Repair the World to observe 'A Different Kind of Service'

Repair the World, the largest Jewish service organization, invited young adults to Act Now for a Different Kind of Service with the 2017 Jewish High Holidays chapter of its service and education campaign. Repair the World also announced that the year-long campaign, “Act Now,” will mobilize people to address immediate issues and engage in critical conversations at many other meaningful times throughout the Jewish year, including the upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving, MLK Day, and Purim, culminating with Passover in 2018.

“Jewish young adults today clamor more than ever for meaningful opportunities to meet urgent needs in their communities, especially at special times in the calendar when they feel called to act on their values,” said David Eisner, CEO of Repair the World. “Act Now will support these activists through providing opportunities to engage in meaningful service and community discussions, expressing our core Jewish values of striving for justice and the intrinsic value and dignity of every human life.”

Each element of Act Now will drive people to take action through service/volunteering, engaging in dialogue, skill building, and organizing their greater networks to get involved. Utilizing its highly collaborative model, Repair the World will work in partnership with local organizations around the country to help address pressing needs specific to each community, expanding the capacity of organizations and bringing a Jewish lens to the volunteering experience. Visit http://werepair.org/high-holidays/ to find or organize local service opportunities, as well as to pick up resources delving into the root causes of injustice, the guiding Jewish values, and discussion guides for tackling these difficult issues.

Repair the World also is releasing new materials, including: 

• Women Fighting for Sustainability—Learn from three powerful women organizing their communities around land ownership and food sustainability.

• Who Belongs in Places of Learning?—Is education available to everyone? Should it be? Dig into education justice as you prepare for your service

• Role of Love in Service—Add some love into your service experience.

Act Now (werepair.org/high-holidays) features a range of other guides and resources designed to help people take action, to facilitate challenging conversations, and to organize and participate in service opportunities around the country. Following the High Holidays, Act Now will continue to explore social justice through Thanksgiving, MLK Day, Purim, and Passover.

“Against an appalling drumbeat of tragedy and outrage, like we witnessed so recently in Charlottesville, young adults rightfully want to address the critical issues that threaten our communities,” adds Eisner. “For the next eight months, Act Now will offer a clarion call they can use to bring their friends, families and communities into making a difference through education, dialogue, and service.”

Holidays addressed for the first time in service campaigns by Repair the World this year are Thanksgiving—an opportunity to infuse a Jewish touch point into a secular holiday—and Purim, a holiday around which young adults have expressed increasing interest in engaging.

Act Now builds on Repair the World’s campaign last year urging participants to Act Now for Racial Justice, which engaged more than 14,000 participants in service experiences and/or peer-to-peer dinners and facilitated discussion.