Temples teaming up for Mitzvah Day

Two East Meadow temples are teaming up to create positive change in the community this weekend — and they invite all residents to join their cause.

Temple Emanu-El, at 123 Merrick Ave. will host Mitzvah Day — a volunteer event at which congregants and community members of all ages participate in a myriad of activities to help people living under trying circumstances — on Sunday. This year, the Community Reform Temple of Westbury, largely comprised of congregants residing in the East Meadow School District, will get involved, sending Sunday school children and adult volunteers to pack food, create blankets and more for needy people.

Sara Diamond, a vice president of the synagogue’s executive board and chairwoman of the social action committee, said the group took up this community service initiative three years ago after hearing about Mitzvah Day events at temples in neighboring communities. Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum explained that the technical definition of the word mitzvah is commandment.

“All of those things god tells us to do in scripture and in the Torah are mitzvahs,” he said. “In American Jewish English, the word has taken on a slightly different meaning: doing a good deed, showing love and kindness. So it’s kind of combination of the two — we are commanded to make the world a better place."

That’s why Diamond and the committee organized a day of service on Sunday, which begins at the temple at 9 a.m. with a bagel breakfast. Anyone is welcome to attend and volunteer alongside Hofstra University Hillel members at a car wash fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House; create no-sew fleece blankets for the Bethany House in Roosevelt; plant and decorate flower pots to be delivered to seniors residing in the Fulton Commons Care Center and the Bristal Assisted Living At East Meadow; package cookies for and write thank you notes to local firefighters; pack food that was collected for Island Harvest; create snack packs for locals who come to the Mary Brennan INN Soup Kitchen in Hempstead to take home with them; donate blood; and write letters to political officials about a myriad of social issues at the new “advocacy station.” 

“It’s almost like one-stop shopping,” Diamond said of the temple activities. “We’re trying to make it easy for you to participate…maybe you’ll catch the bug and want to do it again and more often.”