The Social Concerns Committee sponsors a variety of activities through the year designed to both raise awareness of issues of social concern in the SAJ community, and to do what we can to alleviate these issues.

The committee sponsors an annual Kiddush luncheon that focuses on a particular issue and initiative. Initiatives have included collections for Katrina victims, annual winter coat drives (in conjunction with New York Cares), and Yom Kippur food pantry drives.

Maimonides Fund for Microcredit

At its 2007 luncheon, the committee launched the SAJ Maimonides Fund for Microcredit.

The guest speaker — Amanda Joseph, director of the Tzedec Fund, the Jewish Partnership for Community Investing, a project of the Jewish Funds for Justice — gave a talk entitled “The Power of Small Loans in Low-Income Communities.” The SAJ Maimonides Fund for Microcredit will raise funds to be loaned for socially beneficial projects in selected communities through the Tzedec Fund. As of February, the Fund had raised over $12,000.

In launching this fund and lending money through the TZEDEC Fund, The SAJ will become the first synagogue in New York and the first in the Reconstructionist movement to offer congregants the opportunity to participate directly in a microcredit program. Our dollars will provide small loans to individuals to enable them to start or expand a small self-sustaining business. We have selected the victims of the Hurricane Katrina region to be the recipients of these loan monies. For more information, please contact the SAJ.