Ukraine on June 14th, 2022.
- Covid Relief: Supply PPE to front-line workers and provide funds and meals for families in need
- Respond to Emergencies: With tools in hand, congregants work to repair communities damaged by natural disasters: Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, Rockaway & Breezy Point after SuperStorm Sandy, Financial support for Louisiana temple affected by hurricanes, Bahamian Organization for Human Rights - collected necessities for distribution
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- Shaaray Beautification Day: Congregants and friends help to clean up the grounds and plant annuals, perennials, bushes and trees,
- Respond to neighbors in need: Performed landscape maintenance for the first private group home in NYS
- Jewish Solidarity: participated in NYC march
- Women’s Rights: participated in NYC marches and whenever and wherever representation is needed
- LGBTQIA: bring light and support to our community through events and seminars
- Racial Justice: bring education to the temple community with documentaries, seminars and support such as sponsoring the inaugural town of Bedford Juneteenth celebration
Businesses We Partner With:
We would like to thank the businesses who donate to the Social Action Programs including the Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner Programs:
A & S Mt. Kisco
A & S Millwood
ACME
Art of Flowers
Bedford Village Flower Shoppe
Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen
Bobo’s
Cherry Blossom Farm
Colonial Terrace
Crabtree Kittle House
DeCicco Family Markets
Exit 4 Restaurant
Feeding Westchester
Forever in Bloom
Gersky’s Catering 7 Event Planning
Greenburgh Hebrew Center
- Weiss & Co.
Henry Schein Inc.
House of Flowers of Mamaroneck
Interstate Foods
JCC - Mid-Westchester
Key Food
Lange’s Deli
Metro Deli Catering
Mrs. Green’s
New Castle CLeaners
Old Stone Trattoria
Rincon Santaneco
Rye Ridge Deli
St. Francis of Assisi
Sammy’s Kosher
Seasons
Shames JCC on the Hudson
Shiraz Kitchen
Shoprite
Stop & Shop
Sunrise Building & Remodeling Inc.
Rincon Santaneco
Temple Beth El Of Northern Westchester
Trader Joe’s
Two’s Company
Whispering Pines
White Plains Bake Shoppe
Whole Foods
WJCS
Village Market Chappaqua
White Plains Lincoln
Zaro’s Bakery
Organizations We Support And Partner With:
Abbott House
Adopt-a-Dog
Armonk Fire Department/EMTs
AFYA
A-Home
Bedford Fire Department
Bedford Presbyterian Church
Big Viv’s Foundation
Birthday Box
Boys and Girls Club of Mount Kisco
Bridges to Community- USA, Nicaragua & The Dominican Republic
Chappaqua Community Center
Community Center of Nort\hern Westchester
DOROT
Emerge Puerto Rico
Emergency Shelter Partnership
Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship
Family Services of Westchester
First Private Group Home in New York State
Friends of Karen
Grasslands Homeless Shelter
The Guidance Center of Westchester
Guiding Eyes for the Blind
Hadassah Foundation
Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem
Hope Lodge
Hope’s Door
Holocaust Remembrance Committee @ Shaaray
IsraAID
Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center @Northern Westchester Hospital
The Sally & Anthony Mann Center
Meals on Wheels
Midnight Run
Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry
Mount Kisco Senior Nutrition
My Sisters’ Place
Neighbors Link
New Castle Senior Nutrition
New York Blood CenterNorthern Westchester Hospital
Open Arms Men’s Shelter
Open Door Medical Center
Operation Gratitude
Ossining Children’s Center
Paramount at Somers Rehabilitation and Nursing Center
Pleasantville Cottage School / Edenwald
Puerto Rico
Rambam Hospital, Haifa, Israel
ReSet Westchester
Riverkeepers
Samaritan’s House Women’s Shelter
Scouts of Bedford and Somers
St. Bartholomew Church Soup Kitchen
Shaaray Sustainability
Shul Stitchers @ Shaaray
Soroka University Medical Center, Beersheba, Israel
SPCA
Temple Beth Shalom in Puerto Rico
Vernon Plaza Family Center
Veterans organizations in Northern Bronx
VAMC Women Veterans
The VA Montrose
Westchester Hospice
Westchester Klezmer Program
Westchester Youth Alliance
White Plains Lincoln
WJCS
Yad Leah - Jerusalem