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On October 27th, Areyvut spoke with Rabbi Louis Fliegelman’s sophomore class at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, IL about chesed. The students were asked to define chesed, tzedakah and tikkun olam and to offer Jewish sources to support their opinions as well as to provide examples of these concepts. Students discussed the importance of doing chesed and were asked to identify issues that they felt passionate about and wanted to address. Among the issues identified were indifference, a lack of tolerance, the situation in Israel, poverty, helping Israeli victims of terror, hunger and literacy. After discussing the various issues, the students explored ways to address them. Areyvut provided the students with a variety of resources and ideas to help them make a difference with the issues.
The purpose of the presentation was to empower the students to think out of the box in performing chesed and to think of ways they could make a difference. Later that week several students approached Rabbi Fliegelman with a proposal to do advocacy on behalf of Israel. Since that time the students have developed a school wide program to educate the school community about issues relating to Israel, raised consciousness and money for victims of terror. Rabbi Fliegelman’s class has also visited the Ark, a local social service agency and helped them in their food pantry. The class will continue their involvement with the Ark by participating in several projects corresponding to the chagim.
In addition to the presentation to Rabbi Fliegelman’s sophomore class, Areyvut is consulting with Ida Crown on Derekh Eretz as part of their five year North Central accreditation process. Areyvut has offered suggestions to Rabbi Shmuel Kurtz, a teacher and the coordinator of the Derekh Eretz program, on how to address ethical issues within the curriculum and school culture.
To learn more about Ida Crown visit their website at www.icja.org.
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