Tzedakah Box Donations at JRC
As Reform Jews, we are called to engage in the work of tikkun olam, improving the world in which we live. One way to participate is through Tzedakah.
All donations made in May and June of 2019 are designated for the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham Re-entry program to help purchase essential items for “Welcome Home” boxes. to former prisoners returning to Durham.
Welcome Home boxes are given to former prisoners returning to Durham to live and work, and contain items to meet some basic needs as they re-enter society: personal hygiene items, a week’s worth of non-perishable food, gift cards to purchase a basic pre-paid cell phone and new underwear, and a personalized letter of welcome from the mayor.
READ about this important initiative in this May 14, 2019 IndyWeek article: Almost 750 Prisoners Were Released to Durham Last Year. The City Wants to Make Their Transition Home Easier.
Tzedakah cannot be translated because it joins together two concepts that in other languages are opposites, namely charity and justice. It is the idea that no one should be without the basic requirements of existence, and that those who have more than they need must share some of that surplus with those who have less. This is fundamental to the kind of society the Israelites were charged with creating, namely one in which everyone has a basic right to a dignified life and equal worth as citizens in the community. - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, from his essay "Tzedakah: The Untranslatable Virtue."
You can contribute at the Tzedakah box located in the Judea Reform lobby or in the Education Building, or send a check to Judea Reform with the memo "Tzedakah.”