Tikkun olam

Walnut Street Minyan members are strongly committed to making the world a better place. Helping others is one of our core values. As a community, we maintain a Tzedakah Fund from which we donate regularly to local, national, and international organizations fighting chronic problems such as poverty, disease, injustice, and climate change. Minyan members are invited to suggest specific charities to support before the Tzedakah Committee makes its allocations. The fund also allows us to respond swiftly to disasters—natural and manmade—as they occur. The Minyan holds an annual fund drive for Yad Chessed on Purim and for Israeli charities in the weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av. In December we provide gifts to a local homeless shelter.

Like other area congregations, we support Jewish Family & Children’s Service’s Family Table program with both funds and volunteer drivers. We are also members of the interfaith Newton-Brookline Asylum Refugee Coalition, providing hands-on assistance to refugees and asylum seekers newly arrived in the Boston area.

In addition to these collective actions, Minyan members contribute their time and energy individually in a multitude of ways—tutoring disadvantaged students, participating in state foster care reviews, driving food to local food pantries, promoting criminal justice reform initiatives, and much more.