Feature
The Gift of Giving Back and Tikkun Olam
By Shoshana Cenker
Emily, Teri, Joey and Taylor at the beach
It’s no secret that the economy and our wallets are suffering in this tumultuous recession. While money is tight for most people, Chanukah gift giving is headed our way despite the crunch. But some Jewish families are thinking outside the box. Instead of gift giving, they’re giving back by volunteering. Let’s hear it for some good old-fashioned Tikkun Olam – “repairing the world.”
Tikkun Olam is something Teri Simon has imparted to her children since they were young. “When my oldest Emily now 20, was 6 years old, she was accustomed to our family tradition of picking out 10 slightly-loved, but still-lovable toys to donate to the YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter prior to the start of Chanukah,” says Teri, who lives in Nashville.
“We also started the Simon family tradition of Birthday Parties for Charities,” she says. “Each birthday, Emily, her sister, Taylor (18) and brother Joey, 15, would donate their presents to one of their favorite charities including Our Kids Center, which provides medical and psycho-social evaluations for children who may have been sexually abused, the Nashville Humane Association, Happy Tales Humane, Habitat for Humanity, Nashville Family Shelter, Second Harvest Food Bank, American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association and Middle Tennessee Chapter.”
The children then segued from birthdays to their B’nai Mitzvot, donating thousands of dollars and their time to various organizations.
“Each chose tzedakah projects for their Bat or Bar Mitzvah that reflected both their Torah portions and their concerns,” explains Teri. “Seven years ago we also started our own effort of bringing treats to emergency department workers of our local non-profit hospitals on the evening of December 24.”
The family has also become involved in volunteer opportunities through their Temple, Congregation Micah. “We participate in Meals On Wheels holiday deliveries and serving dinner for recipients of Room in the Inn services,” says Teri. “As a volunteer teacher in the Micah Religious School for the past 14 years, I've enjoyed spearheading annual tzedakah projects…delighting in the creativity and generous spirits of our Micah children.”
Sadly, the Simon family learned what it meant to receive mitzvot when the children’s father, Isaac, passed away last year. “Letting people provide meals for us and offering their love and support truly gave us a better view of what it's like on the other side of the giving equation. And Isaac did a fair amount of volunteering in his day too,” says Teri, of her late ex-husband. “It will make our Meals On Wheels deliveries this year all the more poignant, because we now understand those blessings.”
Many Nashville families are active volunteers through Congregation Micah, including the Kimbrough family. “We’ve served and spent the night with homeless men as part of Congregation Micah’s support of Room in the Inn, helped mulch trails at the Radnor Lake nature preserve, worked at Second Harvest Food Bank, walked in theNashville Care’s Aidswalk, helped for many years at Special Olympics and delivered food for Meals on Wheels every Thanksgiving,” says mom Diane. “I am also one of several ‘Micah Bakers;’ we bake so that every Oneg at Micah has fresh homemade baked goods.”
Diane and her husband Jerry are also the parent sponsors of a middle school youth group. “We are starting a ‘dress exchange’ where families can bring outgrown party dresses,” explains Diane. “For a small donation to the youth group, kids from this year’s B’nai Mitzvah class can take a dress or two. Not only is this a very green approach to the dilemma of buying those fancy dresses and wearing them only once or twice before they’re outgrown, but it’s also a huge help to families who are a little stressed financially.”
David Kenyon and 3-year-old Zach loading car with items donated for the Youth Encouragement Services (YES) program in Nashville, which offers after-school and summer programming for at-risk kids in working-poor neighborhoods. As part of the Summer Social Action day at Micah they collected items from a wish list and baked fresh goodies to fill the freezer for the summer.
The Kimbrough family has a “very personal bit of Tikkun Olam,” adds Diane proudly. “We have two daughters, Julia is 13 and Zoe is 12. They are biological sisters we adopted from a Russian orphanage.”
The Kenyon family of Franklin, Tenn., just outside of Nashville, knows how important it is to participate as a family for volunteering projects. “Kids grow up with habits,” says mom Rachel. “If they deliver Meals on Wheels with their parents every Thanksgiving, they grow up thinking ‘that is just what we do.’ Or if they participate in a fundraising walk with others, when they are adults and that walk comes around, they remember ‘hey, I always did that walk with my parents.’ Continuing the tradition becomes a no-brainer. Adults often have trepidations about starting something new. But if they did it when they were kids, it’s not scary.”
Rachel, her husband, David, and their two children, 3-year-old Zachary Micah and 19-year-old Dani tend to lean toward family friendly projects. “We are easily available for things like Meals on Wheels, Trail Mulching at State Parks, food collection and sorting for Congregation Micah’s Room in the Inn, and fund/awareness raising walks,” says Rachel. “Our goal is a hands-on project every quarter.”
The Higgins Family from Memphis has also given their time for various volunteer projects. “Our son, Daniel, now 20, volunteered at a local parochial school’s afternoon tutoring program,” says mom Ellen, who’s married to Michael. “Our daughter, Rebekah, now 17, chose to work with the cats and clean their cages at Collierville Animal Services for her Bat Mitzvah project. Her sister, Shoshannah, now 14, chose to do the same for her Bat Mitzvah. They both continue to volunteer there.”
The family is also very active in their shul, Or Chadash. “Michael has cooked for a Chanukah celebration there, and teaches a teen class about current Israeli and world events,” says Ellen. “As one of five groups who regularly cook for Saturday morning Kiddush, Shoshannah and I have both spent many hours in the synagogue kitchen, cooking, sharing recipes and enjoying the company of others who help us.
“Volunteering has been and will continue to be enjoyable; helping where we are needed, seeing an organization grow, and knowing that we are better people for giving of ourselves to others,” she continues.
In Little Rock, the Jewish Federation of Arkansas is doing its part for Tikkun Olam by “allocating funds to non-Jewish agencies that benefit the entire central Arkansas community including Just Communities of Central Arkansas (formerly NCCJ) and participating in the JCCA Unity Walk every fall,” says Jewish Federation of Arkansasadministrator, Lynn Greenberg. “We also support LifeQuest, a local nonprofit that provides educational opportunities for senior citizens.”
The agency goes even further by providing volunteer opportunities at Our House, a homeless shelter that serves families and individuals by providing housing, food, counseling, and in some cases, employment opportunities.
Julia, Diane, Jerry and Zoe Kimbrough at Juliea's Bat Mitzvah in April.
The Jewish Federation of Arkansas promotes hands on philanthropy,” says Lynn. “For about 20 years, Federation has participated in Our House’s Christmas Day dinner. The dinner, and now Christmas Day lunch, have became a Federation mitzvah. We solicit volunteers to prepare a specific course for the meal, bring ingredients to cook meals at the shelter, purchase prepared food, serve the meals to residents and provide gift donations.”
Federation chose to volunteer at Our House because “several individuals from our Jewish community were founding members of Our House and have sat on the Board,” explains Lynn. “In addition to volunteering our time, we also give Our House an annual allocation, which comes from our annual campaign. We recognize that there is a continuing need for this kind of shelter in our community, and we are committed to the shelter’s policy of providing a supportive environment, offering educational opportunities and encouraging personal responsibility among its residents. Everyone comes away from participating in the Our House mitzvah feeling as if they have been a part of something very special.”
As the Simon Family from Nashville says, “We know that nobody can do everything, but that everyone can do something.” We could all take a lesson from any one of these amazing volunteers. Kol Hakavod!
Shoshana Cenker was born and raised in Memphis, graduated from White Station High School in 1998 and from Indiana University in Bloomington in 2002 with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. She studied abroad at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. She is the Director of Communications at Greenfield Hebrew Academy. She and her husband Dovid, live in Atlanta, GA.
