Temple Sinai
41 West Hartford Road
Newington, CT 06111
860-561-1055

Temple Sinai

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett President Jeff Israel
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Social Action

Temple Sinai recognizes "communities" of many sizes in its community service activities. Through our Social Action Committee, many local and service projects are initiated and supported. It is also the committee's goal to increase awareness of relevant social issues among our membership, as well as to gain widespread participation in events.

 

About the Social Action Committee

The Temple Sinai Social Action Committee welcomes all who would be interested in joining our group, or who would like to propose any new ideas to benefit the community. Please contact our committee chairman, Sherry Maltese, for any information.

Volunteers are Needed!

The Social Action Committee is also compiling a list of volunteers for activities throughout the year. We need your help and good ideas! Call Carol Benjamin at the Temple Office 860-561-1055 or e-mail social_action@sinaict.org

 

The Knitzvah Project

A Temple-wide knitting project, Knitzvah, needs knitters of all skill levels from complete beginners to experts. Teachers and supplies will be provided. The project is working to make baby hats and blankets, helmet liners for American and Israeli soldiers, and simple squares to be made into blankets for a needy Indian reservation. The project is holding drop-in sessions periodically. Check the Bulletin and calendar for dates. See the flyer in the January Bulletin for more information. You can get even more information, including patterns, on our discussion forums (BBS). You'll find a dedicated discussion forum here.

Knitzvah Baby Hats at Connecticut Children's Medical Center

 

Help a child learn to READ!

The Greater Hartford Jewish Coalition for Literacy is now preparing for its seventh year. Just one half hour per week, reading with one child (pre-school through third grade, as you prefer) can make a world of difference, and its fun! If you can’t commit for every week, substitute tutors are also needed. Currently 174 reading mentors and substitutes are volunteering at ten schools in five towns. If you have not yet signed on and want to do so, please call the Hartford Jewish Coalition for Literacy at 860-236-7323 or email hjcl@jewishhartford.org.

Ken Speyer of our Social Action Committee will coordinate for Temple Sinai. He can be reached at 860-229-1075.

This is a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

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High Holy Days Food Drive

Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is this not the fast I have chosen? ... Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? Isaiah 58:5,7 read during Yom Kippur service

Providing food for our hungry neighbors is an important and meaningful part of our High Holiday observance, and an annual tradition at Temple Sinai. In past years Temple Sinai has helped Foodshare serve 100,000 of our neighbors, including 40,000 children. This year you contributed $10,700, enough to feed 357 people for a month; and you donated almost 1,800 pounds of food.

Particular thanks go to those who helped out in special ways:

  • Carol Benjamin

  • Scott, Noah, and Raffi Boden

  • Eric, Robin, Jacob, Laura, and Samantha Cohen

  • David Elovich

  • Aleyna Feinberg and Ellen Thomson

  • Harriet Feldlaufer and David Reuman

  • Judy Lederer and Becky Levine

  • Evan Pawlak and Jan Roth

  • Amy, David, Eliza, and Lillie Pinette

  • Lee and Natalie Pollock

  • Joan Skydel

  • Ann and David Speyer

  • Joyce Sturm

A very special thank you goes to Bob Pearlman and Nationwide Moving and Storage, who again provided the moving van and driver to transport the food. Another special thank you goes to Stop & Shop of Newington, which again donated the shopping bags and lent the shopping carts used in the collection.

Thank you for your participation in this mitzvah.

For more information about FoodShare, visit www.foodshare.org.

b'Shalom,
Ken Speyer, Social Action Committee

 

Habitat Haverim

Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World

Habitat Haverim is the local Jewish affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. The Temple Sinai Social Action Committee supports the local community efforts by supplying about twenty volunteers to help build houses for the needy. Here’s a very tangible and satisfying way to fulfill this fundamental principle of Judaism. Join others from the community in a Habitat Haverim project. Be part of building a home for a committed, but less fortunate family. No experience necessary! Volunteers must be 14 or older. Guaranteed to give you a sense of satisfaction.

Call Katie Light at 860-231-6435 or e-mail klight@jewishhartford.org

 

Smalley Elementary School Project

Temple Sinai, through the Social Action Committee, has "adopted" Smalley Academy, a public elementary school serving inner-city children in New Britain. A large quantity of clothing, for both winter and summer, was donated from the annual Rummage Sale conducted by the Sisterhood, for distribution to students at the school. Collection drives have contributed winter outerwear: sweaters, coats, hats, gloves and scarves. New stuffed animals were donated by the Chai Club from their Hanukkah party.

A book drive also contributed to the school library.

 

Walk against Hunger

The 2010 Walk against Hunger was an even bigger success than last year's. Our team raised over twice as much as last year.

Contact social_action@sinaict.org to join our team for next year. For more information about the Walk against Hunger, go to Foodshare's web site.

 

Homeless Shelters

The Social Action Committee serves meals at Mercy Housing in Hartford on several dates through out the year. Check the Calendar for updates.

We need your help with shopping, food preparation and/or serving (no clean ups!) No experience is necessary and you are invited to stay for dinner. If you can help us on any of the following Sundays, please contact the Temple office at 562-1055, or send e-mail to social_action@sinaict.org.

Volunteers from Temple Sinai also participate in a program where we purchase food, cook and serve meals to residents of homeless shelters in the Greater Hartford Area, including Saint Elizabeth House and Salvation Army shelters.

Additional volunteers are always welcome. Please contact social_action@sinaict.org if you are interested in helping out in any way.

Mercy Shelter 2009

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Mitzvah Day

Mitzvah Day is a nationwide event, in May, to allow people to get involved with charitable causes. Every year Temple Sinai participates in many separate activities to support this effort. These include things such as collecting food for Foodshare, making touch books for blind pre-schoolers, helping at soup kitchens, and running activities at a convalescent home. We anticipate continuing to support these community activities. You can see photos from last year's Mitzvah Day and last year's Walk against Hunger now, and we hope to have the 2010 pictures up soon.

Mazon - Hunger in America

The following is printed from the Mazon Homepage

Hunger In America  

Every day throughout the world 40,000 people, mostly children, die of hunger or diseases related to hunger - nearly 15 million deaths every year. 

In America, a land of unprecedented abundance, millions - many of them children - begin their day hungry just as they went to bed hungry the night before. 

A teacher in Minnesota asked his class: `How many of you ate breakfast this morning?' As he expected, only a few children raised their hands. So he continued, `How many of you skipped breakfast this morning because you don't like breakfast?' Lots of hands went up. `And how many of you skipped breakfast because you didn't have time for it?' Many other hands went up. He was pretty sure by then why the remaining children hadn't eaten, but he didn't want to ask them about being poor, so he asked, `How many of you skipped breakfast because your family doesn't usually eat breakfast?' A few more hands were raised. Finally he noticed a small boy in the middle of the classroom, whose hand had not gone up. Thinking the boy hadn't understood, he asked, `And why didn't you eat breakfast this morning?' The boy replied, his face serious: 

`It wasn't my turn.' 

In America, hungry children take turns eating breakfast. Millions of elderly people choose each month between paying their heating bill or buying groceries. Growing numbers of unemployed, underemployed and physically and mentally disadvantaged people go for days without eating a hot meal. While no one is sure exactly how many Americans suffer from hunger, the number unquestionably is in the millions. Hunger has been documented authoritatively in all 50 states. Despite a network of government and private food-assistance programs that address this scandal in our land of plenty, hunger in America shows no signs of diminishing. 

It is impossible to talk about hunger without talking about poverty: More than 39 million Americans are poor, most of them children. In fact, the United States has the highest child poverty rate of any industrialized nation: One in every five American children is poor. 

Elderly Americans also face particular risk: A study by the Urban Institute reveals that at least 2.5 million elderly people experience food insecurity each month, meaning that they worry about where their next meal will come from. Millions more Americans of all ages, in urban, rural and suburban settings, know the pain of hunger. 

Hunger strikes particularly hard at children. An estimated 14 million children in America or hungry or at the very edge of hunger, because their families lack the money to buy sufficient food. 

Despite these alarming numbers, the problem of hunger is less visible here than in impoverished parts of the world. Hungry children in America rarely die of starvation; instead, they tend to suffer from chronic malnutrition or undernutrition, they are listless and tired, can't pay attention in school, miss more days of school and suffer from more childhood illnesses than their non-hungry counterparts. Childhood hunger can cause lasting impairments that prevent children from growing up to be productive members of society. 

Through MAZON, you can help make a difference. Our grantmaking reflects the belief that hunger must be confronted on all levels: by feeding people, certainly, but also by supporting programs working for effective long-term solutions to hunger, those working to improve the reach and effectiveness of government food assistance programs, and those providing the kinds of effective counseling, assistance and training that increase the self- reliance of low-income people. These programs and approaches have a far broader and longer-lasting impact on hunger than simply distributing food through charities. 

While we acknowledge the value of support for local programs, we urge our supporters to join MAZON in providing food, help and hope to hungry people everywhere. Doing so fulfills the biblical admonition to `help the stranger,' wherever he or she may be. 

For information about how to support MAZON, click on `How You Can Help.' To learn more about our grantmaking, click on 'MAZON's Grantmaking.' 

  • Who We Are, What We Do and How You Can Help 

  • Hunger in America 

  • Our Jewish tradition of Tzedakah 

  • Mazon's Grantmaking 

  • Return to the Mazon home page 

  • Send e-mail to Mazon

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    Box Project

    Our "Box Project" involves putting together a box each month of food and other supplies that would be useful to a needy family.

    Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

    Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

    http://www.rac.org

    The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, representing 1.5 million Reform Jews and 1,700 Reform rabbis in over 900 congregations throughout North America. The Center represents the Reform Jewish Movement to the Congress and to the Administration; develops extensive legislative and programmatic social action materials for the Reform Movement; and trains nearly 2,000 Jewish adults, youth, rabbinic and lay leaders each year in social justice work. The RAC works under the auspices of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism (CSA), the social justice policy-making body of the Reform Movement

    To learn more visit the website for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.


    Temple Sinai is affiliated with the
    Union for Reform Judaism
    URJ

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