Oak Park Temple on the Web

A mitzvah for our neighbors

Many of these necessities find their way on to our shopping list. And now they are on the list of the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry to help the agency better the lives of its clients.

Peanut butter
Sugar
Coffee
Diapers
Infant formula

Consider adding them to your shopping basket and put them in the shopping cart located in the temple's rotunda. Thanks!

Urge Congress to end the genocide in Darfur

"Rwanda in slow-motion" -- that's how many describe the ongoing humanitarian crisis gripping Western Sudan.

In the Darfur region of Sudan, a campaign of murder, rape, starvation and displacement is taking place on a scale unprecedented since the Rwandan genocide. As many as 300,000 men, women and children have died since this campaign of ethnic cleansing began in February 2003. At least 1.6 million people have been forced from their homes.

We can play a role in helping end the suffering and violence that each day claims lives, puts more people at risk and increasingly threatens the future of an entire ethnic group.

Unlike the Rwandan genocide of 1994 we still have a chance to act.

We can urge Congress to act. Pending is legislation, the Darfur Genocide Accountability Act (HR 1424) that would press the international community to protect civilians by increasing the international force in Darfur.

Go to the American Jewish World Service web page and send an e-mail letter to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and U.S. Senator Barack Obama to co-sponsor and support this critical legislation. Our other U.S. Senator, Richard Durbin, is already a co-sponsor. This legislation is also supported by other organizations, including the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (RAC).

To learn more about the crisis and find other ways to increase awareness on Darfur, please visit Crisis in Darfur continues

WHO WE ARE

The Social Action Committee is Oak Park Temple's official arm for education, advocacy and response to affect social justice and societal change on local, state, national and international levels. Committee co-chairs are Martha Ackerman, Gail Fisher and David Levine.

WHAT WE ARE ABOUT

THINK NATIONALLY, ACT LOCALLY

Following a congregation-wide caucus on social action in 2002, the committee decided to focus attention on health care; housing and homelessness; education and literacy and involve youth in Tikkun Olam, repairing the world.

HEALTH CARE

A subgroup on health care became an outgrowth of the 2002 caucus. We focus part of our attention on supporting of the work of the PCC Community Wellness Center, a primary care clinic serving low-income residents of the Oak Park area. Temple members have volunteered to train staff and consult on center needs.

Our other focus is national health care. After Rabbi Gary Gerson's call for action on health care in his 2003 Yom Kippur sermons (1) (2), the committee has been looking at how the synagogue should respond to this growing issue. Ruth Rothstein, the chief health services officer of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, focused on health care at the 2003 Hausman brunch. Quentin Young spoke to congregants in December 2003 and returned in February to help us plan actions on universal access to health care. A public forum, tentatively slated for the fall; legislative action and information sheets explaining single-player plans are in the works. We are also making connections with other grassroots organizations working on this issue. The committee will continue to work on our response at future meetings.

As a member of the West Cook Assembly of the interdenominational United Power for Action and Justice, the congregation is working to get health insurance coverage for the uninsured. Other action is planned for the spring.
For more information or if you would like to participate in this effort, contact David Levine (708-386-4588).

HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

In October 2002 the synagogue and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs conducted a panel on the crisis in affordable housing. As part of our commitment to United Power, the synagogue is involved with affordable housing initiatives in the Chicago metropolitan area. We continue our commitment to being a PADS site each Wednesday and some members volunteer at the PADS medical clinic in the Oak Park area.

EDUCATION AND LITERACY

Some committee members are part of an interdenominational caucus that is addressing the black/white achievement gap in the Oak Park elementary schools. The group's attention is keyed into funding and programming.
For more information or if you would like to participate, contact Sheila Essig (708-524-5431).

YOUTH AND SOCIAL ACTION

A subcommittee is working with members of the synagogue's religious school staff to make our youth aware of the importance of social action and social justice through educational and service activities. Each month children from one grade and their parents are responsible for "Project Sandwich," our effort to make our young people aware of issues related to hunger. In association with our community partner Sarah's Inn, middle schoolers focus on violence prevention and gender stereotyping that includes study of relevant Jewish text. Other efforts are being coordinated.
For more information or if you would like to participate, contact Dan Lesser (708- 524-752).

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY

Oak Park Temple offers needed assistance to the Daugavpils Jewish Community in Latvia. This relationship is coordinated through the Yad L'Yad program of Chicago Action. Warm clothes and medicine, particularly physicians' samples, are most needed. For more information or if you would like to help, contact Frances Peshkin (630-833-2789)

THINK LOCALLY, ACT LOCALLY - PARTNERING FOR CHANGE

Sarah's Inn. Since 1981, Sarah's Inn has offered comprehensive services for domestic violence survivors and their children from the west side of Chicago and the western suburbs.

West Suburban PADS .
PADS helps provide shelter for the homeless through a network of churches and synagogues in the Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park areas.

PCC, Community Wellness Center, 14 W. Lake St., Oak Park. Contact, Lynn Hopkins, (708) 524-7678.

BE INFORMED - LOG ON TO LEARN MORE

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC).
The center has been the hub of Jewish social justice and legislative activity in the nation's capital more than 40 years. It has educated and mobilized the American Jewish community as an advocate on legislative and social concerns from Israel to civil rights and religious liberty. RAC is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism.

National Council of Jewish Women.
Inspired by Jewish values this volunteer organization takes progressive stands on social justice issues such from education, child care and health care, to separation of church and state, abortion and hate crimes.

Jewish Council for Urban Affairs.
The council is a Jewish social action group based in Chicago that focuses its efforts on combating poverty, racism and anti-Semitism in partnership with Chicago's diverse communities.

American Jewish World Service
AJWS supports almost 200 grassroots organizations in the developing world and Russia and Ukraine through grant making, technical assistance, emergency relief and advocacy.AJWS also provides international service opportunities for the Jewish community, allowing Jews to take part in meaninfgul social change.

State of Illinois, legislative information.
This site has current information on bills and other matters that have been or will be before the Illinois General Assembly. It also shows how state senators and representatives voted on legislation.

U.S. House of Representatives .
Everything you always wanted to know about the doings in the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Senate
Everything you always wanted to know about the doings in the U.S. Senate.

GET INVOLVED