the Morris Cafritz Center for Social Responsibility
The Edlavitch DCJCC’s Morris Cafritz Center for Social Responsibility (MCCSR) offers both hands-on volunteer opportunities as well as learning about systemic inequality in our communities. At the core of our work is Judaism’s sacred mandate to create justice and repair the world.
Our volunteer opportunities are designed to be family-friendly, flexible, and accessible whether you can commit one hour a month or a few hours a week. We offer our volunteers the opportunity to build lasting relationships with agencies and clients over the span of years, or volunteer once and try a different project the next time. Come by yourself, with a friend, or bring a group of colleagues!
In order to affect true change, we must also correct the systemic injustices prevalent in many sectors of our society, so come learn with us about the root causes of inequality and how to bring about change on a systemic level. We focus on topics including racial equity, affordable housing, food security, climate justice, immigration and refugees, and many other topics.
While we are neither a social service agency nor an advocacy organization, we hope to empower you and provide you with the tools to go out and make our city a more just, inclusive, and livable place for all.
Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities and Events
WHAT: Join the Edlavitch DCJCC for a second season of maintaining an urban garden for our friends at the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)! Our garden brings fresh herbs and vegetables to youth at the LAYC Drop-in Center throughout the summer.
You do not have to have any gardening experience – just the desire to get your hands in the dirt and help grow some plants! Come down at the end of a long day to relax, unwind, get closer to Mother Nature, and make some friends.
Children of all ages are welcome but must be supervised closely by an adult. Children over the age of 16 can attend on their own.
WHEN: Volunteer days will occur every other Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:00 PM starting with Wednesday, April 27. After you register, you will receive a google spreadsheet to choose which Wednesdays throughout the month/over the summer you would like to come garden with us.
WHERE: The LAYC Drop-in Center is located in Columbia Heights. The exact address will be provided upon registration.
REGISTRATION: We request a one-time $10 registration fee to help us cover the costs of supplies and plants for the garden. Please click on the “TICKETS” button to proceed to registration.
Questions? Email Sonya at sonyaw@edcjcc.org
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact sonyaw@edcjcc.org
What: Spring is a time of growth and rebirth, two themes that are integral to every immigrant’s story. Starting over requires courage, grit, and resilience. It can mean seeking out slices of home in your new city, or discovering entirely new passions to represent a new beginning. Join KAMA DC and the Edlavitch DCJCC to hear immigrants and refugees from across the DMV share their tales of reinvention and revival over drinks and dessert. Come to make friends and share community under the stars!
When: Thursday, May 26, 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Where: The Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s Parking Lot
COVID-19 Info: The event will be held outdoors, weather permitting. Currently, masks both outside and inside public spaces at the EDCJCC are optional but we encourage and embrace everyone to do what feels best and most safe for themselves and their families. If you need to enter the building to use the restroom or if the program is moved indoors, you must show proof of vaccination (for everyone over the age of 12).
Tickets: Tickets for this event are $5. Beer and wine will be available for sale at the event (cash and credit accepted).
Questions? Contact Sonya Weisburd at sonyaw@edcjcc.org
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact sonyaw@edcjcc.org
This program is brought to you by KAMA DC and the Edlavitch DCJCC’s EntryPointDC and Center for Social Responsibility.
Back by request from Community of Hope!
What: Finishing kindergarten, fifth grade, middle school, and especially high school are major moments in a young person’s life. Help us celebrate Community of Hope’s students who are reaching these milestones in 2022. Make cards that will go to families living in Community of Hope’s Permanent Supportive Housing program so we can honor and celebrate young graduates who have persevered through such a tough year. Cards should be colorful, creative, and filled with positive messages.
**Please register to receive exact instructions, including drop-off information, sample language and more!
We request you make a minimum of 4 cards (more is great!)
When: Cards must be dropped off at the JCC between May 31st and June 7th.
Registration: This activity is free but we request pre-registering so Community of Hope knows how many cards they will be receiving. When registering, please select the number of cards you want to make (or purchase).
Thank you in advance for helping us celebrate these wonderful graduates!
WHAT: Join the Edlavitch DCJCC for a second season of maintaining an urban garden for our friends at the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)! Our garden brings fresh herbs and vegetables to youth at the LAYC Drop-in Center throughout the summer.
You do not have to have any gardening experience – just the desire to get your hands in the dirt and help grow some plants! Come down at the end of a long day to relax, unwind, get closer to Mother Nature, and make some friends.
Children of all ages are welcome but must be supervised closely by an adult. Children over the age of 16 can attend on their own.
WHEN: Volunteer days will occur every other Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:00 PM starting with Wednesday, April 27. After you register, you will receive a google spreadsheet to choose which Wednesdays throughout the month/over the summer you would like to come garden with us.
WHERE: The LAYC Drop-in Center is located in Columbia Heights. The exact address will be provided upon registration.
REGISTRATION: We request a one-time $10 registration fee to help us cover the costs of supplies and plants for the garden. Please click on the “TICKETS” button to proceed to registration.
Questions? Email Sonya at sonyaw@edcjcc.org
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact sonyaw@edcjcc.org
Celebrate Pride Week by supporting the clients of Casa Ruby!
WHAT: Help us create sweet treats for the staff and clients at Casa Ruby. Pick your favorite cookie, bar, or sweet treat recipe and prepare it at home. Wrap them individually and deliver them to the EDCJCC. The treats will be delivered to Casa Ruby along with a full meal prepared at the JCC by volunteers.
More information, including baking guidelines will be provided with registration.
WHEN: Drop off all items at the Edlavitch DCJCC on Thursday, June 16, 2022 between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM .
REGISTRATION: This event is free. Please register for baking instructions and drop-off details.
Casa Ruby is the only LGBTQ bilingual and multicultural organization in the Washington, DC metro area that provides social services and programs catering to the most vulnerable in the city. Casa Ruby’s mission is to create success life stories among transgender, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals.
Celebrate Pride at the EDCJCC to mix, chop, and prepare food for Casa Ruby!
What: Spend your night preparing dinner for the residents of Casa Ruby, the only LGBTQ bilingual and multicultural organization in the Washington, DC metro area that provides social services and programs catering to the most vulnerable in the city. The recipes and ingredients will be provided and the meal will be delivered the next day.
Who: No cooking skills are necessary! Individuals of all ages are encouraged to participate. Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by a parent or chaperone.
When: Thursday, June 16, from 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: The EDCJCC is located at 1529 Sixteenth St NW, Washington DC, 20036
Registration: This event costs $7 per person to help cover the costs of ingredients to ensure we are able to provide the highest quality food possible. Please click the “Sign Me Up” button to proceed with registration.
The event will be held indoors. Masks in public spaces at the EDCJCC are optional but we encourage and embrace everyone to do what feels best and most safe for themselves and their families. Proof of vaccination is required to enter the building for everyone over the age of 12.
Questions: Contact Mira Smith at msmith@edcjcc.org
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact msmith@edcjcc.org
WHAT: To honor and commemorate Juneteenth, we invite you to a screening of Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. We are delighted to present this screening as a partnership between the Edlavitch DCJCC’s JxJ and Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Jews of Color group. A conversation will follow the screening of the film.
WHEN: Sunday, June 19, 10:30 AM
WHERE: The Edlavitch DCJCC’s Cafritz Hall
TICKETS: This is a “pay what you can” screening. Click on the “book now” button at the bottom of this page to get your tickets!
About the film:
Directed by Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler | 118 min
The shocking murder of George Floyd and the ensuing swell of protests across this country have forced a reckoning, not just with police brutality against Black Americans, but with the painful history of slavery and anti-Black racism in America. Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America is a documentary feature film that confronts this history head on.
Former ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeffery Robinson had one of the best educations in America. He went to Marquette University and Harvard Law School and has been a trial lawyer for over 40 years. In 2011, Robinson began raising his then 13-year-old nephew and, as a Black man raising a Black son, struggled with what to tell his son about racism in America. Robinson was 11 years old when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Robinson’s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. He marched with his father and brother in one of the Memphis Sanitation Worker strikes. Robinson also attended a court hearing for some of those arrested for marching and that experience, at 11 years old, is why he ultimately became a criminal defense lawyer. Before King’s murder, Robinson believed the country had reached a “tipping point,” and true racial equality was within reach. When King was killed, it felt to Robinson like the movement died with him. How, he wondered, did we get here?
After many years as a practicing lawyer, Robinson started looking at our Nation’s history and was shocked by how deeply encoded white supremacy and the oppression of Black Americans is in that history. For the past 10 years, in community centers, concert halls, houses of worship, and conference rooms across America, Robinson has been sharing what he learned. He has become a sought-after speaker, and his presentation has become legendary. On Juneteenth (June 19) 2018, Robinson brought his presentation to the New York stage, performing before a packed house at the historic Town Hall theater on Broadway.
In Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, Robinson faces his largest audience, asking all of us to examine who we are, where we come from, and who we want to be. Anchored by Robinson’s Town Hall performance, the film interweaves historical and present-day archival footage, Robinson’s personal story, and vérité and interview footage capturing Robinson’s meetings with Black change-makers and eyewitnesses to history. From a hanging tree in Charleston, South Carolina, to a walking tour of the origins of slavery in colonial New York, to the site of a 1947 lynching in rural Alabama, the film brings history to life, exploring the enduring legacy of white supremacy and our collective responsibility to overcome it.
Help replenish the blood supply in the DC metro area!
It’s safe, easy, confidential, and extremely rewarding. The EDCJCC partners with Inova Blood Services to bring skilled technicians and top-of-the-line equipment for our quarterly blood drives.
A few facts about donating blood:
- One blood donation can save four lives
- All donations stay in the Washington, DC area
- Every 17 seconds, someone in the DC area needs a blood donation
- One out of 10 people will need a donation before the age of 70
- The body quickly replaces the amount of blood given during the donation
For more information and to see eligibility requirements for donating, please click here. Please plan on your blood donation to take about an hour from start to finish.
MASK & VACCINATION POLICY: All visitors above the age of 12 entering the EDCJCC’s building are required to show proof of full covid-19 vaccination. Mask-wearing inside of the EDCJCC is, at this time, optional.
For more information, visit edcjcc.org/covidsafety.
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact msmith@edcjcc.org
Please click on the “Register” button to make an appointment.
WHAT: Join the Edlavitch DCJCC for a second season of maintaining an urban garden for our friends at the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)! Our garden brings fresh herbs and vegetables to youth at the LAYC Drop-in Center throughout the summer.
You do not have to have any gardening experience – just the desire to get your hands in the dirt and help grow some plants! Come down at the end of a long day to relax, unwind, get closer to Mother Nature, and make some friends.
Children of all ages are welcome but must be supervised closely by an adult. Children over the age of 16 can attend on their own.
WHEN: Volunteer days will occur every other Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:00 PM starting with Wednesday, April 27. After you register, you will receive a google spreadsheet to choose which Wednesdays throughout the month/over the summer you would like to come garden with us.
WHERE: The LAYC Drop-in Center is located in Columbia Heights. The exact address will be provided upon registration.
REGISTRATION: We request a one-time $10 registration fee to help us cover the costs of supplies and plants for the garden. Please click on the “TICKETS” button to proceed to registration.
Questions? Email Sonya at sonyaw@edcjcc.org
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact sonyaw@edcjcc.org
We are so excited to be together in person for the June Handmade for the Homeless! This month, we will be knitting and crocheting on the EDCJCC’s front steps!
Join fellow knitters and crocheters to make handmade goodies for a great cause! Our goal is to contribute as many warm winter items as possible to distribute to individuals experiencing homelessness in the DC area.
All levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. Don’t know how to knit or crochet? We’ll teach you!
What should I bring?
Please bring your own needles/crochet hooks. If you are not already working on a warm winter item and are looking for a great project or just starting out, please bring:
- #8 or #10 knitting needles (circular or straight) or a size H crochet hook
- Patterns you’re working on or want to start
What do you supply?
We provide lots of beautiful yarn, several patterns including hat patterns using #17 needles or a size N crochet hook, and experienced knitters and crocheters to teach anyone who would like to learn how to knit or crochet.
If you can’t join us in person, join us in spirit by knitting or crocheting:
- Hats
- Scarves
- Gloves and Mittens
- Socks or slippers
- Other items to keep people warm during the cold winter months
Want to know more or join our virtual community? Like us on Facebook!
REGISTER: Please click the red “Register” button to sign up for this free event!
If you have any questions about this event contact Chana at chanaengel@gmail.com.
MASK & VACCINATION POLICY: Effective March 21, 2022, masking will be optional within the EDCJCC, except for in Goldman Theater and Cafritz Hall, as well as in any other program deemed necessary by the seating layout. Proof of vaccination is required for all individuals that are eligible for vaccines. In the case that this program meets indoors, the organizers of Handmade for the Homeless request that you wear a mask. Proof of vaccination is required to enter the building, even to use the bathroom.
For more information, visit edcjcc.org/covidsafety.
Do you need any additional accommodations for this event? If so, please contact msmith@edcjcc.org
The Edlavitch DCJCC embraces inclusion in all its programs and activities. We welcome and encourage the participation of all people, regardless of their background, sexual orientation, abilities, or religion, including interfaith couples and families.