Jewish Nonprofits Launch Nationwide Volunteer Drive to Respond to Pandemic, Social-Justice Needs

A coalition of Jewish organizations plans to launch a nationwide service drive this month to mobilize volunteers to provide their skills and time to nonprofits responding to the pandemic, recession, and social-justice protests.

The goal of the effort, dubbed “Serve the Moment,” is to inspire young Jewish adults to perform, collectively, 100,000 acts of service over the next 12 months in response to the coronavirus.

The effort is led by Repair the World, a nonprofit that encourages Jews to volunteer. It is supported by a coalition of more than 30 Jewish religious organizations and nonprofits, including the Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. These groups are providing money and other resources needed to organize the nationwide volunteer drive.

So far, the effort has raised $1.3 million to fund work through the summer. According to Cindy Greenberg, chief executive of Repair the World, the group hopes to raise another $2 million to fund the effort in the fall and spring. She said the group came up with the idea when it realized how many college students would have free time this summer because of the pandemic and that they would be looking for ways to serve.

“There are normally 8,000 Jewish college students that staff sleep-away camps, and most of those camps have been canceled for the summer,” said Greenberg. “It really dawned on us that there is this opportunity to wed this time available with Jewish college students with the needs of our neighbors.”

Borrowing the AmeriCorps Approach

Starting this month, Serve the Moment will begin to mobilize a corps of 100 paid full-time community organizers to recruit young Jewish adults and college students to take part in virtual and in-person — where appropriate — service opportunities.

Similar to AmeriCorps, these full-time “Serve the Moment Corps” members will work in teams of 10 to help Jewish nonprofit groups in cities across America organize a broader volunteer drives.

Serve the Moment plans to develop a directory of volunteering opportunities across the country. Key focus areas include tutoring low-income children, conducting welfare assessments of older people, providing food to the hungry, and mobilizing volunteers whose skills can help nonprofits responding to the pandemic, economic downturn, and social-justice protests.