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On Sunday, January 7, 35 Greater MetroWest volunteers braved the freezing cold temperatures to visit Newark’s oldest operating synagogue, Ahavas Shalom, and helped transform the common area into a warm and welcoming space for the current synagogue community and local Newark residents.
Volunteers learned about its history from Ilyse Shainbrown, Federation’s Gottesman Fellow: Jewish Cultural and Educational Liaison to Newark, and heard about the synagogue today from President Eric Freedman. Teen and adult volunteers built bookshelves, hung historical documents and art, catalogued books, and made 100 lunches to be distributed to Newark residents in need by the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy Homelessness Awareness Club.
This Volunteer Boot Camp experience was the first in a three-part series called Winter Volunteer Boot Camp which is run by the Center for Volunteerism. The Center for Volunteerism’s mission is to provide members of our Greater MetroWest with hands-on experiences that are meaningful both to the participants and to the beneficiary of the efforts. Future projects include working side by side with WAE Center participants and making chocolate creations and cards for Jewish Relief Agency recipients. For more information contact Andrea Bergman at abergman@jfedgmw.org or (973) 929-3128.