Social ActionChanukah Gift WishesThe Social Action Committee is once again coordinating Oak Park Temple's participation in The Ark's Chanukah Gift Wishes program. This program matches Ark clients with those who are willing and able to provide gifts or donate gift cards for Chanukah. Look for sign-up forms around the Temple, or click on the Gift Drive Sign-Up link below to sign up online. Contact Ruth Masters at rmastersw@yahoo.com or 708-445-8031 with any questions. Enrollment deadline is November 3.
Ark Chanukah Gift Drive Sign-up For more information about the ARK, visit http://www.arkchicago.org. WHO WE ARE An important tenet of Reform Judaism is Tikkun Olam - making the world whole for the good of humanity. That is the central mission of Oak Park Temple’s Social Action committee. In emphasizing the "action" in social action, we are engaged in efforts that inform and move the community to advocate for and affect positive, measurable and meaningful change on local, national and international levels. In recent years committee members have helped heal the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, raise awareness of the on-going humanitarian crisis in Darfur and advocate for accessible and affordable health care. With the deepening recession and the rising number of foreclosures, we are centering our attention on housing and homelessness. Housing and Homelessness The Prophets exhort us to follow a long-standing tradition of hospitality among the Jewish people. Our own recent history, with its exiles and expulsions, reminds us that we have a special obligation to provide for those with no protection. Oak Park Temple has met that obligation for nearly two decades. We are a founding congregation of West Suburban PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), a non-profit agency created in 1992 to provide emergency food and shelter to homeless individuals and families in west suburban Cook County. Since then time we have operated the shelter on Wednesday nights. Since its founding, West Suburban PADS has grown from providing emergency food and shelter to homeless individuals and families to providing a holistic approach that encompasses the areas of physical, medical, mental health, financial and housing, assistance: an overnight emergency shelter from September 15 to May 5; a year-round daytime support center; supportive housing, including transitional housing for the employed homeless and permanent supportive housing for the homeless mentally ill; homeless prevention for those who could lose their housing through eviction or foreclosure; and a pilot program this summer to provide transitional shelter alongside case management. We kicked off our effort last fall with a program related to West Suburban PADS. The highlight was a documentary “Beyond Shelter,” made by congregants John and Pat Allen. Watch BEYOND SHELTER, a documentary on West Suburban PADS, This year we plan to engage in meaningful action to help resolve housing issues. on a local level . The committee intends to work with Oak Park-area groups, such as Housing Oak Park, to improve the amount of affordable housing in this community We also will continue our involvement in West Suburban PADS and need volunteers to aid our shelter operations. Duties include checking in guests, setting up and taking down banquet tables, folding chairs and sleeping pads and cleaning the shelter site in the morning. Volunteers are most desperately needed for the evening shifts (10 pm- 2 am and 2 am - 5 am) and for the early morning shift (5 am 7 am). Contact Oak Park Temple Site Captain Sheila Essig at 524-5431 or by e-mail at sheilaessig@aol.com for more information. For more information on West Suburban PADS, log on to http://www.westsuburbanpads.org/dnn/. | Project Sandwich
On the first Sunday of most months all year around, Social Action will provide lunch for the hungry of Chicago’s west side. Please bring five bag lunches – each containing two sandwiches, a bag of chips, fruit and a drink – to the Berkshire entrance from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. Call Jonathan Marcus at 708-366-2471 or Steve Gelman at 773- 774-2631 for more information or check this page or the Temple e-mail newsletter for schedule changes.
Other Social Action EffortsOak 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. Call Frances Peshkin at (630) 833-2789 or e-mail her at fpeshkin@alumni.northwestern.edu if you would like to help or need additional information.
A lot of work is needed to affect social change on other fronts. Log on to the following sites to learn what you can do to make a difference:
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