profile

i'm reclaiming the profile space as my own, so here's what's written as team chessed's profile, just for posterity's sake.

Team Chessed Profile: "With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baruch Hashem, we are all so deeply blessed in so many ways. And we all have so much we can give. We also have so many reasons to give: because it's the right thing to do, because we have pain and we want to give it meaning, because we have been through hard times and want to help others who are there now, because we are committed to doing mitzvot, because we are good people who want to do chessed. Here are some opportunities to do good, mostly around the Hyde Park community. May we all be zoche to push the world forward to a better place.

kiva lending team

hi all,

i have made a lending team on kiva.org for team chessed.

for those of you who don't know what kiva.org is, you should.

first of all, because it is the coolest thing in the whole wide world.
second of all, because it's an incredible opportunity to make a substantial impact in lives of others.

basically, you can lend any amount of money (from $25) you want to a variety of causes, and the idea is that they will repay you once their business gets off the ground.

anyway, there is very little risk in doing this--the idea is that you get paid back. and meanwhile, instead of sitting in a bank, your money makes a huge impact in someone's life, as well as empowers them to help themselves.

the rambam says that the highest level of tzedaka is to help someone be mefarnes him/herself. kiva gives a safe and easy way to do this.

i urge you to join kiva.org and make a loan. and definitely join team chessed's team.

oakwood cemetery--today and into the future

we went with a group of eleven uchicago students and six (?) 12-14 year olds from hebrew school to clean up oakwood cemetery today. we got some really great work done, but we also realized how easy it is to go there and keep doing work there pretty much anytime. the cemetery is beautiful and absolutely rich with so many different threads of history. it is a pleasant walk from campus in the springtime, and i would highly encourage people to put together groups and continue going at other times. if anyone would like more info on what doing this would entail (it's pretty simple--it's intuitive once you get there) or how to get there or anything else, PLEASE do not hesitate to email me. and check out the pics on facebook. it's worth taking the walk over there just to see it alone.

thanks to everyone who came today. i hope you all drank lots of water when you got back.

Oakwoods Cemetery--CANCELLED AND (hopefully) RESCHEDULED

thanks so much for all your hardwork. due to torrential downpours yesterday and what looks like lots more rain today, we have to cancel today's trip to clean up the cemetery.
HOPEFULLY (i have to just talk to the person responsible for the jewish part of the cemetery), we will go next sunday instead.
just keep in touch about timing, etc.
hopefully, we'll be able to do this.
tizku le'mitzvot.

commemorate earth week

UChicago is putting together the following event:

Oikos Interfaith Lakefront Clean-up Service Project
Co-sponsored by Rockefeller Chapel

Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 pm

Join us as we close out Earthweek with an
environmental clean-up project which will bring
together people of different faiths in service to the Earth.

Please meet us at Rockefeller Chapel (in the lobby at the south
end of the Chapel) at 2pm to participate in a local Lakefront clean-up.
Afterward, we will return to the Fellowship Room, lower level of
Rockefeller Chapel, for refreshments and an interfaith discussion on our
faith and environmental action. Please RSVP to Laura at
marie1@uchicago.edu or 702-7111 if you plan to participate.

team for cemetery clean up on sunday

we can go team up with bnai mitzvah from anshe shalom to clean up the cemetery THIS sunday (april 26). it would be a great time to go for a few reasons:
1. we want to do it and so we should soon
2. the anshe shalom group will have tools and ideas of how to do this, so it's wise to team up with them
3. serving as role models for 12-13 year olds is a really great thing to do

if people can make time this sunday, please please let me know so we can organize a ride and that sort of situation.

updates and ideas

it's been awhile, so i figured we should recap and update some happenings.

*we're still up for a trip to clean up the jewish cemetery on the south side. i am working to see if we can get some of our friends from surrounding communities to team up with us. it might only be able to be for a couple of weeks, but, even so, that could be really wonderful. any effort we put in means that much more has been done towards kavod ha'met. and also, this is likely the type of thing that, once the ball gets rolling, it may continue to roll much more easily.

*our first pairing up with an elderly person in hyde park is getting going. if more people are interested in this, i bet we can find some more people for them to spend time visiting, so just be in touch if that's something you would want to do.

*would people be interested in another clothing drive at the end of the quarter for when people are packing up to go home or to move? if so, that would be supremely easy to pull together. it can also be very short--we can do it for just finals week or something and then drive the stuff up to the ark or wherever else the donaters want to give to. so, again, if so, just be in touch about that.

what else? what other ideas of good stuff do people have for the next 8 weeks?