May 2025

Help the Racial Justice Initiative provide food for students from the William Monroe Trotter School during the summer. Order from the Amazon Wishlist, contribute to the RJI Fund, or bring items to TBE yourself!

Learn more

Thank you for your continued support of Family Table. As a community, each month we are responsible for supplying 50 cans of salmon and 50 boxes of whole grain cereal for families in need. Additionally, check out JF&CS's Amazon Wishlist to further support them. Thank you for bringing contributions when you come to TBE. There are also opportunities to volunteer; contact Jenny Rosenthal for more information.

Are you going to the May Day National Day of Action Rally in Wellesley? Contact Michael Gilman so you can rally for democracy with other TBE members!

Join the TBE-Partakers College Behind Bars Mentor Program to support incarcerated students earning degrees. Transform lives through mentorship—starting September 2025!

Register | Learn more about Partakers on the TBE blog

Over the next two months, we have the opportunity to vote and advocate for our values in Israel. We strongly encourage you to participate in these elections—your voice matters! Rabbis Sisenwine, Callman, and Sherman, as well as community member Rabbi Bob Orkand, are proud to be representatives on the Vote Reform slate.

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TBE Table prepares and provides 700-800 meals monthly for our community partners. Volunteering with TBE Table provides an opportunity for tikkun olam (repairing the world) as well as an opportunity to work alongside and get to know fellow congregants. Join us for a session to shop, prep, cook, pack or deliver meals to our partner organizations.

Express interest

Join TBE's Immigration Justice Group for a "Know Your Rights" training by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA). All are welcome - You do not need to be currently engaged in actively working with immigrants to attend this session.

Contact Michael Gilman for the Zoom link

Help fight hunger in MA! Join us to build food packages at one of New England's largest food banks, making a real difference in your community.

Learn more & register

Join TBE’s Ending Hunger Initiative, a congregant-led effort to combat food insecurity through education, advocacy, and direct service. Help raise awareness and take action to end hunger in Massachusetts.

Learn more & register

We invite you to join us as we strengthen our social justice work, deepen relationships, and strategize for meaningful action.

Register

The American Red Cross has a constant and ongoing need for blood donations. Please schedule your next donation appointment now to help prevent another blood shortage. Volunteers are also needed to help on-site at TBE during the Red Cross Blood Drives. TBE holds five drives each year, on Thursdays. For more information, contact Wendy Paul.  

Learn more & register

Nourish your body and soul with an incredible weekend of hands-on learning for the whole TBE community as we lead up to Shavuot, holiday of bread and torah. Led by Rabbis Linda Motzkin (“Torah”) and Jonathan Rubenstein (“Bread”) we will experience the intersections of challah and spirituality, Torah and art, and how they all come together in our communal celebration of Shavuot. As we prepare to receive Torah anew, we have the opportunity to reflect on how the nourishment we create and share can sustain not just ourselves, but our broader community in the ongoing work repairing the world.

The Racial Justice Initiative is sponsoring a docent-led tour of the MFA exhibit "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson." Born in Roxbury, Wilson's work spanned 60 years and continues to resonate with the persistent realities of disenfranchisement, racial prejudice, and social injustice.

Learn more & register

Celebrate 9 years of addressing racism’s impact on ourselves and society and honor TBE’s commitment and exceptional volunteers receiving Tzedek Champion Awards!

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This Friday night, during Shabbat services, we will hear from congregants Guy Ronen and Michael Appell, who will be sharing their Torah and LGBTQ journey.

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By drawing upon our resources for empathy and Jewish values, you'll leave this session better equipped to care for your LGBTQ+ friends and family, and, if you're a member of the LGBTQ+ community, better equipped to ask for and receive what you need to feel supported.

Learn more & register

Join our temple community and Keshet as we come together in joy and solidarity at this year's Pride Parade. Walking together on Shabbat is a beautiful way to honor the holiness of every person and affirm our commitment to justice and inclusion.

RSVP to Mira Warmflash

Save the date and mark your calendars! We will be honoring pride month with a Shabbat sermon, oneg, and advocacy.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn about potential campaign options and help shape the direction of RAC-MA’s advocacy for the next two years. Your voice matters as we work together to address the most urgent issues facing Massachusetts.

Register for 12:30 pm session | Register for 7:00 pm session

Thank you to all the congregants who contributed to TBE Congregants for Reproductive Justice's Chavilot Tipol collection. Because of this generosity, we were once again able to create 150 post-abortion care kits for the patients of HealthQ Lawrence. We are especially grateful to the Sisterhood, who collected donations at their Passover Seder, and to the Havayah teens (pictured) who worked hard to assemble the kits. This joint effort is a meaningful way to show our support for HeathQ’s patients, healthcare providers and advocates for reproductive justice.

Leave your lawn undisturbed through the month of May to help bees and other pollinators that lack abundant food sources this time of year.

Learn more

TBE is launching Circles of Connection: a new pilot initiative for the Boston Jewish community that is building our communal capacity to care for and support one another during this time of increasing trauma, stress, polarization, and rising antisemitism.

Join us in person | Join us online | For parents of school-aged children

The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, a longstanding partner in many of TBE's Tikkun Olam efforts, has prepared an open letter which members of the Jewish community can co-sign to call further attention to recent actions taken by the Federal government.

Read the full letter and sign

Abdulkader Hayani, the father of the first refugee family that TBE helped resettle, has opened his own Tailor shop in Natick. Drawing on his experience as a tailor in Syria, he worked for Jos. A. Bank for 7 years. Today, he is proudly pursuing the American dream.

Learn More | Visit his website

TBE members have joined with members from Temple Isaiah, Lexington MA, and Temple Aliyah, Needham MA, to build a new cohort of community organizers to partner with the MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence to protect the historic omnibus gun legislation passed in August 2024.

Read on the TBE Blog | Join this initiative

Ediss Gandelman shares how the grand opening of Brie’s Way, a new Justice 4 Housing program, expands J4H’s capacity to empower survivors of incarceration through educational services focused on technology and entrepreneurship.

Read on the TBE Blog

Marcy and Marvin Davidson answer the question "What does freedom look like?" by reflecting on their experience at the Partakers College Behind Bars program's first-of-its-kind celebratory event at MCI Norfolk prison.

Read on the TBE Blog | Join the Partakers Info Session

TBE members recently attended the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP), which supplies nearly one-third of the food that The Food Bank Coalition of Massachusetts purchases and distributes at no cost.

Read on the TBE Blog | Join the initiative meeting

The Tzedakah Box located outside the sanctuary collects funds that are allocated to a different social justice cause each month.

During May, all donations to the Tzedakah Box will support our "Hunger Doesn't Take a Summer Vacation" drive, which provides food for students from the William Monroe Trotter School during the summer.