Summer is here, and school will be starting sooner than we think
Over the past six years, Beth Emeth congregants have generously helped over 550 in-need students begin their school year. This year the Social Action Committee will be accepting monetary donations of any amount during the month of August. The money collected will be sent to an appropriate community organization to aid those students who are in need of help to obtain “back to school” supplies.
Please send or drop off your contribution to the synagogue office for any amount. Please place on the check, or on a note if making a cash donation: “Adopt-a-Student”.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Pakistan Flood Relief
From the URJ website
"What is might? When you see people about to fall and rescue them." - Midrash Tehillim 52:24
Floods in Pakistan
In early August 2010, catastrophic flooding in Pakistan killed 1,600, destroyed 6,000 villages and left almost 14 million people without shelter, food, clean water, health care and other basic needs. The Union for Reform Judaism’s relief partners, American Jewish World Service and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have opened funds to assist in the recovery efforts. We encourage you to support their efforts and bring relief to affected Pakistanis.
Current Environmental Issues
Responding to the Oil Disaster - Prayer Resource for the Gulf
Action Needed: NO NEW DRILLING - DEMAND A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE NOW
You can also join the StandWithUs campaign for Gilad Shalit:
Please send a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross; Amnesty International; and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to urge them to demand the release of Gilad Shalit and, at the very least, demand that Hamas allow Gilad Shalit to receive proper medical attention and contact from his family in Israel. For a sample letter, please click here. Help us reach our goal of 5,000 letters to the ICRC, the UN and Amnesty International.
Change your Facebook profile picture and status. Click here for some picture ideas.
Talk about bringing home Gilad Shalit in your communities, synagogues, churches, etc. Click here to watch the video of Gilad Shalit's message from Hamas's captivity.
Food Bank of DE
URGENT: Summer Feeding VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We need volunteers every day of the week at 10am through September. We do not have enough volunteers signed up to make 9,000+ meals this summer and the program began FRIDAY, JUNE 11!
Please sign up for as many shifts as you can at www.fbd.volunteerhub.com (there is a three-minute registration process, but it doesn't cost you anything) If you'd rather, please contact Kat Caudle via email only at KCaudle@fbd.org.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE
GET INVOLVED 1. File your own complaint! Join the call to investigate alleged medical experiments on detainees. 2. Call for a Commission of Inquiry. Ask your members of Congress and the President to investigate all aspects of our nation's use of torture in the last decade.
Dear Friends,
You heard from us earlier this week about a report released by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) that provides evidence that CIA doctors and other health professionals may have engaged in illegal and unethical medical experiments involving torture and detainees in U.S. custody. Yesterday, NRCAT joined PHR and other human rights organizations in filing a complaint to the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) in the Department of Health and Human Services that asks the OHRP to investigate these alleged illegal medical experiments. The OHRP is the federal agency tasked with investigating allegations of unethical medical experimentation involving human subjects.
You, as an individual, can file a complaint asking the OHRP to investigate these experiments. Please go to the PHR website to join NRCAT, other human rights organizations, and thousands of individuals to call upon our government to investigate these illegal medical experiments. Religious institutions can also join the complaint - for information, contact NRCAT's Program Director John Humphries.
While important, investigating the illegal medical experiments is only one step in achieving true accountability for torture. Therefore, if you have not already done so, please call upon Congress and the President to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate all aspects of our use of torture.
Thank you for all your efforts! With your help, we can ensure that the U.S. government never condones torture again.
Sincerely,Linda Gustitus, President, NRCAT Rev. Richard L. Killmer, NRCAT
Greening
We cannot conquer any of the great challenges we face today – from health care to the energy crisis – without thinking seriously about what we eat and how it affects us and our environment. And Sukkot creates the time and space to step back and ask these questions. This year, let’s begin to take the steps to ensure many successful – and sustainable – harvest seasons and celebrations to come.
To learn more about the steps the Reform Movement is taking toward sustainability and how you can get involved, visit our new GreeningRJ online resource where you'll find everything from Jewish texts and teaching on the environment to room-by-room greening guides for your home and congregation.
Environment
There is no better way to celebrate the creation of the world during Rosh HaShanah than to recommit ourselves to preserving it. As we contemplate our actions, both good and bad, during the past year, we also turn our thoughts to the world around us, and our role as the stewards of Creation.
COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, serves as a vital source of environmental education, action, and advocacy. Learn what you can do to help the environment and/or get involved with one of COEJL's affiliate organizations. Sign up to receive updates about COEJL's education, action, and advocacy campaigns or visit their online program bank.
Hunger
We read in Mishnah Torah that if a stranger comes and says, "I am hungry. Please give me food," we are not allowed to check first to see if he is honest or not; we must immediately give him food (Laws of Contributions to the Poor, 6:6). The Rambam and those before him understood the importance of feeding the hungry.
Hunger is something that we still face today on a massive scale, both in North Americaand throughout the world. There are an estimated one billion people in the world who suffer from hunger and malnutrition; who do not choose to deny their bodies proper nutrition (www.thehungersite.com). As of 2006, there are over 36 million Americans, including over 13 million children, who suffer from hunger or are food insecure (www.mazon.org). These are the minions we should be thinking about as our stomachs growl during our High Holiday worship.
Justice
Some acts are sins against society; crimes for which society imposes penalties and exacts punishment. As a society, we must determine how to balance the attributes of justice and mercy, offering both punishment and forgiveness, acknowledging the need to protect a vulnerable population from criminals as well as the hope that rehabilitation and a return to society may be possible. As we seek forgiveness for our own failures, we also must consider granting forgiveness to those who sin against us, either as individuals or as members of the greater society.
Get Involved! Jewish Prisoner Service Internationalexists to change and save Jewish lives through the process of t'shuvah. Make a difference by becoming a penpal, donating dormant Judaica, becoming a mentor or by financially contributing to their efforts.
Darfur
Is Silence the Answer? It Never Was - Elie Wiesel
The Religious Action Center provides Reform Judaism congregants with a means to speak out against genocide in Darfur. Join a million voices across the world asking President Obama to make Darfur a priority, and to achieve:
Protection of civilians from violence, starvation and disease
Sustainable peace for all Sudan
Justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators
Refugee women face assault and even rape when gathering firewood for cooking outside of the relative safety of their camps in Darfur and Chad. In order to reduce the incidence of these attacks, JWW began a program to convert the Iridimi refugee camp in Chad to solar cooking. Each donation of $30 allows JWW to support one refugee family by providing two solar cookers, necessary accessories and training.
Over the past six years, Beth Emeth congregants have generously helped over 550 in-need students begin their school year. This year the Social Action Committee will be accepting monetary donations of any amount during the month of August. The money collected will be sent to an appropriate community organization to aid those students who are in need of help to obtain “back to school” supplies.
