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Want to support a synagogue in the former USSR?
We need some one interested to look into the details. Contact Chicago Action for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, Susan Fulterman (847-433-0144) or Marilyn Tullman (847-550-0792).
Locally contact Sally Volotsky (314-692-0860) who also can give us direction.
We are looking for a new Chairperson. Anyone interested, please notify
President Phil Brick.
Shelby Kopp (right) meets with members of the Chesed Committee
Volunteers Needed! Our
Office Staff can use volunteers to help collate, staple, stuff, stamp, and seal,
as well as design creative posters, computer generated flyers, etc.
Whatever your gifts are, we need you! For a minimum amount of effort, you can
gain maximum fulfillment. Call Marian at 314-576-5230.
New Outreaches.
Contact Shelby Kopp (314-991-1035). Any great ideas?! Something else we should/could be doing as a congregation? Let us know! |
The Jewish Food Pantry
Needs Our Help
The Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry is
always in need of quality non-perishable foods, especially those containing
high protein levels, in order to provide well-balanced nourishment for the
community in need.
Items should be placed
in the grocery cart in our main lobby. For further information, please
contact
Louise Saltzman (314-567-7397).
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
Click here for Alan
Elfanbaum's latest report.
UPDATE ON
OUR NACOEJ ADOPT-A-STUDENT PROGRAM
Click here for
the latest update on our three adopted students in Israel.
Fall
Clothing Drive
Fall Clothing Drive—coats,
sweaters, blankets, gloves, hats, etc. wanted for people in need. Do a
mitzvah, drop them off at Traditional.
Please bring all donations
to Traditional and place in the bins set up in the lobby. Thank you for
participating in this tzedakah project.
Ongoing Chesed Committee
Events and Programs
1) The Jewish Food Pantry.
Contact Louise Saltzman (314-567-7397). Food donations, Yom Kippur food collection drive, Rosh Chodesh food baskets. We are not collecting nearly enough food for what is needed. Consider every time you go to the grocery to pick up one extra item for the food pantry. Bring it to the pantry yourself or drop it off at the synagogue in the food basket.
2) Nursing Home Visitation.
Contact Shelby Kopp (314-991-1035). Every Jewish holiday five dedicated congregants go to Brooking Park extended care facility on Woods Mill Road directly across from St. Lukes Hospital, west at the light. These members celebrate the holiday with the Jewish residents there (about 15) and bring joy to them. It is always a wonderful experience for them, and for us! Please join us! You will be glad you did.
This year, we are expanding the program of visiting residents of community nursing homes. For those of you interested in participating in this program, please call Shelby Kopp at 314-991-1035 or Jennifer Bell at 636-458-5045.
3) Winter Clothing Drive. Contact Judy Levin (314-432-0834).
September is the time to think of persons who will need warm clothes to get through the winter. Please bring what you can to the synagogue in the months of
September - November. We distribute it to shelters and agencies where the need can be filled.
4) Ethiopian Student support.
Contact Stanley Estrin (314-993-1517). Once a year we collect funds ($1080.00) to support a Jewish Ethiopian student in Israel to obtain an education. Most Ethiopians are not well to do and usually have escaped Ethiopia with just their lives, partially intact at that. They usually have horrific stories of survival. Their families are frequently separated. Please help if you can. The student appreciates it tremendously, and the Ethiopians are known to become wonderful citizens of Israel.
5) Mothers Day Baskets for Women in Shelters.
Contact Barbara Gaponoff-Berson (314-576-5021). Before Mothers day each year we make baskets of personal care items such as soap, shampoo, lotions, tooth brushes, perfume, etc. for women in shelters. This provides a sense of dignity and joy from this small, but needed gift and provides them with a good feeling on Mothers Day, while being in a bad situation. Please collect these items through out the year for use in these baskets and bring them on or just before the designated day we put the baskets together. Join us to make the baskets! Its always fun to do.
6) Back to School Supplies Drive.
Contact Anne Frohman (636-256-8489). Once a year we collect school supply items needed for kids who have nothing. This is in July and August before school starts. It is tremendously helpful for those kids who would not have these supplies otherwise and really helps their ability to go back to school. Lord knows we want them to have an opportunity to be educated. Back packs, pencils, markers, rulers, binders, spiral notebooks, pens, erasers, scissors, pencil sharpeners, compasses etc. are all needed.
7) High Holy Day food packages.
Contact Jerry Tullman (314-872-7853). Every Pesach and Rosh Hashanah we provide whole meals for a family of four so people who are not able to at that time can still enjoy the High Holy Days as they are to be celebrated and enjoyed. Please consider making provisions for the Jewish Food Pantry at these times of year to help those not as fortunate, enabling them to enjoy the gifts God means for them to have.
8) Environmental Initiative.
Contact Alan Elfanbaum (314-576-4236). Recycle paper products at the synagogue recycling bin. Participate in the St. Louis Jewish Environmental Initiative with tree planting and advocacy from a Jewish perspective. Learn how to be environmentally friendly (we only have one planet to give to our children). Help with the Heritage Center TuB'Shevat seder for our kids. God knows Alan and the Earth need help. Call Alan!
9) Chesed Synagogue Vegetable Garden.
Contact Ceil Tobin (636-532-4456) or Suzanne Kopp (314-991-1035). Every summer we plant vegatables at the shul's garden to provide fresh home grown vegetables, right from the garden, for the Jewish Food Pantry. Those people utilizing the Pantry enjoy and appreciate it tremendously. There is nothing like garden fresh tomatoes, cucumbers etc. to enjoy the gift of life. If you have your own home garden, please contribute to the food pantry as well. Take a corner of your field for this purpose. The vegetables are given out as you bring them in so perishability is not a concern. Our gardeners are three dedicated ladies and two men who really need your assistance as well with watering maybe once a week, or tending, picking and the like. Give us a call! We need you!
10) Mazon - the national Jewish response to hunger.
Contact Carl Katzen (636-537-0844). On Yom Kippur while we ourselves are hungry, think of a way you can help others who regularly eat only one meal a day, if they are lucky. Contribute $18 or what ever you can to our national organization, Mazon, that provides a Jewish response to hunger nationwide and worldwide.
11) G'Mach - interest free loans.
Contact Shelby Kopp (314-991-1035). A fund has been established that can provide an interest free loan to congregants who would need it to help with a personal need. Please note this is a loan and is expected to be paid back within a year or two at the most so the fund can be replenished. This way others can take advantage of it, as you did. We need people to contribute to the fund to keep it solvent, a wonderful tax deduction and aid to fellow congregants who need it.
12) St. Louis Jewish Social Action Network.
Contact Shelby Kopp (314-991-1035). This is an organization of St. Louis synagogue chesed/social action groups who meet three times a year to network, exchange ideas, and collaborate on projects to enhance a Jewish response to a particular need. The people involved are outstanding individuals and well worth meeting and enjoying their fellowship. Please join this group and do something significant. It would be nice to have a new Traditional Congregation representative at the table.
13) Pishkas! Contact Bernie Tobin (636-532-4456). Pishkas are the life blood of the Chesed committee for many of the good deeds we are called upon to accomplish. Without this financial support we could not do many of the things we do for other people. At the minyan, consider contributing $2 instead of $1, or 50 cents instead of 25 cents. Fill up and bring in your home pishkas. We guarantee the funds will be used for a person who needs our help, and there is 0, nada, none, no overhead. All the funds go directly to people in need.
14) Chesed funds. Contact
Rabbi Gordon (314-576-5230)/ Shelby Kopp (314-991-1035). Funds are available for a variety of needs to improve people's lives both here at the synagogue and in the general community, depending on fund availability/congregant donations and pishkas utilization.
15) Acknowlegements.
Contact Lee Altman (314-576-3539). Since Lee has taken over, thank you's and documentation of your contribution should be timely and smooth.
16) Mentor St. Louis
is a community wide program to mentor disadvantaged children and give them positive role models to look up to and emulate. With the closing of many St. Louis City Schools and consolidation to the remaining schools the need for more mentors has become an acute need. Once a month spending an hour with your student, reading, writing, and small art craft activities often gives a startling different experience for these kids. They thirst to see their mentors every month. The schools participating in the program are in the inner city but no one, NO ONE, since the program started 10 years ago has gotten hurt. Parking is on site at the school lot. It is in poor neighborhoods so usual precautions suffice. It is a wonderful mitzvah. Many employers help out and allow their employees to participate on company time, as a benefit to the community and tax write off.
To get involved call Mentor St. Louis: 314-531-2570 and for first hand experience contact Suzanne Kopp, our synagogue representative, at 314-991-1035.
17) The Jewish Healing Center of St. Louis
meets monthly and aids people experiencing troubled times. God is the center of the healing process in illness and bereavement. The Jewish spirituality process can be extremely helpful. Call 314-692-8822 for more information.
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