Tsedakah at KAM Isaiah Israel is about acting as a community in our larger community; it’s about acting together to make a difference in the world and it’s about our temple being known as a compassionate community that is interested in social justice. Your tsedakah is what makes all this possible.

We offer a variety of ways you can make your contributions. You can:

• Put money in our beautiful tsedakah box whenever you are at the synagogue and are moved to do so.  
• Put money in your little tsedakah box at home and bring it to the box at the synagogue. We will honor the mitzvah of giving and have special collections at Chanukah and Purim and other holidays. But don’t wait for the holidays - the boxes can be emptied into the tsedakah box at the synagogue anytime. Boxes will be handed at during the High Holidays, but can be obtained at any time from the office.
• Send us a check (payable to KAMII Tsedakah Fund).
• Make a pledge that can be paid for with your credit card at whatever interval you designate: monthly, semi-annually, annually ($50 minimum).
• Add a tsedakah donation to your dues payment simply by adding a note to your check or payment.

The Tsedakah Committee is enthusiastic about the wonderful and varied organizations to which we were able to make substantial contributions in 5766. We gave a $360 - $500 grant to each of the following organizations/programs:

• South Suburban PADS, an interfaith program that provides food, shelter, and supportive serves to homeless people in the South Suburbs.
• Keshet, a unique organization based in Northbrook that provides educational, recreational, religious, and vocational programs for Jewish children and young adults in the Chicago area with special needs.
• Vision House, an organization that provides permanent housing in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood for low income and homeless HIV/AIDS affected individuals and their families through a partnership between Interfaith Housing Development Corp., Liberty Baptist Church, and Cook County Hospital HIV Primary Care Center.
• Hyde Park Transitional Housing Project, a program of the Hyde Park cluster of Interfaith Open Communities, which provides housing and a stable, supportive environment for up to two years for homeless families who are working on improving or developing the skills necessary to live independently.
• SOS (Support Our Synagogues) New Orleans, an effort of the Union for Reform Judaism to support the four Reform synagogues in the Greater New Orleans area for the next six months.
• Access Community Health Network provides primary and specialty care to uninsured and underinsured residents on the near west and south sides.  The grant will provide prenatal health care books to women served at the Ashland, Booker, and Brandon health centers.
• AIKI Extensions: Mideast Aikido Project promotes community-building among Jews and Arabs in Israel and Palestine through regular practice of aikido, the martial art of peace. 
• Blue Gargoyle provides assistance to the Youth Tutoring Program which provides youth development, academic assistance, and cross-cultural programming to youth ages 7-18 years. 
• Broadtree Adventures in Education helps Chicago-area at-risk youth to create positive change in their lives, communities, and world by challenging participants to rise above their limits in outdoor adventures and in group-selected social change projects.   
• Darfur Action Campaign/American Jewish World Service has been providing humanitarian aid to many of the displaced and traumatized people who have been violently forced from their homes and are now living in camps in Sudan and Chad.  The grant was given to Ruth Messinger on the occasion of her participation in our Shabbat Service on June 16. 
• Literacy Works serves high need Chicago communities on the south/west/north sides.  It is a collaboration of 47 literacy programs across Chicago and also directly serves over 75 adult and teen learners through intensive writing workshops and parent education classes and workshops to assist parents in supporting their children’s early learning and literacy skills. 
• Maria Shelter is a homeless shelter and job training program for women and their children. It helps women to apply for social services and to engage in group/recovery/mental health/health care services.  The grant will help to replace the washer and dryer for the institution which has 50 beds. 
• VOR: Voice for the Retarded advocates for high quality services and supports for the retarded across the spectrum of need, from own home, other community-based supports, and facility-based care.  

We welcome your submission of a grant request.  Please click here for the tsedakah grant application, complete it, and send it to KAMII Tsedakah Committee.