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April 16, 2004/Nisan 25 5764, Vol. 56, No. 30
Read all about it
FLORENCE ECKSTEIN
Publisher
A reliable source has leaked word that an Arizona Jewish community's award-winning project is the cover story in USA WEEKEND magazine in this Sunday's Arizona Republic.
The Tucson Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has won $10,000 for making a difference in the lives of 16 elderly Tucson families.
Following nine months of planning its Make a Difference Day program, the JCRC, in partnership with the Pima Council on Aging and the Tucson Police Department, sent 500 volunteers into the homes of these citizens on Oct. 26, to remodel bathrooms, remove fire hazards, install security systems and do yard work and general maintenance.
Marlyne Freedman, a com-munity visionary, provided professional direction. Freed-man, former executive director at Temple Chai in Phoenix, moved to Tucson two years ago to be near family and run the JCRC there. She is now associate Vice President of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
In holding its major tikkun olam project on the same weekend as USA WEEKEND's annual Make a Difference Day, the Tucson Jewish community joined 3 million Americans doing thousands of projects in hundreds of cities and towns.
(The JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix on Nov. 18 dispatched 1,240 Mitzvah Day volunteers to do 40 community service projects ranging from cleaning hiking trails to wrapping gifts for children in crisis centers.)
The Tucson JCRC volunteers decided on a whim to enter their project for national Make a Difference Day recognition. Recently they learned it was one of 10 selected. The monetary award comes from Paul Newman, who donates all after-tax profits of his company, Newman's Own, to charity and education.
Not content to rest on its laurels, the Tucson JCRC in March successfully lobbied the national Jewish Council for Public Affairs to adopt a detailed resolution on immigration.
It followed that up by co-hosting a multi-faith conference in Tucson on border issues. Participants addressed re-evaluating current border strategy; the status of undocumented persons living in the United States; family unity and reunifi-cation; employment-focused immigration; and environ-mental, economic and trade inequities.
"Some of us have been to Altar, Mexico, and listened to (the migrants') stories. ... We can't sit by and watch people die in the desert," conference attendee and JCRC leader Donna Beyer told the Arizona Jewish Post.
In addition to the JCRC, organizers of the Tucson immigration forum included rabbis, the Catholic Diocese of Tucson and a Presbyterian minister. Some of these good people plan to be in Phoenix next week, to voice their concerns to state legislators.
There they go again, our neighbors to the south, making a difference.
And so can we. Our next Mitzvah Day is Sunday, Dec. 5.
But why wait?
Contact the writer at flo_eckstein@jewishaz.com.
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