Thousands help make Mitzvah Day a record-breaker
A RECORD-BREAKING Mitzvah Day saw thousands of volunteers donating their time to social action projects.
Over 37,000 volunteers in 20 countries donated 150,000 hours to food collections, conservation tasks and outreach projects over the weekend.
In the UK, more than 500 synagogues, mosques, churches and other faith groups took part in the biggest cross-communal effort yet for Mitzvah Day.
Prime Minster David Cameron commended the volunteers at the Norwood dinner on Monday: “On Mitzvah Day, more than 35,000 people gave their time to causes in almost every major town and city across the country. Yes, there is a Big Society in Britain.”
Mitzvah Day founder and chair, Laura Marks, said: “I love that it is part of the establishment and part of the cal- endar now. It’s great the whole community embraces the idea that a minimum of one day a year should be devoted to others. I call it, ‘Jews at our best’.”
Participants ran 1,200 schemes around the world. Financial consultancy firm Ernst and Young and bank Santander joined the 65 businesses taking part in the “Give Away Your Lunch” scheme, in which companies donated food to shelters and food banks.
“Given the difficult summer on the interfaith front, there was concern over whether people would still volunteer, so it was gratifying to see that they have. Maybe they were feeling that now it is even more important than normal to build bridges,” said Ms Marks.
Mitzvah Day was started in 2005, based on the idea that people should contribute their time, rather than money, to charity.
MITZVAH DAY got at least 40 “likes” from the UK Facebook office whose sales team came to lend a hand at their local Salvation Army shelter and a youth club last week.
Members of the sales team re-painted hallways and provided a hot lunch at the Cambria House shelter, as well as de-cluttering the New Horizons youth centre in London.
This is the first time the Facebook office has got involved with the more interactive side of Mitzvah Day and it is mainly thanks to Nicola Mendelsohn who joined the company 18 months ago as vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Mrs Mendelsohn proudly donned the Mitzvah Day T-shirt and joined in the painting, before serving up platefuls of steaming chilli, supplied by Facebook’s office caterer, to some of the residents who live in the shelter.
“I passionately believe in how people can help other people. It’s part of my identity, part of being Jewish. It’s one of the key messages my parents instilled in me. It’s a fundamental part of being a good human being,” she said.
“Facebook is about connecting people and this embodies similar values. It’s great for the UK office to get involved and we had a great response, everyone was very willing to muck in and help out.”
Mrs Mendelsohn, a member of Finchley Synagogue, added: “The idea of Mitzvah Day is something that translates across race and religion. It’s quite refreshing. I love it.”
Both Cambria House and New Horizons are a few minutes walk from the Facebook office on Brock Street in central London.
Jewish client solutions manager Jocelyn Rebuck was team leader for the Cambria House redecoration. “We can all give a donation but doing something physical is different. It’s good to see the impact. It is sobering to be in a place like this, it puts it into perspective.”
Sadik Ahmed, 30, has lived in Cambria House for a year. He said: “It is tremendous how people put in their own free time to doing something good — it makes sense of the word ‘mitzvah’.”
Cambria House provides shelter for 48 homeless men of all ages, providing support to help them return to independent living.