Volunteering & Tikkun Olam
Our Broader Community
Temple Sinai has vibrant lay-led groups that offer daytime and evening programming and opportunities to do social justice projects and acts of kindness. For every age and stage, our tikkun olam projects range from local initiatives, including clothing and food drives, preparing and delivering meals to the homeless, providing much needed toiletries to shelters or warm clothing to those in need, to international projects that include working with the Reform community in Israel to construct a preschool, knitting hats and scarves for the Israel Defense Forces, and even giving sight to those who cannot afford glasses.
Explore our Volunteer Initiatives
Thank you for your interest. If you would like more information about these initiatives, please fill out the Volunteer Intake Form to the right and specify which opportunity you would like to pursue.
We are collecting toiletries to donate to Eva’s Place, a Toronto youth shelter. The shelter is looking for travel/hotel-sized toiletries as well as full-sized items. Please consider donating unopened shampoo, lotion, soap, deodorant, sunscreen, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, disposable razors, shaving cream, and Q-Tips.
Help us to help the youth and bring the extra supply from your vacation back to Toronto, purchase some of the items with your Shopper’s points, golf tournament giveaways, etc. Take a few minutes and drop your items off at Temple, Eva’s Place youth will be happy that you did.
Temple Sinai’s Social Action Committee has worked with Flemington Public School for almost ten years. This is a school that is located in an area surrounded by social housing. Temple Sinai assisted the school in setting up a breakfast program open to all students in the school. With the assistance of Temple Sinai (Brotherhood, Women of Temple Sinai and SAC), The Investor’s Group and government support, Flemington has created a very successful breakfast program feeding as many as 100 children each morning.
The children are served a hot breakfast five days a week. The menu varies but includes foods like pancakes, eggs, French toast, yogurt, fresh fruit and juice. Temple members also donate cereal with at least two grams of fibre to help supplement the menu.
Temple Sinai congregants volunteer when they can to help serve the breakfast. In addition, the school hires people from the community to help in the preparation and serving of the breakfast.
This program allows children attending Flemington Public School to be well nourished and ready to learn.
To further social action in our community, we offer the ease and convenience of having a food bin in the foyer at Temple Sinai. This has been a tradition at Temple for many years. Social Action Committee members deliver the food in the bin to our community food banks, both kosher and non-kosher, as well as to a community youth shelter. Feel free to donate all sorts of non-perishable food items. They need to be current (don’t empty 10-year-old food from the cupboard).
Our Holy Day Rides service arranges for rides to synagogue services during Shabbat or the High Holy Days for those who may not be able to get to synagogue any other way.
MAZON Canada is the national Jewish Response to Hunger. MAZON Canada raises funds primarily from within the Jewish community and distributes those funds, on a non-denominational basis, to Canadian organizations battling hunger on the front lines. Based on the tradition of “tikkun olam” (healing the world), MAZON Canada strives to link public awareness about the issue of poverty and hunger with the mitzvah (obligation) of tzedakah (justice/charity).
Mazon tzedakah tins will be placed on most every table at Temple where food is served, except on Shabbat. The gift shop has a tin that is always available on Sundays. Please give freely, knowing that together we can make an impact and help those in need. The monies collected are tallied and a cheque is sent to Mazon Canada from you, the membership at Temple Sinai Congregation. Be a part of something meaningful!
A weekly contribution, easily built into your family’s routine, can be the start of a tradition that you nurture in your family. Let this be the start of something great!
Temple Sinai’s Mi Shebeirach list helps us to reach out to and connect with members who are not well. If you have a family member or know of fellow congregants who may benefit from this service, please call the Temple Office to have their name placed on the list. Please provide the name of the person and the nature of their ailment. We also ask that you contact the Temple Office to remove those people who have been on the list and are now well.
MJRH is a program for the homeless founded by Ve’ahavta (a Canadian humanitarian and relief organization). MJRH is a program where a van with one Ve’ahavta staff member and three volunteers, provides food, clothing, other essentials and, importantly, conversation to a population of people in our community that is very often isolated.
We invite our membership to volunteer for this unique hands-on opportunity to provide nourishment to those without homes.
Shabbat Shalom! Two simple words with such great impact!
Synagogue life is all about spreading cheer and connecting with one another as family.
We’re looking for a few caring members to make weekly Shabbat Shalom calls to some of our more senior members. It’s a double mitzvah — for the recipient and the volunteer!
The role of the service leader at a shivah minyan is to create a space for the mourner to grieve, and to honor the person who has passed away with the community that is gathered together. If you would like to help our members in their time of mourning, please contact the Temple Office.
Jewish tradition dictates that the body of the deceased not be left alone before burial, but many deaths occur where there are few family members available or the family is physically or emotionally unable to carry out the tradition before the Jewish funeral home gets there. The mitzvah of sh’mirah helps to meet the emotional needs of the family of the deceased at a very difficult time. During this time the shomer(et) may read Psalms in English or Hebrew, or simply sit silently at the entrance to the room. If you are willing and able to help with this mitzvah or require help with sh’mirah, please contact the Temple Office.
Questions? We would love to hear from you!
