Social Action
Tikkun Olam, Repairing the World
Our community at Burbank Temple Emanu El takes pride in the work we do to help others. We partner with Sova and BTAC for our annual holiday food drives. We regularly support our local community through blood and holiday toy drives. We are a supporting congregation of Jewish World Watch- an organization dedicated to helping end genocides around the world.
Our regular partnership with Family Promise of the Verdugos has been one we cherish greatly. Family Promise is an organization that helps provide food and shelter for newly displaced families who find themselves without a home. BTEE members volunteer to prepare and serve meals to these families.
Mitzvah Day
One of our most well-attended events is Mitzvah Day. Mitzvah Day is a day when the BTEE Family comes together and performs what some Mitzvah Mensches refer to as “Mitzvah Magic!”
It’s an event that takes on the spirit of Tikkun Olam (Our obligation to “Repair the World”). Toddlers to Seniors work side by side as they complete various projects to help the community. The magic starts months before the Actual Mitzvah Day (first Sunday in November) as members begin to collect items from our Mitzvah Day Shopping list. By Mitzvah Day, BTEE’s very own Mitzvah Train is full of abundant goods including: canned goods for SOVA and BTAC; school supplies to fill backpacks for the Boys & Girls Club, Toiletries and feminine hygiene products for the YWCA Domestic Women’s shelter, to name just a few.
The event closes with an exciting final count of our Tzedakah money, and a temple vote on where we want to give the proceeds to.
Outreach
At BTEE we run holiday food drives for the following organizations:
Burbank Temporary Aid Center (BTAC)- Founded in 1974, the Burbank Temporary Aid Center has been providing individuals and families, the working poor, crime victims, senior citizens, and people without housing with the short-term emergency assistance they need to live with dignity. This includes bus tokens, showers and laundry facilities, and a food pantry. BTAC is located at 1304 W Burbank Blvd. They accept drop off items weekday mornings by ringing the rear door bell.
Sova-Sova is the food pantry of the Jewish Family Service Agency of Los Angeles. They have 2 locations, in Van Nuys and on West Pico. They provide free groceries, personal care items, and connection to other community resources as needed. They also distribute books so we have a book drive for them on Mitzvah Day each November.
