Temple Judea Mizpah has a long history of social action and social justice programming. Since the congregation came together in 1954 until today, 2009, our members have been active in creating a better world for everyone. Our congregants were at the forefront of the civil rights movement both in the south and at home. Congregant Evelyn Shavitz marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Selma, Alabama in 1965 while closer to home, Rabbi Karl Weiner (of blessed memory) was at the forefront of assuring that Skokie was an integrated community. At the same time, Rabbi Weiner was the driving force in forming the Niles Township Clergy Forum and inaugurating the popular Inerfaith service on Thanksgiving eve.
Later, the temple retained its commitment to social justice, campaigning for the release of Jews held captive in the Soviet Union. During the summers, members of the congregation invited children from underprivileged neighborhoods on the south side of the city to a summer camp on temple grounds. In years that followed, members of the social action commission maintained their commitment to social justice through work at the Good News Community Kitchen and programs feeding homeless women and children, teaching mentally challenged adults, honoring veterans of foreign wars, cleaning and planting neighborhoods, entertaining elderly residents of a local nursing facility and so much more.
In 2009, Temple Judea Mizpah is the proud winner of the Fain Award from the Religious Action Center, the social justice arm of the Union for Reform Judaism. This award was established in 1983 in honor and memory of Irving J. Fain, who served for a decade as chair of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism and who was an ardent proponent of social action and the commitment to the work of tikkun olam, healing the world. This award is presented every two years to congregations that have displayed exemplary work in the pursuit of justice, have successfully involved large numbers of congregants in their programs and have developed genuinely innovative and/or particularly effective projects. The Fain award was given to TJM for its program, “Changing The World Together One Block at a Time”. The first of two programs, each involving the people that frequent the Community Kitchen we serve, and members of the TJM community, we cleaned the streets in the community, planted flowers, prepared a garden at a domestic abuse women’s shelter, fed the community, painted away graffiti, washed windows and fed anyone in the community who came for nourishment. The second program, involving the same communities took place at the temple, where members of the community we serve had a chance to give back, to feel that they, too, could help another community.
While our mission is to create a better community, “One Block at a Time”, we are inspired by the ideas of joining communities and feeling the deep connections that result.
We continue our efforts with involvement in the Good News Community Kitchen where for 23 years, we have provided a complete meal once a month for needy individuals and families, Northside Power (People Organized to Work, Educate and Restore), our High Holy Day Food Drive which supports both the Kitchen and the Niles Township Food Pantry, our connection and support of a Jewish community in Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Ukraine, our drive to replace light bulbs with CFL’s, and so much more.
Temple Judea Mizpah offers so many opportunities, there is bound to be at least one that might call your name. Join us in our efforts to continue to “Change The World One Block at a Time”.
