In This Issue:
About Us
Our Mission:
To educate and engage seniors to do social action;
To empower grandchildren to make the world a better place;
And to create a legacy from one generation to another.
Do us a HUGE favor!!
If we want to provide our large network of seniors across the USA with the best possible opportunities for social action, we need to find out all of the successful things you and your family have done!!
Please send us your stories!
Send an email to our e-Newsletter staff (click here) with a short paragraph telling us what social action activities you do with your grandkids. We want to use your ideas for our next e-Newsletter!
JUF TOV Highlights
2010 Individual volunteer dates at the JUF Uptown Cafe are now being scheduled! We need your help to meet the growing needs in the community.
- All Cafe scheduling is done over the phone. To schedule your dates, please call the TOV Hotline at (312) 357-4762.
- Volunteers may serve one meal each month.
- If you would like to volunteer more often and you have a flexible schedule, sign up for the Emergency Volunteer List here: http://juf.org/tov/emergency_cafe.aspx.
- Volunteers must be at least 12 years old and accompanied by an adult if under age 18.
- Due to their popularity, only two Sundays a year are available to volunteers.
For more information about the JUF Uptown Cafe or to sign up to volunteer, please contact the TOV hotline at (312) 357-4762 or email tov@juf.org.
Kindness A Day Calendar
For the past five years Areyvut has developed an "A Kindness a Day" Calendar, featuring 365 suggested kindnesses that you can do to make the world a better place. In an effort to go green, the 2010 calendar will not be printed, but rather will be distributed via Twitter as well as a daily email.
We invite you to infuse your life with chesed (kindness), tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (social justice) by following Areyvut on Twitter and/or signing up for their daily email.
This month's note is adapted from and based on The Kedushah Principle, an article that was written by Susan Noyes and published in the November 2006 issue of North Shore Magazine. I include it as my column so that as we think about Chanukah and/or Christmas gifts to our grandchildren/grandfriends, we can do something that will last forever.
At 7 years old, Michael Warren already considered himself a philanthropist and social activist. Each year, through the auspices of the MIMAST Philanthropy Club - and in partnership with its founder and grandmother, Sharon Morton of Deerfield along with young Michael and his brothers and cousin carefully decide how to spend their "philanthropy budget."
Last year, for example, Michael was out shopping and spotted some mittens on sale for only 65 cents. He consulted with Grandma, brother Steven Warren, and cousin Matthew Reitman, and $100 of funds were released to buy as many mittens as they could to warm the hands of children who might otherwise be cold. Needless to say, this made their Bubbe very proud.
In both the secular and religious worlds, the holidays, symbols and traditions reflect all that we have or want to have. From amassing candy to anticipating gifts, it often seems to be about things—wanting things, getting things, things, things and more things…
While the majority of the world’s population is forced to deal with deprivation, we often need to learn to handle bounty. And in this uncertain economy we need to consider our relationship to our things and to model for our grandchildren a positive connection to our possessions.
Some seasonal thoughts for the entire year and an entire lifetime:
Build on blessings:
Helping to create an ‘attitude of gratitude’ is a blessing to your family! Whatever your personal theology, saying ‘thank you’ always adds a crucial component to your awareness. Expressions of gratitude for what we have, using whatever terms feel authentic to you, helps to put possessions in their proper place.
- Read more about establishing the practice of reciting blessings by clicking here.
- A comprehensive list of blessings can be found here. This site offers Hebrew-to-English transliteration and a comprehensive listing of blessings traditionally said upon performing mitzvot, seeing natural phenomena, etc.
Show it by Sharing:
We know our lives are built of both what we say and what we do. Model sharing your personal and family’s bounty by trying some of the following:
- Donating the cost of a guest’s holiday meal at your table to an organization that feeds the hungry as a symbolic way of inviting the poor to your celebration.
- Provide information about the programs of: Family-to-Family.org and Mazon and have your grandchildren help make the decision as to where the donation will go.
- Providing a special dessert for a family gathering and delivering the same (with grandchildren as escorts) to a local soup kitchen
- Cooking ‘extra’ for delivery to your synagogues Caring Committee or ask your rabbi who might be celebrating alone and deliver a special holiday meal
- Allocating a sum of money that grandchildren accompanying you on a shopping trip can use to purchase an item for donation
- Buying two of something – a toy, book, pair of gloves, etc.: one for your intended recipient and another for the recipient to give away
Our blessings can allow us to become blessings to others!
Answer the following questions and see your name and/or your ideas in print!
- What is the one sentence of wisdom that you want to share with your grandchildren?
- How do you balance your life?
- What is the one thing that you would like to do (in a social action way) with your grandchildren?
Several grandparents who would like to be able to communicate with their adult children about this social action concept have asked if we could have a Chicagoland meeting to discuss the issue. Please contact sharon@grandparentsforsocialaction.org to let us know that you are interested in such a meeting. (Be sure to put "grandparents" in the subject line!)
All for Good: A New "Craigslist for Service"
based on an article by Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post
A group of individuals from the worlds of tech, marketing, academia, and public service, have banded together to create a new website that aims to become a craigslist for service. It's called All For Good.
The site is designed to help people from all over the country connect to volunteering opportunities in their area that are meaningful to them.
Read the article in its entirity here.
Visit AllForGood.org by clicking here.
A New Book to Buy: Precious Penelope
We all read or tell
bedtime stories to our grandchildren. David Sherman,
a busy man, a friend, a father of five, a volunteer in the community,
Chairman of JUF Board of Directors, and a philanthropist also tells
bedtime stories to his children. The stories are original, interactive
and always hold a lesson about values. He wrote and self-published one
of them, Precious
Penelope in the Kingdom of Very Large Castles. It is the
story about a young girl who believes the rules in her castle are stricter than
those elsewhere. But through her journey to other castles in
the kingdom, Precious Penelope learns to appreciate how lucky she is to
have a nice castle to live in and parents who love her. The illustrations
are beautiful, done by prominent Chicago illustrator Kevin Luthardt. For
more information or to purchase a copy of the book, visit www.preciouspenelope.com.