On Sunday, November 10, our entire Central Synagogue community came together for our 16th annual Mitzvah Day.  Congregants of all ages participated in more than 20 volunteer projects around New York City and in the Pavilion.  Some prepared and served breakfast for families with ill children who are currently residing at the Ronald McDonald House on the Upper East Side. Others delivered meals to homebound seniors through City Meals on Wheels; visited with residents at Women in Need homeless shelters, served meals at The Doe Fund, and spent time with the elderly at Esplanade Senior Residences. 

In connection with Central’s new partnership with The Educational Alliance, congregants also held a joyous carnival for children at the Sirovich Center, where several of our members providing tutoring on a weekly basis.  Our teens headed up to Intervale Green, an energy conscious housing development in the Bronx where 25 of our kids helped to winterize the building’s rooftop community garden – a garden that supplies the tenants of the housing complex with access to healthy food. 

Meanwhile, our 20s/30s Young Professionals group headed over to another Educational Alliance initiative called PRIDE, a residential therapeutic community that helps adults battling addiction.

In the Pavilion, children and adults came together to make sandwiches and bake sweet treats for Coalition for the Homeless, decorate and fill gift bags for guests of Central’s Breakfast Program, and assemble backpacks full of art supplies for underserved children.  Thanks to generous donations of DVDs, Central volunteers were able to send 75 Chanukah packages to U.S. servicemen and women serving abroad.  The Nursery School projects were a huge hit with young families and included handmade Tzedakah boxes, planting small flower pots for residents at the Mary Manny Walsh senior residence, and delivering gift baskets to our local fire department. All projects were intended to inspire a sense of community involvement and gratitude amongst Central’s youngest members. The knitting group also provided warm hats, scarves and blankets to those in need.  Finally, many stopped by the Gift of Life table to register as donors for bone marrow transplants. Previous Gift of Life drives at Central Synagogue have yielded matches for young children in need of donors.