Ongoing Initiatives

Scroll down below to see descriptions of all our ongoing Tikkun Olam @GJC initiatives and for ways to get involved and contact information.

General
Feeding the Poor with Men’s Club
Fair Trade Support
Green Team
Refugee Immigrant Justice Initiative
Loving the Stranger: Welcoming Refugees
Understanding and Confronting Racism
Story Hour at CW Henry School
Community Volunteers at Houston School
Pursuing Justice: POWER Interfaith Network


FEEDING THE POOR WITH MEN’S CLUB AND THE JEWISH RELIEF AGENCY

GJC Mens’ Club supports the Jewish Relief Agency (JRA) by encouraging all GJC members and groups to volunteer at JRA’s monthly food distributions. On the second or third Sunday of the month, volunteers of all ages and backgrounds meet as a community at JRA’s northeast Philadelphia warehouse (10980 Dutton Road, adjacent to the NE Airport). Volunteers pack over 3000 boxes with fresh produce and non-perishable food, and deliver food and a smile into the homes of those at or near the poverty level throughout Philadelphia. All recipients depend on these food deliveries, especially the elderly of whom there are many. Participants meet at the JRA warehouse at 8:30AM, and help in the setup and packing of boxes and then make deliveries. Volunteers may participate in all or part of these activities. All work is completed by 1:00PM.

Men’s Club is also in the initial phases of creating a JRA hub at GJC so that pickups can be made at GJC and deliveries made to areas that are more proximate to GJC. 

The complete calendar of JRA’s distributions can be found on JRA’s website: https://jewishrelief.org/.

For more information or to volunteer, contact 
Jim Meyer (jrm@meyeroneagle.com).


FAIR TRADE SUPPORT

Fair Trade is a way to make ethical purchasing decisions that positively impact farmers and artisans throughout the developing world. The purchase of FairTrade Certified products support just labor practices, living wages, gender equity, environmental stewardship, health care and education for workers and their families. Fair trade certified products guarantee that child and slave labor were not used in making the products.

We encourage GJC members to purchase fair trade items in order to have a substantial impact on people’s lives around the world. Through the purchase of commodities like Fair Trade coffee and chocolate, each of us can better align ourselves to our Jewish values.


GREEN TEAM

GJC’s “Green Team” supports the idea that sustainability, and an orientation toward integrating the preservation of nature and sustainability into our Jewish lives, is part and parcel of our expression of Jewish identity. By connecting to our Jewish core values of Redraft Tzedek (pursuing justice) and Kevod Habriyot (honoring humans and all creation), we seek to support GJC as it continues to make progress in its sustainability work by helping to organize and support various synagogue initiatives.

For example, the Green Team has helped launch a successful fundraising campaign to finance the replacement of the roof of our school building with a solar array that should provide clean electricity for at least half (and maybe more) of the building’s electricity needs. We have also sought to support the synagogue in its pilot program of collecting compostable food waste that is being processed by Bennett Composting.

We invite any GJC member to be part of this adventure. For more information, please contact Nathan Martin (rabbinm18@gmail.com)


REFUGEE IMMIGRANT JUSTICE INITIATIVE

Following GJC’s first Refugee Shabbat years ago, a group of congregants launched a Tikkun Olam initiative to ensure that refugees and other immigrants are treated justly and with dignity. Our own families’ immigration experiences and the biblical imperative to remember that we “were strangers in the land of Egypt” impel us to speak and act with moral clarity. Our group’s work has three components. First, we are organizing groups from GJC and other area synagogues to advocate on behalf of refugees with our elected officials Second, we identify and publicize humanitarian actions to fight family separations and other injustices.. Third, we are committed to expanding direct support to immigrants in our area. While much of our work lies within each of these focus areas, we come together as a larger group to share ideas, learning, and energy.

Want to get involved? Please reach out directly to
Seth Lieberman (s.lieberma@aim.com) or Joyce Lieberman (rejoice34@gmail.com).


LOVING THE STRANGER: WELCOMING REFUGEES 

The GJC Refugee Welcoming Team, through the government’s Welcome Corps and with the support of HIAS, helps resettle Philadelphia refugees with housing, furnishings, getting critical documents, obtaining social and health services, registering children for school, learning English, and obtaining employment. As they start their new lives here, they need guides and support to help them navigate American life. Members of the GJC community have volunteered to share our time, hearts, and talents; the rewards of our efforts are immense. We have helped people who are meeting unimaginable trials with grace and dignity. In return, we have been gifted with warm friendships with the newcomers we are assisting and have expanded and deepened our relationships with members of our GJC community.

Volunteers can get involved with refugees in many ways, large and small. Examples include the following:

         Helping adults to conduct job searches and find employment.

         Helping adult family members navigate the bureaucracies of food aid, Medical Assistance, and other public benefits.

         Escorting parents and children to medical and dental appointments, assisting during medical encounters, and ensuring they have interpreters at these visits.

         Visiting with children every week or two to help with homework and English.

         Taking family members on outings to get to know Philadelphia, such as to the Natural History Museum, and to create cultural learning opportunities.

         Teaching ESL and other skills to adults when needed. 

For more information on what you can do to help, contact one of the following:
Dena Lake denareva@gmail.com or Naomi Klayman research@naomiklayman.com


CONFRONTING RACISM

Description

At GJC, we are working hard to fight injustice, racism and discrimination:

  • BECAUSE we believe in pursuing justice
  • BECAUSE we want to broaden our knowledge and awareness about Jews from diverse backgrounds
  • BECAUSE we want to welcome people of color into our synagogue
  • BECAUSE more of our families are multi-cultural and deserve to feel that they belong in the GJC community

Building on our history as an urban synagogue that chose to stay and stabilize an integrated community, today’s GJC members are focusing on better understanding systemic racism and its many layers. We have been increasing our knowledge of Black History and White privilege and examining our own racial histories and the benefits of whiteness that are not available to all citizens.

For the past decade, we have been working together to create multiple forums for members to continue this learning and awareness. We discuss Jews’ relationship to white privilege and the relationship between racism and anti-Semitism.

When we act, we are thinking more about our intent and its impact or consequences on people who have different life experiences.

 Our goal is to share this journey towards a more racially just GJC community and society. 

Please join us. Contact
Andi Moselle (
andrea.Moselle@gmail.com) or Margaret Shapiro (mshapiro2@me.com) to learn more


STORY HOUR AT CW HENRY SCHOOL

GJC members have a long history of shared activities with C.W. Henry Elementary School, a West Mount Airy Philadelphia public school. Currently, volunteers from GJC and the community at large support a Story Hour, for grades K thru 5 students. We enjoy the experience of reading library books to children. We have watched the children, listen, interact, and respond to the material in the books. The program has enriched the learning experience of the students. Listening and connecting to the content of the books promotes their leaning experience.

Volunteers commit to ½ hour each week, pick a story and read to students in the same classroom each week. Volunteers find the experience as rewarding as do the students. 

For further information, or to participate in the program, contact
Maxine Margolies (
mmargx@aol.com


COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS AT HOUSTON SCHOOL

Houston School is a Philadelphia public school, grades K-8, located at Allen and Rural Lane in West Mount Airy. The Community Volunteers at Houston School currently provide three services to children in the school during the school day – math tutoring, reading tutoring, and library access and support.

One group tutors students individually in literacy skills, primarily reading. Another group tutors students individually in math skills. The tutors play an invaluable role in developing a relationship with their tutees and in assisting their students in these essential subjects. A third group helps students and classes use the library. Volunteers get to encourage student interest and excitement in reading by helping them choose their own books for reading. Tutoring and library sessions are two hours long, either morning or afternoons, Tuesday through Thursday.

For further information, contact
Elayne Blender at  
elayneblender@gmail.com


PURSUING JUSTICE: POWER INTERFAITH NETWORK

Description

GJC is a member of the POWER Interfaith Network. POWER is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of congregations in Philadelphia, Southeastern and Central Pennsylvania working on justice issues. POWER brings people together across the lines of race, faith, income level and neighborhood. The organization also collaborates with similar faith-based coalitions in other parts of the state to achieve greater impact statewide on issues such as education funding. 

POWER connects GJC with the larger interfaith community working for justice in our area and provides a framework for ongoing sustainable advocacy for social change at a community-wide level. Member congregations work together to determine the organization’s priorities and strategies. Currently, POWER has four organizing strategy teams:

EDUCATION – The education strategy team works to improve the quality of public schools to meet the needs of ALL children in Philadelphia and across the state. Ongoing work includes advocating for full implementation of the Fair Funding Formula passed several  years ago and for increasing the state’s share of education funding.

ECONOMIC DIGNITY – This team works on issues related to jobs and living wage. POWER played a key role in securing increased wages and benefits for workers at the Philadelphia airport and for other city-subcontracted workers. The ED strategic team is currently focused on bringing a public bank to Philadelphia and raising the minimum wage across the state to at least $15/hr.

CLIMATE JUSTICE AND JOBS is working on the intersection of race, the economy, and climate. The current statewide work is funding the Whole Homes Repair bill (which POWER was instrumental in crafting and getting passed in the state legislature), while at the local level the CJJ Just Transition team puts pressure on PGW and PECO to invest in affordable and renewable green energy (the team recently won a legal battle against PGW’s proposed rate hikes). 

LIVE FREE (MASS INCARCERATION) – This team works on issues related to racial inequities in the criminal justice system. The group is examining how issues like stop and frisk and bail reform affect communities of color, and they have been central in the creation of the Civilian Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) in Philadelphia.

More at the POWER web site: http://powerinterfaith.org

For more information, or to become involved, contact
Andi Moselle (
andrea.moselle@gmail.com) or George Stern (Geomstern@gmail.com)