We are kicking off a new year of social action involvement at Sinai! Please consider joining our newly formed "Sinai Social Action Committee" to help envision and plan social action activities and opportunities at Sinai. Or just stay tuned to this webpage for information on upcoming events.

1) Make social action more accessible to the Sinai community, youth and adult.

Let's focus on activities and opportunities that appeal to a wide variety of people within our diverse community. We are always open to new ideas!

2) Build on and connect the many ways in which Sinai members already are engaged in social action.

Let’s highlight successes and coordinate activities so that our efforts become more visible and help to energize one another!

Dates to Keep in Mind:

Sunday, January 29th: Sinai Social Action will be back in the kitchen, preparing and serving lunch for families at the San Jose Family Shelter! 

Sunday February 26th: We'll be back at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, this time with a large crew of volunteers.  

Sunday April 22nd: Earth Day event TBD 

Previous Activities:

October 16th: several Sinai members joined hundreds of other community members for the Habitat for Humanity, Habitat Walk Home! We walked through Cupertino to see the site where Habitat for Humanity will construct 4 new homes this year. Sinai Social Action will join an "All Faiths Alliance" community-wide effort to help with the construction of these homes.

 

 

Sunday, November 13th: Sinai Social Action was back in the kitchen, preparing and serving lunch for families at the San Jose Family Shelter!

 

The Sunday minyan attendees have sponsored another great lunch for the SJ Family Shelter families. The success of the lunch was made possible because of much help. Besides all of the cooking and serving, special thanks is owed to Rambod Jacoby who spoke right up to say “these beans are much too spicy,” to Sy Hoff who ran out to the nearest grocery store to buy more beans to cook a less spicy batch, to Susan Ellenberg who knew the cook’s trick of cutting the spiciness a measure of sugar, and Naava who could put a taco together with the sped of light.

The clean-up was completed by phenomenal dishwasher and congregation president, David Fernandez, who not only can scrub any pot clean but has the knowledge to recognize an industrial type dishwasher.

(Other helpers at the lunch were Lorraine Hoff, Jessica Intractor, Joan Abrams)

 

January 8th, 2012: Blood Drive with Stanford Blood Center Bloodmobile

 

Social Action Corner (from the Feb. 2012 Voice of Sinai):

In his January 14th dvar torah, Rabbi Berkenwald gave a poignant and compelling call to action based on the inspirational efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Berkenwald’s words reminded me that our faith can be the basis for our caring about and engaging in the issues facing our local and global community, as faith was for these two inspirational men whose yartzeit anniversaries were last month.
Thanks, Rabbi, for the message.
 Here is how to get more involved in Social Action at Sinai:
Join us for the next social action committee meeting on Sunday, February 12th, time TBD. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to confirm the date and time.
Participate in 2012 social action initiatives! These may include:
Expanding our volunteer sites (current sites include San Jose Family Shelter, Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, and Second Harvest Food Bank);
Improving the health & sustainability score of the food we serve at Sinai by joining the 2012 Silicon Valley Interreligious Council (SIVICS) community pledge campaign;
Instituting composting and waste reduction;
Planning more social action events that are youth and family-friendly.
Also, mark your calendars… February 26, 2012, 10am-1pm – Sinai Volunteering at Full Circle Farm! Join us at the Sunnyvale community farm. Last month we had 5 Sinai volunteers (thanks to Bruce Lipmann, David Hirsch, David & Daniel Fernandez, and Jessica Intrator) who got their hands dirty and had a lot of fun! If we have enough families interested, the farm will open their educational garden just for the event. But you must RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by February 17th (for February 26th). Learn about the farm and get directions at http://www.fullcirclesunnyvale.org .
Finally, don’t forget that you can check out the social action page on Sinai’s website for up-to-date information on events and who to contact. You also can see how much power our solar panels generate each day by going to http://sinai-sj.org/facilities/ .
Note that we also had a successful blood drive, with 14 donors. We hope to double the number next year.