Schools
Learning About Social Justice
Agnon students engage in volunteer work and charitable giving to benefit troubled teens, victims of domestic violence, impoverished families and abused animals
Social justice is one the seven core values taught at the Agnon School in Beachwood. Recently, students had the opportunity to practice the value of social justice to benefit troubled teenagers, victims of domestic violence, cancer patients, poverty-stricken families and abused or abandoned animals.
“It’s a good way to help others and improve our community,” said Reed Abrams, an Agnon School sixth-grader who was cutting material to make a fleece blanket for a domestic violence center in Cleveland.
On Tuesday, Agnon students participated in a half-dozen social justice action projects to benefit local charities.
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“We’ve been doing this social justice project for about five years,” said Leah Spector, assistant head of the Agnon School and head of Judaics. “We work with to find out what are the needs in the community and we do our social justice projects based on those needs.”
Students make “birthday boxes” with gifts for troubled teenagers living at Bellefaire, an organization that provides behavioral health, education and prevention services. They also decorated baseball caps and journals for cancer patients affiliated with the Gathering Place, which supports and empowers individuals and their families affected by cancer. Students also crafted homemade pet toys made from tennis balls and socks for the Geauga Humane Society animal shelter.
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“An important part or our curriculum teaches students to engage in the acts of tzedakah, which means righteousness in Hebrew, through volunteer charitable giving,” said Agnon’s Head of School Jerry Isaak-Shapiro. “This core value instills within our students a sense of responsibility for each other and for the larger world in which we live.”
In addition to the social justice project, Agnon students provide several community services throughout the year. For example, when eighth-grade students travel to Israel, they personally deliver new clothes to poor Ethiopian children. Students also organize a Kosher for Passover food drive to benefit low-income Jewish Clevelanders.
Agnon is a private, coeducational school with more than 330 students (18 months to eighth grade) from over 20 Northeast Ohio communities.