Social Action
The Social Action Committee offers opportunities for Beth Am members to practice tikkun olam (healing, repairing the world) at varying levels of intensity, from once-a-year Mitzvah Days to monthly neighborhood meetings and regular tutoring.
The main focus of our activities is the diverse and historic Reservoir Hill neighborhood immediately surrounding the synagogue. As members of an urban congregation whose building has been an important part of the neighborhood for more than 80 years, the Social Action Committee acts as an outreach arm of Beth Am. We believe the well-being of Reservoir Hill and the well-being of Beth Am Synagogue are closely connected.
Since the early 1990s, the Social Action Committee has helped the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council offer entrepreneurship training, obtain grant support for a community organizer, and beautify the neighborhood with colorful flags and flowers. Social Action members read to and tutor children at the local public elementary school. We have celebrated the deep past, at Interfaith Seders that draw on Jewish and African-American culture, history and music. We have explored the neighborhood’s 20th century history at a gathering of former and current Reservoir Hill residents. Residents of the blocks closest to the synagogue joined Social Action members to create a new organization, the Lakeside Neighbors Coalition. In collaboration with the Improvement Council and city government, Lakeside Neighbors has played a vital part in the revitalization of northern Reservoir Hill, including by helping to purchase, rehab and resell abandoned homes to homeowners. Rabbi Emeritis Jon Konheim and his wife Rena renovated a house in this area and moved into it in December 2004, followed by several additional Beth Am households. Our new Rabbi, Daniel Cotzin Burg and his family moved into the community in the summer of 2010.
In addition to our work in Reservoir Hill, Social Action members also help the disadvantaged throughout Baltimore. Members volunteer in the city’s largest soup kitchen, Our Daily Bread, and collect clothing and food from synagogue members. A Social Action member organized the collection of used bicycles for Pedals for Progress, which repairs the bikes and sends them to residents of developing nations who need better transportation to work and school. Volunteers read to kindergarten students and teach chess at the neighborhood John Eager Howard Elementary School.
The Social Action Committee also leads Beth Am’s environmental education and action. Beth Am has joined the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network’s Green Synagogue Covenant of Commitment. Social Action members regularly participate in clean-ups and greening projects in Reservoir Hill. And the Committee has joined with Adult Education to sponsor the Shomrei Adamah (Guardians of the Earth) series of Jewish environmental education programs, highlighting everything from green building to sustainable personal behavior and Jewish, environmentally-friendly cooking.