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Social Action / Tikkun Olam
Sharon Tanenhaus, Chairperson

Hollywood C.A.R.E.S. (Haiti)
Environmental Action
Mitzvah Day
Bikkur Cholim
Volunteers
Bulletin Articles

Hollywood CARES is headed back to Haiti.  
Monday, June 27 - Thursday, June 30, 2011. 

Go with us to visit and volunteer at the Project Papillon facilities, tour Port au Prince, visit a tent city, participate in Jewish learning, and hear from the Director of Project Papillon about their ongoing work and how URJ and Temple Beth El (Hollywood CARES) continue to be great sources of support.

Cost: $450 per person (double room accommodations), $525 per person (single room accommodations) and includes 3 nights hotel stay, 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners, bottled water, ground transportation and security. Cost does not include airfares.

Please note: Deadline to register has been extended and there are a few spaces left. Participants must be 21 years of age. Everyone must travel on same flights between Fort Lauderdale, FL and Port au Prince, Haiti. To register, or for additional details, contact Sharon Tanenhaus at 954-604-8666 or daniasha@aol.com. See more about our work in Haiti at www.hollywoodcares.net.

* * * * * * * *

Mitzvah Day - Sunday, April 10, 2011
A huge success, TBE members of all ages turned out to prepare Passover gift bags for homebound congregants, make sandwiches for Jubilee Center, and sort food donations for Feeding South Florida.

We collected school supplies for Hollywood Central Elementary School, packed clothing donations for Broward Outreach, donated blood to Community Blood Bank, and painted and beautified our Temple property.  

Our Religious School students held a Mini-Relay for Life and "sold" luminary bags they decorated to raise money for American Cancer Society.

All activities took place at the Temple and it was agreed ...
Temple Beth El's 7th Annual Mitzvah Day was a huge success! 

* * * * * * * *

Community-Wide Tikkun Olam Day
on Sunday, December 12th, was a great success! Rabbi Tuffs and TBE members were there to pitch in, and enjoy a wonderful afternoon of mitzvot. Photos are posted on our facebook page. 

* * * * * * * *

HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE FOR THE CHILDREN IN HAITI
Our goal was to collect 300 toys. Thanks to the generosity of our TBE congregants, 434 toys were shipped to arrive in Haiti in time for Christmas! 

hollywood cares banner

Hollywood CARES, our project in Haiti, is a partnership that began in 2006 between Temple Beth El and First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. To visit the Hollywood CARES website and learn more, click on the link at the top of the page or go to http://www.hollywoodcares.net/.

Our Environmental Action committee has seen most of the light bulbs at the Temple changed to the most efficient compact flourescents, including the ones on the giant menorah that sits on the front lawn during Chanukah. We have also planted trees around the perimeter of the Temple grounds and worked with the Religious School 5th and 6th graders to plant a vegetable garden.

Mitzvah Day 
At this annual event, we collect clothing and shoes, and canned and boxed foods to donate to shelters and food pantries. We make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a local lunch program and sponsor a blood drive.



Mitzvah Day 2010 at Temple Beth El was a huge success.  Our Congregation contributed 452 lbs. of food to FEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA (formerly The Daily Bread Food Bank), which provided 238 meals.
Congratulations Temple Beth El and thank you to all who participated!
Bikkur Cholim
Our mission is to gently reach out to everyone in our Temple Beth El community in need of support and caring during a time of need. We have called and visited the sick, delivered home cooked meals, and visited with the homebound, either by phone or in person. I am so proud of our congregation as all I have to do is send out an email or make a phone call and the response has been positive.

If you would like to join us, please contact the Temple office and leave a message for Jodi Most. You can make calls or visit. Any help will be appreciated.

Are you aware of any Temple member who is sick and in need of a visit to cheer them up at home or in the hospital? Is a Temple member in need of someone to just look in on them and say hello to show them that we care? Please call the Temple office and leave a message with your name and phone number so we can see how we can be of some help.
We can’t help if we don’t know…

WE WANT TO BE THERE FOR OUR TEMPLE FAMILY. PLEASE CALL THE TEMPLE OFFICE
@ 954-920-8225. 
L’Shalom,
Jodi Most
TBE Bulletin Articles

March/April 2011
Mitzvah Day 2011

On Sunday, April 10, 2011, we will all come together for Temple Beth El’s 7th Annual Mitzvah Day! If you’ve come to Mitzvah Day before, you know what a wonderful and satisfying day it is. If you haven’t been able to join us in the past, join us this year and find out for yourself.

Mitzvah Day is a day for us to deepen our identity as a caring community – a day on which we can work alongside people we know and people we meet for the first time.  Everyone can come away feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

Whether you’re already very active in Temple life or participate hardly at all, we need you on Mitzvah Day.  Young or old or somewhere in between, we need you on Mitzvah Day.  Your participation will make a difference!

We’ll start at 11:00 am, as always, with a beautiful buffet brunch. Then, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get to work. There will be projects to work on to benefit our community, our members, and the Temple itself. Sorting clothing for sale and to donate to Broward Outreach; sorting and packing food in cartons for Feeding South Florida, The Meyerhoff Senior Center, and other food pantries; preparing Passover gift bags for our elderly and homebound congregants; making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Jubilee Center; packing school supplies for Hollywood Central Elementary; these are just a few of the things we’ll have to do.

We will be sponsoring a blood drive. Community Blood Centers of South Florida will be with us again so we can help them meet the great need to keep our blood banks well stocked.

We will paint walls, weed and clean undergrowth from our bushes, and do other selected projects to help beautify and enhance our Temple.

Our B’nai Mitzvah will have the opportunity to display their mitzvah projects, for us to learn about and support. Our Religious School students will have a mini relay to help raise money for cancer patients in our community.

You will be able to learn more about our project in Haiti and find out how you can lend your support. We will have our STAND WITH ISRAEL bracelets available for sale, to support the URJ’s Israel Emergency Fund.

All the day’s activities will take place on the Temple grounds, but we need volunteers for deliveries after Mitzvah Day also; you can offer your help in that way.

There is work to be done before Mitzvah Day too. Here are a few things to do, starting now: Each time you go grocery shopping, look for the buy one, get one free items (tuna, soup, rice, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, etc.) that you can donate.

Collect new towels and toiletries that will go to families (mostly women and children) who are living in a shelter. All contributions, large and small, are greatly appreciated. However, please remember, gently used means, “looks almost like new.” Things that are broken, dirty, or torn have to be thrown away. Bring your donations to the Temple when you have the opportunity and drop them in the boxes you’ll see. Or, call the Temple office and ask for your donations to be picked up.

Get your friends and family involved. Ask for their help in gathering donations. Ask them to join you at Mitzvah Day and help with the fun and work that day.

If you have any questions or ideas regarding Mitzvah Day, please call me, Sharon Tanenhaus (954-604-8666) or send me an email (daniasha@aol.com).

Social action has always been an integral part of Reform Judaism, and of Temple Beth El. We are very proud to be having our 7th Annual Mitzvah Day. We’re sure it will be a day to remember!   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations to Temple Beth El’s Preschool Director, Ruth Rubin, on being installed as a member of the 2011 Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism Board and Vice President of Social Action.

January/February 2011

Happy New Year! 2010 was a very fulfilling year for Social Action at Temple Beth El, with food drives, blood drives, and a drive for school supplies. Hollywood CARES co-hosted a rally with the City of Hollywood to raise money for victims of the earthquake in Haiti, lead a URJ trip to Haiti in July, and had a TBE toy drive in which we sent 434 toys to Haiti in time for Christmas. At our PB&J Sundays, TBE members made from 400-500 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches each time for the Jubilee Center in Hollywood. Bikkur Cholim – TBE members who gave their help to other congregants when it was needed – worked throughout the year. Of course, we had our Mitzvah Day, and TBE also participated in the Community-Wide Tikkun Olam Day in December. A group of TBE members visited the local Feeding South Florida facility and packed cartons with food to be sent to food pantries across the county. We collected over $600 for URJ’s Israel Emergency Fund, with the sale of our blue STAND WITH ISRAEL bracelets.

With the start of the New Year, we are now making plans for our 7th Annual Mitzvah Day, which will be on April 10, 2011. We are kicking off our 2011 school supplies drive for Hollywood Central Elementary School, and TBE volunteers will have the opportunity to participate as “mentors” and “listeners” at the school. More visits to work at the Feeding South Florida facility are planned, and we will have new and continuing projects throughout the year.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful TBE members, without whose support and participation in our social action projects, there would be no Social Action at Temple Beth El. I also want to give an extra “shout out” to Trudy Lechner, Jodi Most, Eva Abramczyk, Eileen Sanders, Allen Zack, Andrea Cherin, and Sandra Edelboim for their leadership and extra efforts to make our social action projects the successes they are.

Following the December forest fire in Israel, I want to remind everyone that one small way in which we can help is to purchase STAND WITH ISRAEL bracelets in the Temple office or Gift Shop. They are $2 each or 3 for $5. These contributions add up and are greatly appreciated.

I also want to remind everyone that by using GoodSearch for your internet searches and GoodShop for your online shopping, you are contributing to Temple Beth El without doing anything more than you usually do, or spending any additional money at all.

As always, please feel free to contact me about anything you read here or have questions about. Also, any ideas for social action projects you’d like to see TBE participate in. Reach me at 954-604-8666 or daniasha@aol.com. 

TBE Bikkur Cholim Committee
We need new members for the committee. You can make calls or visit. Any help is appreciated. Please contact the Temple office and leave a message for Jodi Most.

Are you aware of any Temple member who is sick and needs a visit to cheer them up at home or in the hospital? Is a Temple member in need of help, or someone to just look in on them and say hello to show them that we care? Please call the Temple office and leave a message with your name and phone number, so we can see how we can be of some help.
We can’t help if we don’t know…WE WANT TO BE THERE FOR OUR TEMPLE FAMILY PLEASE CALL THE TEMPLE OFFICE 954-920-8225.
November/December 2010

We all know about the state of the economy, and things are not as good for any of us as they could be. Yet it must seem like every time you turn around, you’re being asked to donate to one cause or another. I know, because I do a lot of the asking at Temple Beth El.

The sad truth is that no matter how most of us have been affected by the current economy, there are others who are in far greater need than we are, and if we don’t do what we can to help them, we are neglecting our responsibility as Jews to tikkun olam (repairing the world).

It doesn’t take much. Maybe you brought only one or two cans for our High Holiday Food Drive; you contributed to the over 1500 pounds of food our congregation donated to Feeding South Florida and you made a difference.

Now, we’re running another Food Drive for Thanksgiving. If you contribute only one or two cans again, you will again make a difference. We are also running a Holiday Toy Drive for the children in Haiti. If you bring even one toy to the Temple, you will be responsible for a smile on one child’s face. You don’t have to spend a lot; the only requirement is that the toy must be new.

Now I have one more request, and this one will cost you nothing! What if Temple Beth El could receive a donation every time you search the Internet? Well, it can! All you need to do is use GoodSearch.com instead of Google, or Bing, or whatever search engine you now use. GoodSearch.com is powered by Yahoo and works just like all the others. The difference is that Temple Beth El will get a penny every time you use GoodSearch.com. That doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up. And the more of us who use GoodSearch.com, the more pennies there will be!

Also, do you shop online? Go to GoodShop.com. If you do, this is another way to support TBE. Shop at hundreds of great stores online including Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, and many more. Temple Beth El will get from 3 to 30% of every purchase you make.

By the way, download the GoodSearch - Temple Beth El - Hollywood toolbar and TBE will earn money every time you search and shop online – even if you forget to go to GoodSearch or GoodShop first! Add the Temple Beth El - Hollywood toolbar at www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/ temple-beth-el-hollywood. It's that simple. You will help our Temple from that point on, without even having to think about it.

If you have questions about any of what you’ve read here, or need help with GoodSearch and GoodShop, please call the Temple office for assistance.
August/September/October 2010 
      
Another New Year is beginning, with lots of work to do! We’ll start off on Sunday, August 8th, at our newly named open house event, with a blood drive and bracelets to sell for Israel. We’ll have information to share – about our orphanage in Haiti; our drives for food, school supplies, and clothing, etc., for local agencies and programs; our Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Makers Sundays; our “We Care” Committee, Bikkur Cholim, Mitzvah Day, and more. Our projects continue all year, so everyone has lots of opportunities to do good and to feel good!

Our most recent trip to Haiti was very special, with members of URJ congregations from across the country joining us to work, to pray, and to learn. The following words were written by TBE member, Jackie Eshet.

"I have been a member of Temple Beth El for years and although I’m not a particularly involved member, I do attend the High Holiday services and any service my daughter’s religious class is leading. It’s not a lot, but I pay my dues and show up when I should, or at least when I think I should. When the earthquake in Haiti happened I responded immediately. I knew the Temple sponsored an orphanage there, so I wrote my checks and raided my closet for donations. I did my part and my conscience was clear. However, even after the news coverage of Haiti had faded away, I kept wondering about how the country was managing.

Six months passed, the summer was upon us, and my children would be gone for four weeks. A vacation was definitely on my mind. Where should I go? The mountains, a spa, or a beautiful beach vacation? They all sounded good. Then I received an unexpected email from the Temple and after receiving that email, my plans suddenly changed. It turned out that I would not be planning any of the vacations I had had in mind; I would instead be joining the Temple and Hollywood CARES on their Mitzvah Work Mission to Haiti. I recruited my boyfriend and my sister. We booked our tickets (bought travel insurance just in case we lost our nerve), sent emails out to friends and family for donations, packed our fifty-pound bags, and headed for Haiti with a group of 21 people (aside from the Rabbi and trip organizer, Sharon Tanenhaus, I was one of only two Temple members on the trip).

I cannot even begin to describe to you how incredible an experience this trip to Haiti was. As a congregation, we should be incredibly proud of our Temple’s association with such a beautiful cause. Pastor John, who is the man that runs the orphanage, has such an amazing vision for his orphans, for the youths he mentors, and for the people of Haiti, that his dedication alone deserves our continued funding. The children are well taken care of, sweet, soft spoken, and simply delicious. I can’t wait to go back! Aside from the sadness of the obvious poverty, the extreme heat, and lack of running water, the Haitian people could certainly teach us all a thing or two about what it truly means to persevere. Be thankful for the simple things, and the next time you’re thinking about that vacation somewhere exotic, try stepping out of your comfort zone and joining the Temple on a Mitzvah Mission to Haiti. You’ll be glad you did!"

 

 

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