Social Action/Community Relations

“Community Services” includes both the Mitzvahs we do to help within our congregation, which we call “Caring & Support”, and the Mitzvahs that we perform to help the greater community, which we call “Social Action”. Look at the Oseh website and at the Shalom for monthly updates on both of these committees and for Mitzvah opportunities available both inside and outside of Oseh Shalom.

Eileen Hollander, Community Services Chair
(phone 301-439-1075 or e-mail

Social Action Committee

The Social Action Committee of Oseh Shalom is committed to helping the needy in our community. We are always looking for volunteers to help with various projects throughout the year. Here are some of the activities we have sponsored and look forward to in the coming year. So take a look and see what interests you. You are guaranteed to get more out of it than you give!!!!

Laurel Advocacy and Resource Center Need Food

Won't you please help LARS by bringing in some nonperishable food items to Oseh Shalom this week.Suggested items include: pasta and sauces, macaroni and cheese, rice, Hamburger Helper type mixes, canned goods (Spaghetti O's are good for families with kids; also, the pop top type of canned goods are useful for people without a stable place to live), peanut butter and jelly, cereal, pancake mix (the just add water kind is great!), tuna, salmon, sardines, soups. Donations may be placed in the Oseh Shalom coat closet. Many thanks for helping to feed those in need.

LARS: How to help LARS through the United Way campaign at work: Planning to participate in the United Way campaign at work? Well, consider putting LARS (Laurel Advocacy & Referral Services) on your list of beneficiaries. You contribution will help support low income families get back on their feet, people stay in their homes with the Rental Assistance Program (RAP), people who are older & living on fixed incomes keep the heat on this winter, and many other programs LARS participates in. The general United Way code for LARS remains 8843, but the new Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) number is 92544. LARS thanks you in advanced for your support.Contact: Eileen Hollander

Blood Donations Needed!

Please come out to donate at Oseh Shalom’s bimonthly Blood Drives, which are held bimonthly on Sunday mornings from 8:00 to 11:30 AM. Upcoming blood drive dates are: Oct 8 and Dec 3, 2006. To sign up to donate, contact Carolyn Makovi at 301-236-4411 or e-mail her at mmakovi@verizon.net.

Help Bring Shabbat to Nursing Home Residents

Volunteers from the synagogue are holding Shabbat morning services for the Assisted Living Group at Riderwood Gardens in Silver Spring on the 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays of each month from 11 AM to Noon. Volunteers of all ages are needed to help make this a success. You need not sign up for this as a regular commitment. Just come once and give it a try. You can participate in any way you feel comfortable. Experience is not necessary. This can be a wonderfully gratifying experience. For more information please contact Allen Shapiro at 301-261-7953 or .

Elizabeth House Soup Kitchen

Oseh Shalom provides volunteers to this soup kitchen in Laurel the first Monday evening of each month from 6 to 8 PM. This is a great way for teens to earn those community service hours. To volunteer call Carolyn Makovi (301-236-4411) or Steve Sternheimer (410-992-5669), Elizabeth House Coordinators. Parents are welcome to bring school-aged children. Scouts may be able to earn a merit badge. Can't stop by and serve? Elizabeth House really needs donations of heavy duty paper plates, cold and hot cups, napkins, and disposible silverware.

WinterHaven Shelter Program

Winter Haven is a temporary winter shelter that provides overnight shelter to homeless adults from December thru March. The shelter rotates to many different religious institutions in the Laurel area, including Oseh Shalom. Oseh Shalom has participated in this worthwhile effort for the last 12 years. In past years, Winter Haven has provided shelter only to men. Beginning two years ago, shelter was also provided to women. Volunteers are needed to serve as chaperones and drivers, to provide food and other needed items, to assist with set-up and take-down and to provide evening entertainment or other activities. If you want to help out, please contact Eileen Hollander for the men’s shelter and Debbie Tarash for the women’s shelter.

LARS (Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services)

LARS continues to provide services to families in crisis in the Tri-County Laurel area. LARS is supported through contributions from local religious institutions, including Oseh Shalom. Volunteers are always needed at LARS to answer phones, work in the office, drive families to and from various activities which take place at LARS, and to help with special programs. LARS also sponsors and trains Family Support Teams. There is always a need for volunteers to help with this important and rewarding service. For more information contact: Jean Schnurr

Jewish Foundation for Group Homes

JFGH, a non-profit organization, is a community residential program serving adult men and women with developmental disabilities and chronic mental illness. For the last several years, a group from Oseh Shalom has been visiting women at one of the homes several times a year, often at holiday times. Among the things we’ve done have been arts and crafts projects, making latkes at Chanukah, having a Tu B’Shvat seder, and just visiting. It has been a very rewarding experience for the volunteers and for the residents and we have developed a very special bond with the women. JFGH has 20 group homes and would love for more volunteers to spend time with the residents. It is a wonderful Mitzvah opportunity and may be something you can do with your children as well. Contact: Eileen Hollander

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Help Oseh Recycle!

Did you know that Oseh Shalom does not receive any recycling pick up by the county? So all those bottles and all that paper is just going in the regular trash. Won’t you please help Social Action bring recycling back to the synagogue? This could be a rotating responsibility among several families. For more info. Contact Eileen at .

Don't Protect Your Children: Teaching Kids Compassion and Justice through Service

by Rabbi Amy Scheinerman

Should our children see the "seamier" side of life? Should we expose them to people whose lives and choices are other than those of which we approve? How much suffering should a young child see and what affect will it have on him or her?

In every generation, parents worry about what their children should and should not experience. Recently, reticence to expose children to extreme poverty, suffering, or poor personal choices was brought to my attention. I was asked by a congregation to lead a discussion for parents on the merits of permitting young children to participate in a Mitzvah Day program, even when it meant exposure to teenage single mothers, drug addicts recuperating from their addictions, and homeless people in a soup kitchen. "Will my children be scarred from this exposure?" a parent had asked, triggering others to ask similar questions.

On a Sunday morning I sat among a circle of parents, all devoted, well-educated, caring people, and told them that not only would their kids be okay, but they would
become mentshes and stronger people for their participation in Mitzvah Day. I shared with them some of my own children's experiences, but mostly I gave them this
advice: it is not so much what your children see on Mitzvah Day, but how you help them assimilate what they see into their moral value system, that matters.

If children help to feed people in a soup kitchen, the message they should learn is: no one should go hungry, and we Jews are obligated to obliterate hunger in the world. If children plant flowers at a home for unwed teenage mothers, the message they should receive is: even when people make wrong and irresponsible behavioral choices, they deserve care, respect and help to improve their lives. If children stock the food pantry at a homeless shelter, the message they absorb is: having a home is a basic human right and when people fall on hard times, I can be part of the solution.

Pain is a part of life. We do not do our children a favor when we shield them from all pain indiscriminately. They must learn to deal with pain, both theirs and the pain of others.

My 10-year-old daughter has, for the past two years, volunteered each week at an assisted living center near our home. She was initially paired up with a woman whom she visited weekly, but in the course of her visits, she became very attached to a gentleman there with whom she took walks and with whom she shared many happy moments.

When he died last autumn and she did not learn about his death for a week, she was devastated. She felt that a part of her had died. She grieved deeply. Yet even in her grief she learned that she is blessed with a supportive and loving family that cradled her through her mourning, and supportive teachers at school who let her know that they understood her grief.

A month later, my daughter's woman companion also died after a lengthy stay in the hospital. In this case, because the family was Jewish, they notified my daughter immediately. She attended the funeral, went to shiva, and attended a weekday minyan in addition to say Kaddish. From these experiences she learned the magic and value of Jewish mourning rituals to help a soul grieve. She also drew closer to her companion's family, whom she now sees regularly in synagogue, and this has also been a good experience.

I was afraid that my daughter might find her work at the assisted living center too painful and too risky, but I was wrong: her response to these two losses was to double her time spent there each week.

Another daughter worked at a soup kitchen in downtown Baltimore with her youth group. "I never worked so hard in my life!" she reported when she came home and literally collapsed in the family room. "I can barely move. When can I go back?" Did she like the work? No; it was unpleasant, noisy, difficult work and while most of the people being served were very nice, a few of the men were less than appropriate (though not at all dangerous). Why, then, did she want to return? "I was needed and I really accomplished something," she said.

I know a 12-year-old girl who took her friends to help for a day with children who have AIDS. Sure, they were hesitant at first, but they learned the great joy of giving that day.

I know an 8-year-old who asked her friends to bring arts and crafts supplies to donate to the children's floor of the local hospital in lieu of birthday gifts when they came to her party. My son and I had the privilege of accompanying her when she brought the supplies to the hospital; this was clearly the highlight of her birthday celebration.

I know a 10-year-old whose parents give him money to buy homeless people lunch when he passes them walking through the city. Can he feed every homeless person? No, but he has learned that he may not bypass every homeless person either.

Our children do not want to live, nor are they better people for living, behind insulated walls of an idealized childhood. The real world is all around them, and the more they contribute to solving the very real and horrific problems in our society, the stronger and more compassionate they will be, the more they will learn about themselves, and the more they will care about others.

Our children must learn that hope is a necessity, not a luxury, and that compassion and justice are the most essential guideposts for any society. The only way to learn these lessons is to roll up your sleeves and get involved.

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