Priorities

Thanks to Mikaela for filling in for Jack and leading tefillah today; she was the first student to lead from the bimah, and handled it with confidence.

After tefillah, we discussed a quote from sefer hasidim:

If a community lacks a synagogue and a shelter for the poor, it is first obligated to build a shelter for the poor.

We talked about how many different parts of a community can either lead to, or help prevent, poverty. The students drew connections between such elements as education, employment, shelter, nutrition, child care, and health care, and how a defecit in only one area can lead to problems in many other areas.

We spent the last half hour with Pam Schwartz, Isaiah's mom, who spoke about the work of the National Priorities Project. She led the students through a fascinating activity in which they considered how to allocate one tax dollar. Afterwards, students compared their distribution with that of the federal government. What a shame that there were only 4 students present for this wonderful presentation!

Morah Amy