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.
Union for Reform Judaism, Joint Committee
on Social Action.
This site provides a good list of resources and listserves on social
action issues. Also has a link to the RAC Web site.
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.
Campaign for Better Health Care.
This coalition is working to create an accessible, quality health care
system.
Campaign for a National Health Program
NOW.
A new grassroots movement organized around support for a national health
care program.
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.
Index to federal, state and local
Web sites.
Portal to a variety of federal, state and local sites.
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