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Or Ami Brings Community Together for Mitzvah Day

For more than 15 years, this annual event, which is the cornerstone of the Calabasas synagogue’s commitment to tikkun olam (repairing the world), has been focusing on assembling packages of love for displaced children.
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January 13, 2022
Photo by Jason Lee Segal

In an outdoor Mitzvah Day Festival on December 5, members of Congregation Or Ami (orami.org), along with their friends and family, assembled 16,000 donated items into 500 comfort bags, created for children who will be entering foster care. 

For more than 15 years, this annual event, which is the cornerstone of the Calabasas synagogue’s commitment to tikkun olam (repairing the world), has been focusing on assembling packages of love for displaced children.

Due to COVID, the 2020 Mitzvah Day had to be canceled. The 2021 event was a COVID-friendly community celebration, featuring live music and inspiring volunteerism of all ages from teens to older adults to families of all ages. 

Co-chairs Rachel Dashevsky and Paul Dashevsky and Rachel Paul, and Mitzvah Day originator Laurie Tragen-Boykoff, worked with a team of volunteers over just six weeks to ensure that their Jewish values of chesed (kindness) and rachamim (compassion) became manifest through the event.

“This sacred assembly line ensures that 500 young people will be greeted by love and compassion as their lives are turned upside down as they are rescued from homes of neglect and abuse to places of safety.” — Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Rabbi Paul Kipnes said, “This sacred assembly line ensures that 500 young people will be greeted by love and compassion as their lives are turned upside down as they are rescued from homes of neglect and abuse to places of safety.”

The Journal spoke with chairs Rachel Dashevsky and Rachel Paul via Zoom to discuss how they organized such an inclusive community event during a pandemic.

“What our task was,” Dashevsky explained, “was reinventing Mitzvah Day to work in the time of COVID. It was always indoors before, very crowded. So we knew immediately it had to be outside, and then just kind of took it from there.”

“This was a really beautiful way for the whole community to … interact with each other, while helping our larger community,” added Rachel Paul. “[And] to be able to come together … in a way that was safe and comfortable for people to be there.”

Photo by Jason Lee Segal

On the day of the event volunteers were given a duffel bag at the check-in, tagged with gender and age (5 to 17), along with a list of items to get at the various stations. Many items were gender neutral. In addition to necessities, such as toiletries, school supplies, books, and activities, each care package included a blanket, as well as two items of love: a card and a decorated pillowcase. 

Bags were distributed to the LA County Department of Children and Family Services offices in Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Santa Clarita and West LA, as well as the County of Orange Social Services Agency. 

Because of COVID, the team also offered an option for people who wanted to be involved, but were unable — or uncomfortable — to attend the Mitzvah Day event.

“We made Mitzvah Day to-go bags,” Dashevsky said. “It had a few pillowcases, some construction paper, stickers, fabric markers, and they could do [the activities] at home. Then we had a drop-off box outside [Or Ami].”

As Mitzvah Day symbolically ended up being on the last day of Hanukkah, many families did their decorating during their holiday gatherings. 

“That was another way that we were able to get more people to volunteer, and as well as to be able to make a little more COVID friendly,” Dashevsky added.

When the Journal asked what the event meant to them, here’s what “the Rachels,” as they are known, had to say:

“I grew up in a home where my parents really ingrained in us that you need to stand up for people,” Paul said. “I was raised going to rallies and protests in DC, and that you need to help others. And so for us, I think that it was L’Dor V’Dor. To be able to show our kids that this is what we need to do, it’s not a choice.”

Added Dashevsky, “One of the main reasons that my husband and I chose Or Ami as our community was because of the social justice work that Or Ami does and the openness, the inclusivity. 

“This was just one more way … to show our kids that this is what being part of our Jewish community means. It means that we show up for others. 

“For me, for our family, it just was so amazing to be able after 20 months of being home … to be able to get back to Tikkun Olam, to that work of repairing the world.”

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