Social Action – Poverty and Economic Justice linked with celebration of Purim

We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We will review Jewish text on the subject and commit ourselves to one activity which can alleviate the suffering of the poor in the short term (for example, staffing on a recurring basis “out of the cold”, hot meals, or food banks) as well as engage in lobbying governments for more systemic changes to create economic justice. The programmed will include a panel consisting of people connected to Beth Israel: Len Lifchus from the United Way, Miriam Stucky from the Green Party, Ziysah Markson from the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty and Colour of Poverty as well as Rabbi Schachter.

We will combine these social action programmes with a reading of the Megila Saturday night March 7, 2009 which will also include a costume party (themes for dressing could come from the Story of Esther or politicians and other community leaders on the issue of poverty). On Monday (Erev Purim) at 6:00 p.m. we will fulfill the mitzvah of “matanot la’evyonim” – gifts to the poor, members of the Jewish community will take part in the free, weekly Food Not Bombs dinner at 6 pm at Peterborough City Hall (500 George St.). If you would like to help prepare food for the meal (welcome but not necessary), please communicate with Miriam or Ziysah at ziysah@gmail.com. distributing them at a homeless shelter or doing a stint at a food bank.

Click HERE for times and events.

Beth Israel Synagogue's General Meeting to Move Forward with Vision Day Initiatives

On June 16th, 2008 the Synagogue will be holding its annual General Meeting for all members of the Peterborough Jewish Community. The main agenda item is the Vision Day and discussions about further moving forward with the initiatives discussed then. This will include determing a board of governors and an executive to lead the way. Please feel free to email Larry Gillman if you have any questions or comments: larry.gillman@freedom55financial.com.

Beth Israel Synagogue's Vision Day

On March 30th, 40 individuals in our community dedicated a day to discussing the future development of the Peterborough Jewish Community. We were blessed to have the involvement of a professional facilitator, Allan Sobel, assisted by his daughter Emma who works for the Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario. The discussion was exceptional with many exciting ideas exchanged on ways that Jews in Peterborough can continue to grow and develop as a caring community. We want to thank all of those individuals who invested a whole Sunday to contribute to this critical initiative.

The facilitators' report which details the discussion and next steps can be found at this link: Vision Day. Could each individual in our community please review this document and provide feedback directly to Larry Gillman or any other member of the executive.

Next Steps

  • There were several sub groups formed in the report with specific next steps. I will be following up with these groups to discuss the next steps.
  • Your Executive will be meeting to discuss how we can support this initiate. If anyone wants to be involved in this meeting, please contact Larry as you are very welcome

Letter from the Vision Day Facilitators

Dear Peterborough Community,

Thank you so much for participating in our workshop last weekend. It was really wonderful to see such a positive outcome. We hope you have gone forward from here and are able to make progress on the tasks you committed to. We will be getting a report to you by the end of next week. If you have any questions, comments or need anything, please let Emma know.

Thanks again, it was wonderful to meet you all,

Emma and Alan Sobel