From accreditation issues to the prospect of facility closures, the Normandy School District has weathered its share of troubles recently. 

For some in the Jewish community, such news items may seem as distant as happenings on the other side of the world but Rabbi Hyim Shafner of Bais Abraham said that’s just not the case.

“Normandy is a neighbor of ours,” he said. “You read in the paper about how the schools are faltering and it is less than a mile from the synagogue.”

Now, thanks to a Crown grant from the Jewish Federation, Shafner’s shul is able to help out its neighbor. From now through the end of the school year, Bais Abe will partner with Beyond Housing to do community service projects that will assist its friends to the north. 

The idea is something of a hands-on learning experience for the congregation. Once a month, the Delmar Loop synagogue will hold a Wednesday night learning session on a given topic capped off that Sunday with a journey to Normandy to put those ideas into action.

December’s installment will see congregants learn about the role of the elderly in Judaism followed later that week by a trip to Normandy with freshly prepared food to serve to seniors. 

In November, the Orthodox shul helped with the ongoing rehab of a house in the community.

“We thought it would be good to partner with one neighborhood and really develop a relationship with those folks,” said Shafner. “It is not just us going and doing it. It is really in partnership with them.”

In a move reflective of the commitment Bais Abe has to the project, the shul has even hired a paid coordinator to oversee it. Mor Regev said she is happy to accept the job.

“I think it is really important that Jews who are invested in social justice and community service as one of our big values actually do it in a responsible way, in a way that meets the community’s needs,” said Regev, who is also a member of the congregation. “It’s important to expose people to poverty that’s happening just a few miles away.”

Regev said it is hard to know exactly what future topics might be covered since their partners in the project will be making those determinations. Possible ideas run the gamut from tutoring children to beautification programs.

“It’s up to Beyond Housing because it is what the community identifies as a need,” she said. “We’re not going to just do service for service’s sake.”

Regev said that the idea grew out of her own involvement with Beyond Housing, which she became acquainted with as a full-time social worker.

“Hyim and I had talked about putting together this volunteer community service project and I thought this would be the perfect agency to work with because they are so invested in the community,” she said. “The community really trusts them and it would be a great avenue to get involved in one area instead of doing multiple projects all over the city and not really making an impact.”

Jessica Peter, volunteer and special events manager for Beyond Housing, said the synagogue’s help is appreciated. She notes that her agency has also worked with Central Reform Congregation in the past and may partner with as many as three or four groups a month on various projects.

“For us, it is always great to make a connection with folks who are in it for the right reasons, who really want to serve our community,” she said. “They came into this hoping very much to help us and do whatever needed to be done.”

Congregant Arthur Hartz, 69, said he enjoyed being able to assist during this month’s home rehab where Bais Abe members painted and cleaned up a local yard.

“I’m a big fan of Bais Abe and this seemed to me to be just another component that fit in with what I hoped Bais Abe would be,” said the University City resident. “I’ve wanted to do things for the community and I feel that as an individual, it is very difficult to figure out how to volunteer and be useful.”

Daniel Weisz, also of University City, said he liked the atmosphere during the service project, which attracted about three dozen volunteers.

“It was good to connect with the other community,” he noted. “We know a lot about the diversity of St. Louis and sometimes in the Jewish community we don’t get as much of a chance to experience it firsthand.”

Like Hartz, Weisz believes that the project speaks to the shul’s values of open-mindedness.

“One thing that goes along with that open-minded, welcoming aspect is a consciousness of the larger, non-Jewish community,” said Weisz who helped clean a Normandy yard during his work this month. “This program fits beautifully with the feel of Bais Abe and I think everyone appreciated that.”

Shafner says that’s exactly the idea.

“One aspect is that we have to feel as Jews that we are part of a bigger world,” he said. “Yet sometimes we focus in on our Jewish community and our Jewish life and we forget that we’re there also to be a light, to make the world a better place and bring a Jewish voice to the world.”

Bais Abe community learning/chesed project

For the second installment of Bais Abraham’s Chesed Project there will be learning at the synagogue on Thursday Dec. 5 with parents and children’s learning from 5-6 p.m. (babysitting for young children provided), community dinner from 6-7 p.m., and learning from 7-8 p.m. for adults 13 and older. 

This month’s topics will be food and aging as they relate to poverty. The Chesed program will run from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8 and will involve a home-cooked meal and afternoon game playing with residents of Rosie Shields, the senior care facility that Beyond Housing helped to build. Cooking will take place at the shul earlier that day. Volunteers are needed to both purchase and cook food. For more information, contact Mor Regev at [email protected].