Jewish teens give back to community during J-Serve

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Gabby Cantor helps to clean the playground at Cook Park during the J-Serve, International Day of Service for Jewish Teens.

Over 130 Jewish teens from Denver, Boulder and Ft. Collins met at the Denver Jewish Day School to prepare for J-Serve, the International Day of Service for Jewish Teens in April. The teens boarded busses and went out into the community to share in the spirit of tikkun olam, repairing the world, and tzedakah, charitable giving.

Teens participated in a wide variety of service projects impacting the Denver community including cleaning up Cook Park, assembling 500 emergency preparedness kits for elderly and underserved communities and making lunches for the homeless. “It was great to see Jewish teens from across Colorado come together to serve our community. I was impressed by the hard work and selflessness of the teens and honored that I got to be part of this incredible day!” said Nikki Roth, Director of BBYO Rocky Mountain Region, one of the main J-Serve sponsors. Two groups focused on helping the sick by making handmade cards for children in hospitals and baking cookies for the residents of the Ronald McDonald House.

Prior to going to their service sites, the J-Serve Teen Planning Committee led each service group in an activity. “We worked hard to create activities and projects that would be meaningful for everyone,” said Margalit Goldberg, one of the Committee members. Goldberg and fellow committee members Sydney Beckett, Sophie Cardin, Rafe Erdley, and Sarah Pomeranz met for 6 months to plan J-Serve.

J-Serve is a community wide program for Jewish teens in 6th-12th grade. J-Serve is supported by jHub, an association of over 20 Jewish teen serving organizations. jHub’s mission is to connect Colorado’s Jewish teens to each other and to community programs. jHub has an e-newsletter for teens and families and will soon have a searchable website. To learn more about jHub or to volunteer for planning next year’s J-Serve, contact Karen Silverman at 303-951-8492 or go to www.jhubco.org

 

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