We are looking for volunteers to make or donate food and possibly even serve at Ohr Shalom's next Homeward Bound Dinner on Thursday evening, December 29th. The latest word I have gotten from Homeward Bound is that they have been feeding upwards of 140 people each evening. The need is great. We will continue to do our Mexican Menu which is so very well received. Please respond when I send you an "ask" email in early December.
Also, Ohr Shalom is partnering with Koinonia Church to provide warm shelter nights for the homeless from March 4th through March 18th.
We need pairs of volunteers to spend the night at the church sometime during those dates. Volunteers must attend a training to be held either Wednesday, February 1st or Saturday March 3rd. I understand that it is hard to give up a night's sleep, but it is a HUGE mitzvah and our experience has been both fun and enlightening.
Please consider these great gifts of your time and email or call me:
Gayle Gerson 241-8561 or galstarr@bresnan.net
Education in the Schools
Members of OSDAC are working on a school ciriculum to help District 51 with education on both The Holocaust and on Darfur. In April 2007, Kathleen presented to Redlands Middle School on her families experience in the Holocaust and Wendy and Gail presented on Darfur. Now Dave E. is carrying on the traditional by speaking to schools about Judaism, the Holocaust and Darfur.
In 2010 Henry spoke to a 7th grade class at Caprock Academy regarding his many experiences during WWII and the liberated Jews from concentration camps.
West Middle School's 8th grade History and Lit class with Ms. Flick studied Darfur in their Africa unit. A student orgainized a school wide coin war and raised $600 for solar cookits. We lent them our solar cookit unit so they could understand what their money raised is going for.
Darfur Awareness
Congregation Ohr Shalom is able to respond in a timely manner to any humanitarian crises that may occur throughout the world by maintaining a revolving Tzedakah fund for which monies are constantly renewed. In the past we have been able to send donations to Jewish World Watch (www.jewishworldwatch.org)for Darfurian refugees, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee( www.jdc.org)and American Jewish World Service(www.ajws.org) for the recent crisis in Haiti.
"As Jews we cannot be silent in the face of genocide.
'Never again' applies to all peoples. We believe the experience of
the Holocaust has taught us to fight against thesystematic destruction of innocent people anywhere in the world." Gail G.
Jewish World Watch
Our fundraising efforts are in two areas. Our main objective is to raise funds to buy solar cook units for the women in the refuge camps in Chad. Click here to learn more about the cookit project. Only $30.00 buys a family 2 needed cook units, one for rice and the other for sauces. This allows the women to not have to go outside their camp to collect firewood and face the possibility of rape and murder. $15.00 buys a family one solar cook unit.
