Social Justice
Sukkat Shalom as a congregation, families, and individuals are quite active in our local community and in the greater Chicago-land area supporting social justice causes.
Featured Social Justice Opportunities
►Connections for the Homeless Dinner
Additional Social Justice Opportunities
Social Justice Pilars
| Economic Justice | Equality |
Environmental
Stewardship
|
Immigration |
|---|
►Economic Justice
If there is a needy person among you...do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin. Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.
(Deut. 15:7-10).
You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kinsman, but incur no guilt because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Eternal.
(Leviticus 19: 17-18).
Jewish tradition teaches that we must accept others without prejudice or bias. Together we can live out our values by engaging in learning about racial injustice and LGBTQ inequality and promote advocacy and action on behalf of policies that mitigate those inequalities.
►Environmental Stewardship
Do not destroy My world, for if you do, there will be nobody after you to make it right again.
(Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13).
The Torah teaches that human beings were created to care for and protect God’s creations. We will work to conserve and protect our environment through changes in personal behavior, education, and action in our local and regional communities.
►Immigration
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress them, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(Exodus 22:20).
Jewish tradition places great importance on just the treatment of immigrants. No less than 36 times, the Torah commands just treatment of strangers.
Featured Social Justice Opportunities
Connections for the Homeless Dinner (connect2home.org)
Connections for the Homeless is a non-profit agency whose mission is to end homelessness, one person at a time. Sukkat Shalom is partnering with Connections to provide meals on a sustained basis throughout the year. Sukkat Shalom congregants can sign up to provide meals for families and individuals sheltering at The Margarita Inn, two Thursdays each month. Click HERE to reserve a date.
Families are encouraged to pair up with other families. If you need help connecting, please contact us.
Dinner Instructions - Please read through the entire guide (click here) with all of the instructions and information needed to deliver dinner. If you need any containers or have any additional questions, please contact Brenda Werth at sukkatshalom@sukkatshalom.org.
- Provide 30 identical individually wrapped hot meals appetizer, main course, and a drink. Dinner can be homemade or purchased from a local restaurant, see the list below of restaurants that work with Connections and know the requirements.
- The date you sign up for dinner is the date that you deliver the meals.
- Dinners must be dropped off between 5:00 - 5:30 pm at the Margarita Inn, 1566 Oak Avenue, Evanston.
- If you signup, and are not able to participate, please let us know at least five days in advance.
Additional Social Justice Opportunites
Environmental Stewardship Monthly Shabbat Box Challenge
Why eat less meat? Meat production greatly contributes to the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing meat consumption is a perfect way for individuals to lower their carbon footprint. Email any number of pics of your fam eating meatless meals to Sammy Obel (obelsammy@gmail.com), a Madrachim and Social Justice Committee member by March 31 for a chance to win our inaugural Shabbat Box.
Stock the Shelves
Stock the Shelves provides what food stamps won't and what stretched incomes can't cover by giving Chicago area refugees and their families the household and hygiene supplies they need to lead thriving lives. Despite their best efforts, many refugees strain each month to stretch their earnings to purchase the indispensable household and hygiene supplies food stamps don’t cover. Striving to close that gap, every fourth Wednesday of the month, Stock the Shelves drives a truck filled with the 15 items refugees need (and the only items we accept!) to the Indo-American Center in Rogers Park, where volunteers set up a mini-store stocked with new, unopened items.
Click here to register to volunteer, or click here to donate much-needed items.
The Night Ministry
The night ministry connects with Chicago’s most vulnerable by providing basic supplies, free health care, housing, and self-care resources. Sukkat Shalom partners with Night Ministry each year to provide hygiene bags to those in need.
Share the Harvest
Annual Thanksgiving Collection
Our congregation will be sponsoring families in need (identified through local agencies) during the Thanksgiving holiday. The STH committee will collect your baskets, bags, or gift cards prior to the Family School before Thanksgiving. Your generous donations will be distributed to families in need. Questions? Contact us.
Maot Chitim
Maot Chitim refers to the custom of gathering wheat and providing the poor with matzah to observe Passover. This mitzvah has been expanded to provide food for families in need on Passover as well as Rosh Hashanah.
To learn more or add your name to the volunteer list email sukkatshalom@sukkatshalom.org.
