:: Community Issues & Social Action

Bringing Social Justice Activities to the Congregation

The Community Issues/Social Action Committee welcomes everyone who has any interest in social justice issues. Our committee is engaged with issues of Tikkun Olam — with this year's discussions focusing specifically on issues facing immigrants in our community and what we can do to help. Whether you want stimulating discussion of major issues or direct involvement in projects and activities, we hope you will join us.

The CI/SA Committee sponsors interfaith dialogue and learning events, including dinners and lectures, with members of other religious communities that emphasize our common goals and concerns. We present lectures on social action issues and organize the Congregation’s participation in rallies and demonstrations on issues that we, as a congregation, support— including the 9/11 Unity Walk, Rally Against Genocide in Darfur, and vigils at the Sudanese Embassy. Closer to home we provide both on-going and one-time opportunities to aid the vulnerable in our community. The Second Sunday cooking project, through which Temple members provide meals for the homeless in Montgomery County, is one such opportunity.

Members of the committee are the Congregation’s liaisons with religious and social service organizations in the community, bringing information to the Congregation and our voice to the community. The committee also plans several major annual congregational events, including the Martin Luther King Shabbat and Work Day and the Interfaith Freedom Seder. These events bring churches and mosques from all over the metropolitan area to Washington Hebrew to celebrate our common experience and to further tolerance and understanding.