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Tikkun Olam Committee

As Jews, we have a tradition of working for social and economic justice, political change, ecological renewal, peaceful coexistence, and human rights, as signified in the Hebrew term Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). As members of P’nai Or, we are also involved in our own personal/spiritual growth. The Tikkun Olam Committee of P’nai Or brings together these social justice principles and political conviction with our spiritual practices in order to contribute to this healing, repair, and transformation of the world, beginning with our own community.
 
The goals of the Tikkun Olam Committee are to:
  • increase awareness of political and social justice issues in our congregation.
  • create Tikkun Olam opportunities for exploration and action.
  • gather information about possible tzedakah partners and conduct elections for the congregation to select each year’s partners.
  • collaborate with other organizations whose goals we support.
  • support each other in this often difficult work.
Each year, the Tikkun Olam committee leads us in choosing one or two groups as tzedakah partners. Nominations of groups for these partnerships are taken each summer. The Tikkun Olam committee endeavors to choose nominees with whom we can have active participation, and the congregation votes to select our partners for the year, typically at our annual Labor Day picnic.
The Tikkun Olam committee meets monthly. Want to get involved? Contact committee chair, Hilda Welch.
 

Tzedakah Partners

2022 to 2023

HOUSE OF HOPE uses a Waldorf school curriculum to provide nonviolence training and trauma-informed education to Palestinian Muslim and Christian children.  Waldorf education teaches the whole child: hands, hearts, heads and souls. Students and staff make a daily pledge of commitment to nonviolence. The hope is that this will have a generational ripple effect for the community at large.

 The school’s vision is of a prosperous Palestine that upholds the dignity of every human through nonviolence, educational equity and civil society engagement. Their mission is to strengthen Palestinian civil society with holistic early and elementary education, accessible vocational training and dynamic social support for marginalized children, youth and women in four West Bank villages.

This past year they trained 134 teachers in their technique of using music, art and “learning by playing” to reduce student trauma.  They also developed Palestine Beats, teaching digital beat-making, songwriting and nonviolent communication to local Palestinians ages 16-35.  Our member Deanna Cohen is on the Board of Directors, has visited the school with her daughters and is dedicated to helping the school thrive.  

2021 to 2022
 
2020 to 2021
 
2018 to 2020
 
2016 to 2018
 
2015 to 2016
 
2014 to 2015
 
2013 to 2014
 
2012 to 2013
 
2011 to 2012
 
2010 to 2011
 
2009 to 2010
 
2008 to 2009
 
2007 to 2008
 
2006 to 2007
 
2005 to 2006
 
2004 to 2005
Rabbis for Human Rights (now called T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights)
 
2003 to 2004
Northwest Jewish Environmental Project (absorbed into Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life)
Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace) (now merged into the J Street Education Fund)
 
2002 to 2003