Tkkun Olam (healing the world) recognises that G!d deliberately made the world imperfect in order to give humanity a key role to play in healing and improving the world. We believe that social action is central to Judaism and we take it very seriously as a community. Responding to increasing unrest and suffering in the world, we are seeking to step up our social action projects.
Our social action activities concentrate on three areas: interfaith work and community outreach; greening and restoring our environment; and helping those most in need both locally and globally. Recent social action initiatives have been focused, successful and fun. We collected food donations for York Food Bank and Carecent, York’s charity for the homeless. Thanks to the generosity of York shoppers and our partnership with Sainsburys at Foss Bank, which is built on the site of the medieval Jewish cemetery, in just one day we raised over £2000 worth of food.
Under our greening and restoring the environment agenda, we worked with York City Council to undertake tree planting. We also helped to clean up and restore St Nick’s, York’s local nature reserve.
We have joined up with EcoJudaism and we are on the path to becoming an ‘ecosynagogue’. This means that we are committed to having a zero-carbon footprint and, indeed, that we make the world a better place as a result of our community! Recent progress in this area means that we have gone to using all-compostables for our tableware for our seders and shared kiddush lunches. Our rabbi regularly leads rubbish picks. And as we hopefully move towards having our own building, we will make sure that it is environmentally friendly, from conception to completion. We are also participating in York Environment Week, which takes place every year about the time of Rosh HaShannah, the Jewish New Year in September/October.
Interfaith is a crucial area for us, particularly in the current climate, and YLJC is an active contributor of the York Interfaith Group. Recent interfaith activities have included cross-faith dialogue on different topics such as art and faith; jointly attended commemorative events, such as Holocaust Memorial Day; and joint prayers for peace. Activities open to the public can be found on this calender.
As the only Jewish community in York, we get requests to talk to schools and other groups about Judaism. We think it is very important that children hear about other faiths and beliefs directly and so will always do our best to meet requests in and around the York area. We request that schools cover travel expenses for our speaker and as an entirely self-funded charity we would be delighted to receive a donation on behalf of our work.
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We are always keen to welcome new members who want to understand how Judaism can be put into practice through social action. And we are also keen to work with like-minded organisations. If you think we can help in your endeavours to ‘heal the world’, please get in touch.
YLJC Clothes Swap Social Action Event
We are delighted that York Liberal Jewish Community won second place in the Movement for Progressive Judaism Awards for its Tikkun Olam(Hebrew: תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם) work, which is a Jewish concept that translates to “repairing the world”. In YLJC we have put all our social justice and interfaith work under this umbrella. We feel that ‘repairing the world’ is a shared activity, enacted through communities and by working across faiths, and with all who share our desire for justice and peace. We know that many of you have supported our interfaith work over the year and we value your support highly. Tikkun Olam is at the centre of our culture in YLJC.