Pre-USY and USY will collect food for the needy prior to the Kol Nidre service. Please bring a bag (available at Temple) with non-perishable food.

Examples:

The plight of the homeless and the hungry is constantly before us.  Part of the meaning of ROSH HASHANAH and YOM KIPPUR is to remind us of our responsibility to relieve misery.  That responsibility is explicit in Isaiah's timeless message in the HAFTORAH for YOM KIPPUR:

 "This is my chosen fast...
share your bread with the hungry,
Take the homeless into your home.
Clothe the naked when you see him.
Do not turn away from people in need."

With Isaiah's words serving as an ideal, we call upon our congregation to embrace his message.  As we enter into YOM KIPPUR, let us turn his teaching into words by which we live. 

These actions must be undertaken jointly.  The implications of Isaiah's words are too vast to be left to only one segment of the synagogue family.

With the plight of the hungry and homeless before us, let us enter into YOM KIPPUR by engaging in TIKKUN OLAM - repairing the world.

Operation Isaiah will begin on ROSH HASHANAH.   After services, grocery bags will be available to all members of the congregation.  Congregants should take a bag home, fill it with food and return it to the synagogue when they return for KOL NIDRE services on EREV YOM KIPPUR, or at any time during the 10 days up through YOM KIPPUR.  This food will then be donated to a local food bank.

Operation Isaiah is a national campaign conducted by The United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism with the cooperation of The VA’AD GEMILUT HASADIM of The Jewish Theological Seminary.  Our goal is 100% participation.  If each person donated one pound of food, our congregation would raise approximately 1,000 pounds of food, and the Conservative Movement would collect over 500,000 pounds of food to help combat hunger.

We want to do our part.  We are asking every person who comes to our KOL NIDRE services to bring a minimum of one pound of non-perishable food.  The drop-off point for the food is in front of the main office.

While Isaiah’s words describe a social reality from over 2500 years ago, they could easily describe the situation in cities across North America today.  By participating in Operation Isaiah on YOM KIPPUR, Judaism’s most important fast day, Temple Beth El and other congregations are working to achieve a reality where no one suffers from daily hunger.

Please participate in this endeavor!

Non-perishable items will be collected on Kol Nidre

by our Pre USY and USY Youth Groups on Wednesday, October 8, 2008.

Thank you in advance for your participation.