Social Action

Riverdale Temple’s Social Action Committee works with the entire congregation to help those in need throughout our community and the neighboring region.

This is a passionate — and compassionate — committee, and one of the Congregation’s most important groups dedicated to tikkun olam. We are involved in a number of community outreach efforts, such as:

• Grocery Collections: The Social Action Committee spearheads ongoing grocery collections for the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill Food & Hunger Project, including a special Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur food drive.
• Clothing Drives: The Committee also works with the entire congregation to donate new pajamas and books for the Pajama Program and gently used coats for NYCares with the 50th precinct.
• Mitzvah Day: The Social Action Committee helps to organize an annual Mitzvah Day (Day of Community Service) which focuses on projects within and outside the Temple to serve others in the larger community. It is a major event in which all congregants, as well as their neighbors and friends, are encouraged to participate.
• Activities include a clothing drive, making bagged lunches for a Bronx soup kitchen (POTS), preparing men’s grooming kits for the homeless for the Midnight Run, knitting for Warm-up America. The Temple also connects with gardening projects through Riverdale Community Association’s Endor Garden, which has a 9/11 memorial, and other local organizations, such as Wave Hill and Van Cortlandt Park.
• Wellness Outreach: Our volunteers also give time to seniors at the Atria Hospice and the Schervier (Bon Secours) Center, through visits, bringing small flowers/plants, playing games, reading and talking together. Outreach over the years has included service to the Ittleson Center for children and teens, and the Riverdale YM/YWHA.

Everyone is invited, and encouraged, to be part of the Social Action Committee — no matter how much time you have — for our wide range of activities. The Committee can arrange for service credit for students as well.

For more information, please contact the Temple office at (718) 548-3800, ext. 1 or email Committee Co-Chairs: Jeff Sklar and Jennifer Sklar at jeffleesklar@gmail.com.

Please make donating food part of your Shabbat tradition. Food donations should be left outside the front doors of the temple.