Volunteering & Tikkun Olam

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 | 6:30 PM

Please join the Tikkun Olam Committee as we welcome a new year of giving back to our community. Let’s enjoy each other’s company and a few cocktails and lite bites, and learn more about upcoming volunteer mitzvahs with our local partner organizations. All temple members who are interested in Tikkun Olam are welcome to attend.

Please RSVP to by August 30.

Thursday, October 6 – Friday, October 14, 2022

In celebration of the harvest festival of Sukkot and to help alleviate hunger in New York City, Tikkun Olam at Temple Emanu-El will be collecting donations of fresh apples and honey. All honey donations should be in plastic jars. Donations may be left in the lobbies at 10 East 66th Street and One East 65th Street from Thursday, October 6 through Friday, October 14.

The Urban Outreach Center is a food pantry. Dinner is served every Tuesday night and feeds over 225 people. They assist with clothing, hygiene items, showers, a mailing address, and social services. Urban Outreach creates spaces of justice-centered hospitality where low-income New Yorkers can access the necessities and connections they need to thrive.

Their hope is to end the hunger gap in East Harlem and the Upper East Side by connecting New Yorkers with the healthy food and social services they need, with the dignity they deserve. Each year, Urban Outreach helps nearly 50,000 vulnerable New Yorkers move with dignity out of homeless and food insecurity toward self-sufficiency.

MITZVAH DAY HAS RETURNED!

Sunday, November 13, 2022 | 10:00 AM

Mitzvah Day was started in 2005 as a way to increase awareness and create a greater sense of community among temple members while helping others. Please join us for a light breakfast, congregational prayer, and approximately 12 projects where volunteers assemble thousands of packages for some of the most vulnerable populations in New York City. Temple Emanu-El will be holding an additional Mitzvah Day in the early spring.

Registration is required – keep checking this page for a sign-up link.

Some of the Mitzvah Projects are listed below.

Birthday Boxes — Create birthday gift boxes for DOROT seniors, many of whom live alone and don’t have family to celebrate with them.

Chemo Angels — Assemble comfort totes for women undergoing chemotherapy at the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Fun Kits — Assemble packages for use by children undergoing treatment at Mount Sinai Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Help Feed the Hungry — Make sandwiches and prepare 300 meal bags for clients at Part of the Solution.

Mommy & Me — Pack diaper bags filled with baby essentials for new moms. These bags will be given to recipients of Hour Children. Their mission is to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children successfully rejoin the community, reunify with their families, and build healthy, independent, and secure lives.

Let’s Warm Up — Package warm weather items for those individuals who are without homes and need to stay warm during the winter months. The Urban Outreach Center extends the breadth of social services necessary to support the full worth and dignity of all people. Taken together, they are striving for justice, transforming lives, and providing a space for the neighborhood to thrive.

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

We are hopeful that Temple Emanu-El’s Annual Thanksgiving Dinner will return this year. Temple Emanu-El will serve Thanksgiving dinner at the temple (on the day before the holiday) to seniors and women and families from local homeless and domestic violence shelters. Volunteers are needed but, due to health concerns, spots are limited.

If updated health requirements prevent us from gathering, we’ll still provide a Thanksgiving Celebration in a very fun and creative way. Keep checking here for updates and a link to register.

Second Seder for the Elderly is one of the longest running community-service programs offered by Temple Emanu-El. It is staffed by dedicated congregants who volunteer their time to help make this evening possible. Prior to Passover, temple members also volunteer to pack bags filled with Passover foods for delivery to homebound seniors.

Each year on the second night of Passover, Temple Emanu-El holds its annual community seder for 250 elderly Jews in need of assistance. Our guests come from senior centers and are provided transportation from all areas of the city to come to this event. By organizing this community seder, the temple seeks to enable those Jewish elderly who no longer have families or whose families are far away to share the prayers and fellowship of this significant Jewish holiday.

Invitations are extended and arranged through the representative social workers from the different agencies only. If you are a social worker and wish to have your agency added to the invitation list, then please send your request in writing to Temple Emanu-El, One East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065 (Attn: Second Seder). Please include your agency’s background information.

Congregation Emanu-El has been preparing meals for those in need, whether they are homeless, underemployed or food insecure since 1982.

The time commitment for the Sunday Lunch Program is minimal… just two hours from 10:00 AM to noon every Sunday. We particularly need volunteers on holiday weekends and during the summer. In addition to preparing meals, the Sunday Lunch Program collects travel-size toiletries throughout the year. Items can be dropped off at the temple; bags should be marked “Sunday Lunch Program — Donation.”

QUESTIONS? Contact the Sunday Lunch Program at .

Each year, Temple Emanu-El has helped more than 250 low-income New York City high school seniors shine at their spring proms. In partnership with Park Avenue Synagogue, we will provide a “boutique” shopping experience, aimed at providing these young women with free prom ensembles. Keep checking for information on how to donate and volunteer in Spring 2023.

Click here to read more about Project Prom 2022.

Stitch’n Time is a knitting group for temple members who would like to knit or crochet items for various organizations.

Stitch’n Time participants knit warm scarves and caps for clients of Temple Emanu-El’s Sunday Lunch Program, as well as knitted goods for children and other adults in need. Both experienced and novice knitters are invited to join us. However, participation is limited to members of the congregation. Instruction is available for those who need assistance. Yarn and patterns are provided, but you must bring your own needles (#8).

Sessions meet from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

If you have questions or would like to join us, please send an email to .

USHERS: The role of Emanu-El’s ushers is to greet congregants and guests, answer their questions and maintain the solemnity of the service. Ushers accomplish this by welcoming worshipers, helping them find their place in the prayer book, and by directing those unfamiliar with the temple building to seats, restrooms, exits and other necessary locations. Ushers are expected to dress in a dignified and unobtrusive manner and to maintain decorum in our sanctuaries with the help of temple employees. Ushers are provided with a manual containing basic information about their duties.

Being an usher at Temple Emanu-El is an important position. We welcome the interest of members who would like to join this longstanding group of dedicated volunteers who enhance the worship experience for members and visitors alike.

TOUR GUIDES: Every Saturday, following worship services, a member of our congregation leads a tour of the temple for interested visitors. These guides discuss the important architectural features of our magnificent Fifth Avenue building, the history of Temple Emanu-El as one of the great Reform temples of the world, and the programs we offer today to members of the congregation and to the community at large.

Each volunteer receives training from temple staff and generally is needed only once every two months. Often, the guide also will act as an usher for the morning service.

Worship is conducted at Temple Emanu-El every day of the year.

The Sunset Service began in 1945 when members of the Men’s Club committed themselves to lead worship on all days except those of Shabbat, holidays and festivals. Since then, a countless number of volunteers have sustained our Sunset Service with remarkable fidelity and devotion.

Today, the Readers Panel includes women and men from throughout the congregation. It is supervised by Peter and Mary Kalikow Senior Rabbinic Chair Joshua Davidson. While the panel remains under the auspices of the Men’s Club, participation is open to all congregational families — including teenagers who have completed their bar or bat mitzvah studies.

Volunteer congregants are needed to continue this magnificent tradition. Each reader leads the service about once a month. Readers acknowledge readily that leading the service — and thereby enabling others to worship — is a deeply fulfilling experience.

Read what members of the Readers Panel say about participating in this experience »

If you are a temple member and are interested in becoming a reader, then send an email to , or call 212-744-1400, ext. 251.

Note: Temple Emanu-El’s Sunset Service is open to the public. Attendees should enter at the Marvin and Elizabeth Cassell Community House, One East 65th Street.