Volunteer Opportunities

Members of Beth Israel Center who share their time and talents keep our kehillah (congregation) alive and well. Our congregation relies heavily on volunteers for holiday celebrations and other events.

Programming for Individual Events and Weekly Kiddush: 

  • Plan, set up, serve, and clean up

  • Cook/bake for Shabbat Kiddush and Festival community meals

  • Greet members and guests on Shabbat mornings and at other events

  • Launder tablecloths and other linens 

  • Yardwork: weeding, planting, and tending our grounds  

For more information about how to join our caring community of volunteers, contact Volunteer Coordinator Deborah Hoffman at hoffman@bethisraelcenter.org.

Standing Committee Work
BIC has many active committees and member teams supporting our programming and operations. If you have a particular interest or just want to know where help is most needed, email president@bethisraelcenter.org. 

Ritual Practice 
We rely on one another to lead services and read Torah every Shabbat and at weekday minyan, whether on Zoom or in person. We are proud of our member leadership, which is a treasured highlight of our communal life. Please contact Rabbi Betsy Forester at rabbi@bethisraelcenter.org to learn how to share your skills as sh’lichei tzibbur (prayer leaders) and/or leiners (people who chant Torah, haftarah, and megillot).

Food for Thought Initiative
BIC member Lea Aschkenase founded F4TI in honor of her mother, Thea, a survivor of Auschwitz who worked hard to spare today’s children the hunger she had known as a teenager during the Holocaust. Food for Thought‘s commitment is to continue its current programs — Thea’s Table Weekend Family Food Program, In-school pantries, and the Thoreau Elementary Weekend Food Bag Program — and to open one new in-school pantry per school year in a Madison Metropolitan School having a high rate of food insecurity.

Since 2016, Beth Israel Center has held a fund drive for F4TI leading up to Yom Kippur.

Meals on Wheels
Over many years, BIC volunteers have delivered meals, once or twice a month, to elderly and disabled residents of Dane County for this program of SSM Health at Home (formerly Home Health United). Each weekday lunchtime route takes about 1½ hours. Try a ride-along with a current volunteer if you’d like to see the program first-hand. For more information or to volunteer, call Larry Bensky at (608) 238-2569.

Porchlight
BIC volunteers help provide a festive Christmastime dinner to clients of Safe Haven, a Porchlight facility serving homeless, mentally-ill people. At present, BIC delivers several commercial-sized lasagnas (see Cooking for Covid) to Porchlight once per month. But upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic has moved the shelter and eliminated BIC’s dinner-and-breakfast volunteer opportunity. The relocated shelter offers a few tasks for healthy, low-risk volunteers; we await news as to what long-term and general opportunities Porchlight will offer in the future, at a planned new location.

For more information, email socialjustice@bethisraelcenter.org.

Cooking for (and after) COVID
The Catholic Multicultural Center serves a free meal, every day of the year, to all comers who appear during service time. (Under COVID-related restrictions, the CMC distributes these, to-go, from its parking lot.) Most days The Beacon, a downtown day facility for the homeless, also provides a free meal, to go. BIC volunteers assist both agencies (and Porchlight) by providing home-cooked vegetarian lasagna on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, in quantities that serve hundreds of people. SJC provides the recipe and a very large foil pan, and picks up each cooked lasagna on the designated Wednesday for delivery (all with no contact).

To volunteer as a lasagna maker or deliver,  email socialjustice@bethisraelcenter.org.

Healing House
BIC members assist by providing meals at Healing House, an 8-bed residential recuperative facility for homeless families with someone preparing for, or recovering from, childbirth or a medical procedure or hospitalization. For one week at a time, BIC volunteers prepare and deliver (with no contact during COVID-19) dinner each day of that week, usually serving 4 to 8 people. Volunteers can work singly, or as a family, or they can partner with other volunteers to cook and deliver one evening’s meals. HH staff do the serving and cleaning up. To learn more and sign up for a dinner date, email socialjustice@bethisraelcenter.org.

Christmas Day Volunteer Opportunities
Safe Haven, a Porchlight day shelter and residence for mentally ill adults, offers dinner in the Christmas season, through the generosity of BIC volunteers who shop, cook, serve, socialize, clean up, and bring some holiday gifts as well. First United Methodist Church downtown Madison serves a free community dinner on Christmas Day. BIC volunteers help serve. For information or to volunteer, email socialjustice@bethisraelcenter.org.

Join the Kiddush Crew!
We at Beth Israel Center are proud of the culture of community and participation at Shabbat Kiddush every week after Shabbat morning services. Help is always needed to set up and clean up for these congregational luncheons. To sign up or ask questions, contact Deborah Hoffman at (608) 256-7763 or hoffman@bethisraelcenter.org.

Loving Kindness
In times of simcha and in times of sorrow, a meal from a friend can be a great help. The loving kindness group of Beth Israel is made up of people who volunteer to make meals for congregants in times of need. We bring meals for families welcoming new babies, mourning the loss of a loved one, recovering from illness or surgery, and at other times when a little bit of this kind of support can go a long way. Email kindness@bethisrealcenter.org to be put on the list of volunteers or email the office to find out more about the group.

Chesed Team
Some of our members are unable to attend programs at Beth Israel Center, yet yearn for the companionship that comes from making connections with fellow congregants. Our Rabbi visits as many of these members as she can, and our Chesed Team supports the Rabbi’s efforts by paying social visits to and/or calling some of our homebound members. If you are interested in performing this mitzvah, or know someone who would benefit from visits, please contact Rabbi Betsy.