Social Justice & Community Organizing

Since arriving at CBE over a year ago, Isabel Burton, Revson Fellow for Community Organizing, has reached out to and spoken to around 200 members of the community to see how CBE can build on work done previously and get even more involved in local concerns and wider social justice issues. Together, as a community, we have been identifying shared concerns and developing strategies for successful action in areas that affect us both directly and indirectly. Areas around which CBE is now beginning to focus its efforts are environmental and sustainability issues, education, and creating a dynamic, caring, and just community.

These conversations have led to the development of a wide range of social action opportunities which you can find out about below. It has also led to the development of the Mishkan program. You can find out more about this program here. This program will help create a more relational community, while at the same time finding out what’s important to us as a community then facilitating us to mobilize around these issues.

Would you like to be involved? Please tell us what’s important to you, and let us know how you’d like to get involved in any of our ongoing and upcoming projects by using the form below (scroll down and click on “Sign Up!“).

Or if you have any questions, ideas about social justice, or concerns for discussion, please contact Isabel at iburton@cbebk.org.

You can also learn more about some specific social action projects at CBE listed on this page, below; or click here to see a few specific upcoming social action volunteer opportunities. Thank you for your interest in social justice!

Be part of this exciting partnership between the Park Slope community and the schools in John Jay. John Jay is the school building on 7th Avenue between 4th and 5th street that since 2004 has been the home to 3 high schools and one middle school. In September a new high school, Millennium, will be added to the campus. These schools have truly diverse student populations, with children from all over Brooklyn and many ethnic backgrounds. Many of the students could really benefit from the academic support that a mature, caring adult can provide.

For over 50 years, Learning Leaders has been advocating for NYC’s most vulnerable students building vital partnerships between schools and communities to support student learning from cradle to career. They provide critical school volunteerism and parent engagement programs to nearly 500 underserved schools throughout New York City’s five boroughs. As a volunteer at John Jay you will receive training from Learning Leaders in early October at Congregation Beth Elohim, after which you will be matched with a student at one of the schools. You will be expected to commit to providing support once a week during the coming academic year.

Congregation Beth Elohim believes it is important to help create a positive and supportive relationship with our local schools and their students. You can be part of making this happen.

UPDATE: We have run two days of interviews for prospective volunteers in October, and completed two two-hour training workshops for 18 volunteers on October 26 and November 2. Each workshop, run by the organization Learning Leaders, included details about the schools where volunteers are going to be working, information about our relationship with the schools, both historically and currently, and specific training for working with and supporting high school students.

During January all volunteers are attending orientations with the schools in John Jay in which they have been placed and will be starting to volunteer at the beginning of February. The volunteers are excited to start working with students. It has been a slower process than we originally hoped to get this first tranche of volunteers to this point. However, now we have got a good working process, it will take a much shorter time to get our next group of volunteers (we already have another five interested individuals) trained and placed with students.

We are in the process of organizing four support and training events for volunteers over the coming four months. Each of these meet ups will provide the volunteers with the opportunity to find out about how each of the placements are going and to talk about challenges and positives of the roles from one another. We will also be providing further training sessions. Ideas for topics for these sessions will come from the volunteers.

Anyone who would be interested in becoming a volunteer for this fall please do get in contact with me – Isabel Burton at iburton@cbebk.org or 718-768-3814 ext. 243 and we can start the placement process before the summer!

We are looking for volunteers from CBE’s community to become mentors to children aged 4-18 in Brooklyn. These children all have a parent who is currently incarcerated. Adults have often disappointed these children. This is an opportunity to rebuild their trust and to show that adults can be counted on. As a mentor you will commit to 4 hours a month for one year when you will spend quality 1:1 time with your mentee. During this time you will become this young person’s friend, providing them with consistency, guidance, and fun. This can be an amazing experience for both of you. We will be working with Hour Children and the Osborne Association on this program. For more information on this please contact Wesley Weissberg at wweissberg@me.com or 917-751-6100.

We are forming a Green Team at CBE with the aim of greening our day to day operations and also helping to green the refurbishment efforts. The Team will be made up of both CBE staff and members of the community.

When will it meet and what’s the time commitment? We will come together every 3 to 6 weeks to set greening goals for the community. Meetings will be absolutely no longer than 1.5 hrs long. All Green Team members should be prepared to come to meetings and be prepared to take on at least one project (this can be small!). We will then work between meetings with other staff, members of the community and external partners to implement these goals. As there will be CBE staff as well as members of the community in the team, if we can’t find a convenient time, which works for both staff and community members, then we will meet separately and have a less regular larger meeting.

Want an example of what we can do together? There are so many options, but just to name a few, we can:

• Reduce paper use.
• Improve and increase recycling
• Get rid, or reduce plastic/disposable cups, cutlery and plates.
• Help ensure that the refurbishment includes green technologies.
• Cut down on electricity use.
• Find greener, more locally sourced snack options.
• Look into composting.

Want to join or find out more? Contact Isabel Burton, CBE’s Greening Fellow (and Revson Fellow for Community Organizing) at iburton@cbebk.org. We will aim to hold our first meeting at the beginning of June.

This initiative is funded by our Jewish Greening Fellowship Grant through the Isabella Freedman Center and UJA.

In addition to community organizing work, CBE is involved in important acts of Tzedakah and direct service. We operate several annual donation drives and respond to emergency requests for donations by Jewish organizations as well as to international disasters.

As a sample of our service projects, each winter, with the help of CBE’s religious school, Early Childhood Center and Afterschool Center participants and families, we bake and deliver dozens of homemade pies to a neighborhood senior citizens’ center for their Thanksgiving meal, and donate holiday toys and food to homeless Brooklyn families. Many CBE families spend Christmas day serving holiday meals to the needy. Scores of CBE members participate in our January blood drive.

Information about upcoming direct service projects are sent out to CBE members via the CBE Advisory, our weekly electronic newsletter (which you can sign up for on the right column of this page, or any other page on our website).

We look forward to having you join us!

As part of Jewish Social Action Month, we launched our partnership with the Osborne Association – to support children of incarcerated parents. There are a range of different on-going volunteer opportunities, ranging from mentoring kids around the college application process, to providing homework help, to chaperoning kids to visit their parents in prison. We are also planning the refurbishment of the children’s center at Rikers Island Prison. It is not too late to get involved in these opportunities. To find out more click here.

Please click here to find out more about our LGBT working group.

Heights and Hills provides older adults and their caregivers with the services, support, and information needed to successfully age in place — in their own homes — in nineteen Brooklyn neighborhoods. All of our services are free. Please visit our website at heightsandhills.org for more information.

Of special interest to congregants:

Caregiver Services

Heights and Hills provides assistance to caregivers who are caring for people 60 years of age or older.

As all caregivers know, caregiving can present considerable challenges to the individual giving care — physical, emotional, and economic.

At Heights and Hills we can help:

• Navigate the healthcare maze
• Understand the legal issues
• Provide information and assistance
• Offer supportive and confidential counseling in an individual or group setting
• Offer information on appropriate benefits and entitlements for the elder
• Assist when there is a caregiving emergency

For assistance please call Dina Zempsky at 718-596-8789.

Heights and Hills Volunteer Program

Heights and Hills volunteers plan an integral role in ensuring that homebound older adults stay healthy, happy, and connected in their communities. There are many ways to give of yourself and your time:

• Become a weekly Friendly Visitor;
• Provide weekly telephone reassurance;
• Escort your elderly neighbors to medical appointments;
• Support our new Pet Therapy program;
• Assist your elderly neighbors in one-time tasks such as setting up an email account or hanging drapes,
• Support our intergenerational work with teenagers; and/or
• Support our main office with clerical tasks such as mailings and data entry.

Please contact Betsy Guttmacher at 718-596-8789 x329 or volunteer@heightsandhills.org for more information about becoming a volunteer.

Rabbi Gamliel taught that the world stands on three things: justice, truth and peace. As a Jewish community, we have a responsibility to be fair and just. Even more so, we are commanded to follow the concepts of Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam, doing our best to assist those less fortunate and to fix what is wrong with the world.

Are you interested in volunteering for social action activities at CBE? Please use the following form to let us know what specific projects you’d like to be involved with.