Social Justice

Rabbi Israel Salanter once wrote, “My spiritual needs are my neighbor’s material needs.” Our Tikkun Olam Committee is active in supporting the Food and Fuel Fund and the Free Clinic in Bennington. A congregation lay representative sits with Rabbi Boettiger on the Interfaith Council, the local interfaith organization dedicated to serving the needs of the larger community. Jon Cohen, a member at Beth El, has organized “Last Monday” of the month dinners that Beth El offers to those in the area who are hungry. Our Judaism School raises money for UNICEF and Heifer International, and we have mitzvah days where community members can volunteer to do gemilut chasadim – acts of loving kindness – in the broader community. We affirm that these are not tangential aspects of our Judaism, but central, living, breathing notions about what makes us Jewish, as well as human.