Tzedek Project Kickoff-The Seventh Grade Retreat 

The Seventh Grade Retreat is a kickoff to our Tzedek Project. The students began the day diving deep into an ancient Jewish text that provides guidance on how to prioritize our giving. Students wrestled with the questions of – is it more important to give locally or globally? Is it more important to help with short-term solutions or long-term solutions?

Then we were off to the Tenderloin to meet with Rabbi Lezak of Glide. We studied text together, examining the phrase “there are two cities of Jerusalem, a heavenly one and an earthly one, which are bound together”. Then we thought about what the difference would be between a heavenly San Francisco and an earthly San Francisco and how they are bound together. 

Half of the grade met Del Seymour, the head of the homeless task force for San Francisco, who had experienced eighteen years of homelessness and has now opened three different non-profit organizations (Swords to Plowshares, Code Tenderloin and The Tenderloin Walking Tour). On the Tenderloin Walking Tour, we had the opportunity to see all of the resources that exist for people who are experiencing homelessness. The seventh graders will have the opportunity in March to decide which local non-profit organization (NPO) they wish to advocate for and further research. Therefore, it was eye opening for them to see a handful of NPOs in action. The other half of the grade stayed at Glide to serve lunch. Glide’s mission of building empathy, transforming lives, and being radically inclusive finds its core expression in their Daily Free Meals program. Food insecurity affects one in four San Franciscans and Glide’s free meals program serves approximately 2,000 meals a day and relies entirely on the generosity of volunteers. 

We returned to Brandeis to take part in an “NPO Design Thinking Challenge”. After learning about a multitude of NPOs, their mission was to create the perfect non-profit organization, thinking about its main goal, who or what it would serve, and where it would be located. Students broke up into pairs interviewing one another about what non-profit they would like to create. Then they went about designing the non-profit for their partner through the design thinking process (understanding the problem their peer wishes to solve, stating the need the non-profit wished to meet through the eyes of its beneficiaries, ideating how to bring the NPO to life through programming and resources, and then presenting back to their partner writing down their feedback).

We had a fun evening with a Derby night and ice cream bar before spending the night at school. On Friday students returned to the Tenderloin to participate in whichever program they didn’t participate in the day prior. In reflecting on the power of our two day retreat, one student said "it helped put my life in perspective and made me realize I have a responsibility to help others”. Another student said "really meeting people who are experiencing homelessness and poverty helped me connect with them and made me want to help more".