Co-Chairs: Maxine Margolies and Sharon Webber

Social Action Committee (SAC) meetings are held at GJC once a month and begin at 7:30pm. If you would like to subscribe to the Social Action Email List, send an email to gjc-socaction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Germantown Jewish Centre is a community of individuals who are deeply engaged in trying to repair the world -- Tikkun Olam. Both professionally and as volunteers, many GJC members spend at least some portion of their time thinking about or acting to make the world a better place for the Jewish people and for all people and creatures with whom we share this planet.

Beyond the important volunteer work integral to the functioning of the synagogue, many members are involved with tutoring projects, advocating for better schools, writing letters to government officials, socially responsible investing, interracial dialogue, hosting families, and much, much more. These volunteers and activists add immeasurable value to the projects they work on and, as members of GJC, they add an important dimension to the character of our community.

The mission of the GJC Social Action Committee is to preserve Tikkun Olam at the center of our communal agenda. Through educational programming, representing GJC in social justice campaigns, and creating volunteer opportunities for GJC members, the Social Action Committee seeks to challenge the GJC community to fulfill the Jewish teaching of active participation in Tikkun Olam. The Social Action Committee intends to work with all Synagogue committees and members to infuse the entire Synagogue with the awareness of how we can be creators of justice and peace. 

This year, on behalf of GJC, the Social Action Committee joined K'vod Habriot, a Jewish human rights network launched in December 2007 by Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. The network is comprised of rabbis, laypeople, and communities committed to making universal human rights a core concern of the Jewish community. K'vod Habriot's current advocacy efforts are focused on ending torture and it is a founding member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which is calling for an executive order to ban torture. Please consider joining K'vod Habriot and signing the petition in support of an executive to ban torture at http://www.rhr-na.org/kvod_habriot/home.