Social Action Events Archive

Cuba Mission 2008 Presentation and Reunion - Tues. April 15 at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our January/February medicine and toiletries drive before our March 2008 mission to Cuba. Your generosity made a difference for the Jewish community of Cuba.

Habitat for Humanity Build Day
Monday, Nov. 12, 8:30 am - 4:00 pm

(rescheduled from October 8th)

Sweat Tzedakah for the New Year! Help the NCCF!

Sunday, Sept. 30 1-4pm

On Sunday, Sept. 30, from 1– 4 p.m., members of BJC and BHPC will join together to help our neighbor, the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF). Roll up your sleeves, paint, weed, mulch, eat and feel great! Lunch is included. Ages 14 through adult are welcome. Teens will earn Community Service hours. Bring labeled garden gloves, rakes, shovels, and wheel barrows. Activities include:

NCCF is a shelter for children, adolescents and families located at 6301 Greentree Road, just a short distance from our building. BHPC and BJC have a long history of helping NCCF. Both BJC and BHPC recently received two lovely glass sculpture “spirit awards” for our volunteer efforts at NCCF.

RSVP: BJC Social Action Committee member Maddy Killefer

mk50ck@verizon.net  (301) 229-6713

BJC/BHPC Habitat for Humanity Build - Monday, Oct. 8, 8:30am-4:00pm

Please join our team from BJC and BHPC on Columbus Day, Monday, October 8, when we travel to Habitat for Humanity's site in Northeast D.C. for another

Bring Household Items to Support A Wider Circle
Saturday, May 19, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Help Darfur Refugees

Landscaping Project at the Dennis Avenue Health Center

Monthly Tips for Cutting Global Warming Pollution:

BJC Social Action Committee Welcomes New Chairs

Linda Blumberg and Steve Turow will serve as the Social Action Committee co-chairs for 2006-2007. They are eager to help facilitate the many existing programs sponsored by the Social Action Committee and also are interested in working with BJC and BHPC members to find additional opportunities to address local and global environmental problems. Steve and Linda look forward to hearing from all BJC members who might be interested in working with the Social Action Committee.

BJC Joins BHPC in Ongoing Food Collection for Local Pantry

Reach Out to BJC Members in Need

BJC is Drop-off Site for Collection of Native Seeds

Simply gather seeds that drop from native hardwood trees in your community,
label, bag by type, and deliver to our BJC collection bin at the school entrance doors. Eventually the seeds will grow into trees, helping to restore forests which filter pollution and run-off before it enters streams and rivers in the Potomac Watershed.

For more details,
Google Potomac Conservancy/Growing Native
and click on Individual Collection.

Looking for your niche at BJC? Take a look at BJC’s Social Action Committee

We would love to have you join us in this year’s activities and programs. Listed below are summaries of our areas of concentration. Call and let us know if you wish to join us on any of these issues or propose and lead a new area of interest.

Affordable Housing Crisis:
BJC and other local synagogues have joined forces to address the lack of affordable housing for lower and middle-income families in our greater metropolitan area. Join with us in communicating with legislators, attending hearings and information sessions and becoming a part of our multi-congregational efforts.
Madeline Killefer, mk50ck@verizon.net, 301-229-6713.

Darfur:
Sudanese government soldiers have driven over 1.5 million civilians from their homes to “survive” in Sudan’s desert Darfur region. The death toll from violence and lack of basic need exceeds 100,000. Help us support the efforts of many religious groups and organizations to confront this humanitarian crisis.
Stacey FitzSimmons staceyfitz@starpower.net, 301-951-182
Casey Skvorc, medpsych@hotmail.com 301-654-0794.

Environment:
BJC members are invited to participate in activities and information sessions concerning our local environment. Help plan events involving reforestation (planting trees, removal of invasive plants, and collecting seeds. Work in local settings with park rangers and environmental groups. Join with BHPC in landscaping and environmental projects on our own building grounds.
Evelyn Rabin, Evelyn.Rabin@nps.ars.usda.gov, 301-571-7268.
 

Habitat for Humanity/Yahad:
BJC teens and adults have participated in home building projects for low income families in D.C. and Maryland. Join us to plan and participate in these “hands
on,” spiritually fulfilling workdays.
Gary Sampliner, gary.sampliner@do.treas.gov.

Homelessness:
Help plan ways for BJC to provide the homeless and needy with food, clothing and donations. BJC supports the activities of BETHESDA CARES, a nonprofit that assists the working poor and homeless in Montgomery County.
Stacey FitzSimmons, staceyfitz@starpower.net, 301-951-1820.

Completed Events-Current Year

BJC/BHPC GROUNDS IMPROVEMENT DAY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH

Any time you can help between 12:30-3:30pm

JOIN US TO DIG, WEED, MULCH AND RAKE

Please wear long pants and long sleeves. Bring work gloves and any of the following gardening tools if you have them: Loppers Handsaw Shovel Wheelbarrow Clippers Rake Paper Yard Trimmings Recycle Bags

Be ready to work in light drizzle but we’ll reschedule in case of rain.

Questions? Contact Maddy Killefer  (301) 229-6713

THANKSGIVING IS A
TIME TO SHARE OUR BLESSINGS
BJC and BHPC Thanksgiving Collection

NOVEMBER 1-18

Look for food donation collection boxes at the top of the school entrance stairs.

As part of our annual Joint Thanksgiving Service, BHPC and BJC will be collecting food and cash or gift card donations . Food baskets will be given to families served by The National Center for Children and Families and the Anacostia Children’s Center. Our goal is to fill 40 baskets with non-perishable food items and a gift certificate so that families may celebrate Thanksgiving with “all the trimmings.”

SUGGESTED FOOD DONATIONS:

CANNED: BOXED OR BAGGED: Pumpkin and Evaporated Milk Rice or Rice Mixes/Macaroni &Cheese Sweet Potatoes Stuffing Mix or Pasta Cranberry Sauce Mashed Potato Mix Green Beans, Peas, Corn or other vegetables Jello or pudding Fruit Cocktail/Apple Sauce/Pie Fillings Muffin, cornbread or cake mixes

$25.00 Gift certificates to Giant or Safeway, Cash or a check made out to Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church.

Saturday, Oct. 21, 6:30 pm
Ramadan celebration

This year, the High Holy Days will roughly coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Protestant/Orthodox World Wide Communion Sunday. To commemorate this time time for learning from the past, celebrating the present, and transforming the future, the Islamic Information Center of Burtonsville, with whom we have held several joint events in recent years, has invited all interested members of our congregation and Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church to join them for a Ramadan Celebration at

Idara-e-Jaferia Community Center (mosque)
3140 Spencerville Road (Rte. 198), Burtonsville.

BJC High Holy Days Food Drive for Manna Food center

You're fasting anyway, so why not help those whose fasts aren't always voluntary? Manna Food center needs all kinds of boxed and canned food:

Cereal, Non-fat Dry Milk, Canned Milk, Canned tuna, Canned Meat, Canned Fruit & Vegetables, Rice, Pasta, Peanut Butter, Spaghetti sauce, Baby Food.

Bring your non-perishable food to BJC on Yom Kippur. Collection bags will be distributed at Rosh Hashanah services.

Habitat for Humanity Build Day
Monday, October 9th

Please join our team from BJC and BHPC on Columbus Day, Monday, October 9, when we travel to Habitat for Humanity's site in Northeast D.C. for another fun and worthwhile build day. Anyone ages 16 and up is eligible to participate, and no experience is required. Habitat will have its own construction crew to supervise, provide instruction, and provide all necessary tools. The workday is from 8:30 - 4:00. Last year our crew had a great time, working on four different projects for townhouses at different stages of construction. If you haven't come out before or signed up already, you need to see what you're missing -- please

Saturday, October 7, 7:00pm
VIEWING OF THE FILM
"AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH"

Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church and Bethesda Jewish Congregation are co-hosting a showing of the not-to-be missed film "An Inconvenient Truth" at 7:00pm in Memorial Hall. If you have been ambivalent about seeing this film, we suggest you heed these words from renowned critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to." The evening will include opportunities for discussion.

BJC Blood Drive
Saturday, May 6, 2006
10:00am-3:00pm

Participate in the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh, to save a life, the commandment that comes before all others.

On Saturday, May 6, 2006, in cooperation with the American Red Cross we will be holding a blood drive from 9 am to 2 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

BJC Faculty member Michael Twitty needs your help for the
Menare Foundation Underground Railway Project's Farm Volunteer Day on Sunday, May 29, 2006.
Link to more information

Sukkot in April
Housing Renovation Project
April 29/30, 2006

On the weekend of April 29-30, teams led by BHPC (on Saturday) and BJC (on Sunday), along with many other churches and synagogues in the D.C. area, will be working on a housing renovation project, through the auspices of Rebuilding Together and Yachad, the Jewish Housing and Community Development Corporation of Greater Washington, D.C. This year, BJC and BHPC will be renovating a house owned by an elderly woman in Olney, in need of a wide variety of interior and exterior minor repairs and painting work. We can use help from anyone aged 14 and up, with or without any skills (although anyone with any plumbing or carpentry skills will be especially appreciated!) If you're interested, please contact Gary Sampliner at 301-279-7607 or gary.sampliner@do.treas.gov.

Passover Response to Hunger
April 10-13, 2006

Teens and Adults – Join the BJC Social Action Committee in a week long effort to address hunger and housing needs of Montgomery County residents. BJC teens on Spring Break can earn community service credits.

Choose any of the dates and times listed below. Then contact BJC Passover Project Coordinator Stacey FitzSimmons for details: staceyfitz@starpower.net  (301) 951-1820.
Or look for sign-up board outside BJC upstairs office.

Darfur Drawn: The Conflict in Darfur Through Children’s Eyes

Thursday, April 6, 7 p.m.
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation
7727 Persimmon Tree Lane Bethesda, MD 20817

A presentation by Dr. Annie Sparrow of Human Rights Watch. Dr. Sparrow, a pediatrician, traveled to the Chad-Sudan border in 2005 as an observer for Human Rights Watch. While interviewing families, she gave crayons and paper to their children, who drew scenes depicting the devastation brought on by the genocide prompted by Janjaweed and the Sudanese government forces. Dr. Sparrow will discuss her efforts to share the experiences of these children with the rest of the word. Representatives of the Save Darfur Coalition will join her to discuss the Million Voices for Darfur postcard campaign leading up to an April 30 national rally and march on the National Mall. Free and open to the public.

Program suitable for 7th grade and up.

TAKE ACTION AT BJC TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, SUDAN

Join
Bethesda Jewish Congregation and Bradley Hill Church
in an Action and Education Evening.

Sunday March 5  7-9pm

Our guest speakers will discuss this desperate and complex humanitarian crisis. Post card writing will add our support to The Million Voices for Darfur Campaign. Refreshments will be served.

Contact Marty Ganzglass martyev@earthlink.net

Tree Planting with the
National Capitol Park and Planning Commission - Montgomery County
(originally scheduled for October 23, now scheduled for)
November 6, 2005 10am-1pm
NW Branch Stream Valley Park

The BJC Social Action Committee has planned a fall Environmental event. We will join together in a Reforestation outing with the Montgomery County-Maryland National Capitol Park and Planning Commission (MC-MNCPPC) and will help to restore our watershed by planting 3 yr old trees that are native to our area and also by removing invasive plants from the watershed. Join us on Sunday, November 6, 2005 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. (Note: the changed date from the announcement in the newsletter!) We'll meet at NW Branch Stream Valley Park on Randolph Road, just east of the intersection of Randolph Road and Kemp Mill Road. A MC-MNCPPC forester, Geoffrey Mason, will provide background information and tools. All are welcome; all ages can participate. Students can submit Community Service forms. Join us! We're hoping for a group of at least 50 people! Call the BJC office and sign up in October/November. For questions, contact Evelyn Rabin at Evelyn.Rabin@nps.ars.usda.gov .

BJC/BHPC Joint
Habitat for Humanity Build
Veteran's Day, November 11, 2005

BJC/BHPC
Joint Thanksgiving Worship Service
Food Drive
November 11-20, 2005

BJC/BHPC
Joint Habitat for Humanity Build
Friday, November 11, 2005

Sweat Tzedaka for the Holidays

Bethesda Jewish Congregation Social Action Committee and Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church invite teens and adults to work together on Sunday Sept. 25th to help our neighbor The National Center for Children and Families

The Center is a shelter for families and adolescents located just a short distance from BJC at   6301 Greentree Road

Sunday, Sept 25^th    12:30-4 pm (any amount of time is appreciated)
Lunch with our BHPC and NCCF friends included 12:30-1:00

Please e-mail Maddy Killefer mk50ck@verizon.net and let us know if you can help with any of the following:

ALL PARTICIPANTS WEAR STURDY SHOES, LONG PANTS AND LONG SLEEVES. 
Maddy Killefer, mk50ck@verizon.net, 301-229-6713

Project Backpack:

A Relief Effort for Children Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Please do not spend money to buy new items. Use your cash to donate online.

Gather used or new items you already have at your home. Fill a backpack with things you believe will help children as they live in the Astrodome or are in temporary shelters. Examples include school supplies, books, small toys, drawing materials and/or anything that can physically fit into a school backpack. Items do not have to be new or fancy, but useful to children now homeless. Dry snacks that come in individual servings would also be good, like Goldfish crackers or cookies. Along with backpacks, you could also prepare a babybag for infants, which could be in a diaper bag, with items like baby blankets, toys, pacifiers, etc.

We suggest your child or you include a card to a child with a personal note, and if you want to, include your contact information. The connection and concern from another child may help the homeless children as much as any toy inside.

Label the backpack with a sturdy note and say whether it is for a boy or girl, and age range.

Drop off location (for now) is open Friday 9/2/2005 and then Tuesday/Wednesday 9/6/2005 and 9/7/2005 from 7am - 5pm at:

Walt Whitman High School - in front of auditorium
7100 Whitter Blvd.
Bethesda, MD 20817

5 minutes from 495 in Bethesda off River Road.

We will also have a drop off at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church on this Saturday, 9/3/2005 from 12pm-2pm in parking lot. For the younger children, they may connect the donation with more emotion if it is delivered to the school they know.

We hope your family and friends will join our family in sending something from Washington, DC for the children who are homeless.

Sincerely,

Permanent Housing Aid to Indian Tsunami Victims

Help Restore Our Watershed

The BJC Social Action Committee has planned a spring environmental event to mark Lag B’Omer. We will join with the Potomac Conservancy (http://www.potomac.org) in a River Restoration outing to restore our watershed by planting trees and removing invasive plants from the watershed.

Housing Crisis Speaker at Shabbat Service
Friday, March 25th 8:00pm

Focus on The Affordable Housing Crisis in our Greater Metropolitan Area

As part of our regular Friday Shabbat service, Speaker, Sharan London, Executive Director of the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless will speak about the Affordable Housing Crisis. The rising cost of homes (owned and rented) and the lack of moderately priced housing for middle income families have made living in our area an impossible dream for many. Sharan will also address the housing needs of our homeless population and those transitioning from a shelter to independence. What can we do as individuals and as a congregation? Ms. London will remain for questions and answers following Kiddush.

Did you know that:

These are just a few of the issues to be explored on March 25th.

For more information about this event, please contact Madeline Killefer mk50ck@verizon.net  (301) 229-6713

Southeast Asia Tsunami Relief Links

December Concern-Winter Clothing Drive

Dear BJC fellow members, Have you felt the pinch of cold the last week, and brought out your winter clothes? Can you find one coat you aren't wearing? Please go through your closets carefully and see if you, your children have winter clothing that you have outgrown, or just rarely wear that you would be willing to give away. The Social Action Committee has devoted December to the collection of winter clothing for the homeless, battered women and their children in shelters, and for Jewish immigrants. We will donate all coats, parkas; boots-leather, rubber; hats, gloves and mittens to Bethesda Cares (for the homeless and newly housed homeless); United Ministries for battered women and their children, for poor people of all denominations; and Montgomery County Jewish Social Services (for recent Jewish immigrants). We will be collecting these winter clothing items for the entire month of December. The collection boxes are ready and waiting for you, in the hallway outside the door to the BJC office.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict A Panel Discussion

12:45 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004
Memorial Hall, Bethesda Jewish Congregation
6601 Bradley Blvd., Bethesda, MD 20817
Sponsored by Montgomery Jewish Advocates for Middle East Peace.

For more information