Repairing the World While Having Fun

Maj Jongg and the Face of Tikkun Olam at BZBI

When Ellen Goldberg joined BZBI in the Spring of 2016, she was looking for a way to get involved in the community, make new friends, and make an impact. Ellen came up with an idea that would accomplish all three goals–a Maj Jongg group where each player would give a small weekly donation towards Tikkun Olam. At her old congregation in Connecticut, Tikkun Olam had been an important part of Ellen’s life. “Maj Jongg is a game that allows people to get together in a relaxed friendly atmosphere,” Ellen explains, and it was the perfect way for her to create a home at BZBI.

By the summer of 2016, Ellen’s idea became a reality. The Maj Jongg group began meeting weekly on Tuesday afternoons. Ellen had one simple request from the steadily growing group of players: bring three dollars each week to put towards the Tikkun Olam Fund.

“It worked better than I could even imagine!” Ellen explains. Her group quickly developed a group of regulars, with twelve to sixteen people coming each week, each one happy to donate three dollars or more with the knowledge that it was going to a good cause. Within a year, the group had raise $1,389, enough to allow BZBI to join both the New Sanctuary Movement and HIAS Pennsylvania.

Since then, Ellen has made a few minor changes to the group, including a slight increase in the requested donation to four dollars. This hasn’t deterred anyone. In fact, new people still show up from time to time and, due to the friendly and welcoming attitude of the group, they tend to stay. We can only imagine what the Maj Jongg group will have accomplished by next year!

Ellen’s weekly group has become an inspiration, with other congregants catching on. Rhoda Kanter has created her own spin on the concept, a Bridge club on Thursdays with donations going to our Bonim and Tot Shabbat programming.

The face of Tikkun Olam is growing at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel. Maj Jongg is just one of the ways our community approaches repairing the world. If you’d like to be a part of the conversation about Tikkun Olam, come to our Call to Action gathering on Thursday, November 2 at 7 PM. If you, like Ellen, have you own creative spin on Tikkun Olam, we’d love to hear it! You can also join our Tikkun Olam Google Group to be up to date on what other congregants are doing.

Maj Jonng is held every Tuesday between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Our Bridge Group will begin on Thursday, November 2, at 1:00 PM and be held weekly.