2007 Irving J. Fain Social Action Awards
Our congregations engage in social action for the most noble of reasons – a commitment to helping others, to tikkun olam. Nonetheless, when congregants have invested countless hours in bringing a worthwhile program to fruition, they deserve some kavod – public recognition and honor. That is why the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism instituted the Irving J. Fain Awards – to grant public recognition to those congregations whose programmatic efforts in social action have been exemplary. The Awards themselves have been announced and will be presented at the Consultation on Conscience, April 15-17, 2007, Washington, D.C.
About the Irving J. Fain Social Action Awards:
Active commitment to social justice is a hallmark of the Reform Jewish community. That commitment has inspired Reform congregations across North America to develop and pursue a wide range of activities and programs that help l’taken olam, to mend the world. By reaching out to the needy and the downtrodden, by forming coalitions of concern across religious and racial lines, by advocating for equity and justice, and in countless other ways, it is the congregations of our Movement that stand on the front line of the long, hard struggle to realize the vision of the prophets, to create communities informed by that vision.
Irving J. Fain, who died in 1970, was a passionate proponent of social justice and of the Reform Movement’s active commitment to the work of tikkun olam, and served for a decade as Chairperson of its Commission on Social Action. The Fain Awards, established in 1983 in his honor and memory, are awarded every two years to congregations whose work in the area of social justice is exemplary. Specifically, awards are presented to congregations that have successfully involved large numbers of congregants in their social action programs or that have developed genuinely innovative and/or particularly effective projects.
The Fain Award winners fully meet the high standard the Awards are meant to advance. We hope and expect they will inspire others to embark creatively and energetically on the road to justice. Indeed, all the programs submitted for consideration offer proof that congregations large and small, in every region of North America, are daily bringing Jewish values to bear on the world around them. In so doing, the ethical teachings of our tradition find expression in the lives of their members, thereby linking the Jewish past and the Jewish present - and, God willing, will serve as a text and a testament to future generations.
View online listing of the winners of the Irving J. Fain Social Action Awards:
