Hesed / Tikkun Olam

KI’s Hesed committee is here for our community through every season of life, coordinating support for new parents, arranging visits for those who are ill or recovering, helping build a shiva minyan, and simply lending a hand in times of joy or an ear in times of difficulty. Through Lotsa Helping Hands, volunteers help arrange meals, rides, and errands whenever they’re needed.

Bikur Holim: Visiting the Sick

Bikur Holim, the mitzvah of visiting the sick, is one of the most meaningful ways our community cares for one another. It isn’t reserved for the most difficult moments alone — it’s just as much about sitting with a neighbor recovering from minor surgery, checking in on a friend with a broken ankle, or bringing a little company to someone who’s simply stuck at home longer than they’d like. Bikur Holim can take many forms: visiting patients in a hospital, rehabilitation center, or nursing home; visiting people who are restricted to their homes; helping with errands or appointments for someone who is ill or impaired; or offering a reassuring phone call to someone who is homebound. Our Hesed committee reaches out to congregants who are ill, recently hospitalized, recovering from a procedure, welcoming a new baby, mourning a loss, or simply feeling disconnected from the community, and continues that support for as long as it’s needed.

If you know someone who could benefit from Bikur Holim support, or if you’d like to volunteer to visit others, please contact the main office or Rabbi Hamilton.

Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World

Beyond our own community, our social action efforts focus on building connections that foster faith and hasten hope. This past year, that included supporting a refugee family in Boston, delivering Pesach meals to seniors, hosting a Welcome Blanket Brookline knit-in, running the Sweetheart Project (assembling and delivering treats to our local fire station, police station, and neighbors on Harvard Street), and sending mishloach manot on Purim to passengers on El Al flights headed to Israel.

We also proudly support the Family Table project, providing Passover food so that everyone in our wider community can celebrate, and we host projects supporting the IDF and other Israeli organizations as part of our ongoing commitment to Israel.

🏠Ways to Help From Home

Check in With Elderly Neighbors & Family

Perform the mitzvah of Hidur P’nei Zaken, honoring the elderly. A phone call to an aunt, uncle, parent, grandparent, or older neighbor can go a long way toward helping them feel connected to the world beyond their door.

Help Out Young Parents
Offer a video call to read a book, tell a story, sing some songs, or play a game with the children of friends, neighbors, or family members raising young kids.

Clearing Out Your Closets?
Do the mitzvah of Malbish Arumim, providing clothes for those in need. Many local organizations would welcome a donation and give your gently used clothing a new life.

Am Yisrael Chai!
Show your solidarity with the people of Israel by sending a message to a lone soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, a victim of terror, a Holocaust survivor, or an Israeli with special needs. Words of friendship, encouragement, support, and gratitude are always appreciated. Messages can be uploaded here. Handwritten letters can be mailed to: Heidi Krizer Daroff, C/O The Israel Forever Foundation, 1146 Nineteenth Street, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036.