By Win Loria
At our High Holiday services, Or Amians donated over a thousand pounds of non-perishable food items to FeedMore. These will go to local food pantries, reducing food insecurity across metro Richmond.
The High Holidays are a time to publicize ongoing and new social action activities at Congregation Or Ami.
We begin with house meetings for Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities (RISC) where we reflect on issues of concern and our personal stakes in social justice.
Then we join with the other 20 area RISC congregations to hone the issues we will focus on in the coming year.
Congregants participate in RISC study groups, attend policy meetings, and gather in a large assembly at the end of the year to ask people in power to consider a more just way to deal with community problems.
Volunteers are recruited to continue our once-a-month homeless meal effort at the HomeAgain men’s shelter. Lots of shopping, prepping and coordination serves thirty men on the first Monday of every month.
We are starting the new year with two community projects. Or Ami has formed a team to participate in the Richmond Crop Walk on Nov. 12, raising money in support of clean water and agriculture in third-world countries.
Twenty-five percent of the monies raised stay in Richmond to bolster the work of Shalom Farms and the Peter Paul Development Center.
Congregants will take tools in hand to help clear overgrown grave sites at the Historic Woodland Cemetery on Nov. 18.
Other events in the future are visits to the Moton Museum in Farmville, a Habitat for Humanity build and a legislative advocacy with the Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
For more information feel free to contact Social_Action@Or-Ami.com.Social_Action@Or-Ami.com
Regular Shabbat Services are held in-person and online Friday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30. Torah Study is held virtually most Saturdays, from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Contact our office for a link if you wish to attend.
For more information on any of our programs or to obtain links to Zoom events, please get in touch with our office at (804) 272-0017 or office@or-ami.com.
Would you like to know more? Contact us at Belong@Or-Ami.com or check us out at www.Or-Ami.com. You can follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OrAmi-Richmond. All inquiries are always welcome.
