volunteer Archives - Westchester Jewish Community Services

Bar and Bat Mitzvah Projects at WJCS
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Bar and Bat Mitzvah Projects at WJCS

Miriam Arond2025-06-26T16:53:58-04:00June 26th, 2025|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal, General|Tags: bar mitzvah project, bat mitzvah project, fundraiser, volunteer, Nonprofit|

by Ava Propper Rubin Take some Mitzvot (religious commandments), throw in Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), and sprinkle the vast Westchester communities served by Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS), and you have a great opportunity for Jewish youth celebrating their B’nai Mitzvah to experience fulfillment and help others. When taking on the responsibilities of Jewish adulthood at ages 12 or 13, many boys and girls in our community are asked or required to do a Mitzvah Project. In anticipation of their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, they reflect on issues that are meaningful to them and work with community organizations ...

April is National Volunteer Month
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April is National Volunteer Month

Miriam Arond2025-04-25T14:42:29-04:00April 25th, 2025|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal, General|Tags: volunteer opportunities, get involved, national volunteer month, volunteer|

April is National Volunteer Month. All of us at WJCS are deeply indebted to our amazing crew of over 200 volunteers, who help our programs and participants grow and flourish. On behalf of all of our WJCS staff, thank you for the time and effort you dedicate to volunteering for our agency. Our volunteer corps plays an essential role in ensuring that our agency fulfills its mission to help people of all ages and backgrounds overcome emotional, social, educational, vocational, disability, and spiritual challenges. Our volunteers play an important role in helping our clients lead lives with strength, resilience, and ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Shira Stein
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Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Shira Stein

Miriam Arond2025-04-01T14:58:18-04:00April 1st, 2025|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal|Tags: volunteer spotlight, national volunteer month, volunteer|

April is National Volunteer Month. WJCS is so fortunate to have over 250 dedicated volunteers who assist and support our organization in a wide variety of programs. Shira Stein has been a volunteer in the WJCS Marketing Department since June 2024. “I am in the middle of a career change. To break up the monotony of applying for jobs and to be part of something bigger, I sought a volunteer opportunity,” says Shira. “A friend of a friend connected me to the WJCS Marketing and Communications Department where I’ve been able to use my experience in researching, crafting, and ...

Volunteering: An Antidote to the Epidemic of Loneliness
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Volunteering: An Antidote to the Epidemic of Loneliness

Miriam Arond2024-09-06T11:45:16-04:00September 6th, 2024|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage|Tags: get involved, loneliness, volunteer|

A recent article in the New York Times reported on the skyrocketing rates of loneliness, citing various studies, including one conducted by the American Psychiatric Association that found 25 percent of American residents are lonelier today than they were before the pandemic, as well as the decision by the World Health Organization to make loneliness an official global public health concern. The negative impact of loneliness is not just emotional. Studies have correlated feelings of loneliness with an increased risk of depression and, among seniors, loneliness has been linked with cardiovascular disease, dementia, declines in motor functions, and frailty. ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Murray Forseter
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Volunteer Spotlight: Murray Forseter

Miriam Arond2024-11-01T16:17:33-04:00August 23rd, 2024|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, General|Tags: murray forseter, meal delivery, get involved, volunteer, Westchester|

1,600 home-delivered meals to seniors! That is the astounding number of meals WJCS Murray Forseter estimates he has delivered to senior residents in Yonkers, Scarsdale, Mount Vernon, White Plains, and Hartsdale since he began volunteering in the WJCS senior food program 15 years ago. Murray began volunteering at WJCS after retiring from a successful career in publishing in 2009. Now, 75, he made his last food delivery on June 26th and marked the milestone by publishing a post, entitled “Delivering Food to the Greatest Generation,” on his blog called No Socks Needed Anymore. In his post, Murray shares stories ...

National Volunteer Month

Miriam Arond2024-02-23T11:24:27-05:00February 23rd, 2024|Tags: volunteer month, helping hands, national volunteer month, volunteer, Community, Nonprofit, Westchester|

National Volunteer Month

Meaningful Friendships that Promote Mental Wellness
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Meaningful Friendships that Promote Mental Wellness

Miriam Arond2023-10-19T13:41:06-04:00October 14th, 2023|Categories: Mental Health, Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal, General|Tags: compeer, friendship, mental wellness, volunteer, Nonprofit, Support, Mental Health, Westchester|

This year the WJCS Compeer program, a supportive friendship program in which each volunteer is matched with an individual recovering from mental illness, celebrates its 50th anniversary. By facilitating friendships, Compeer helps mental health clients feel less isolated and more integrated into their communities. Compeer started as a small program in upstate New York and has grown into an international organization with over 40 chapters. Compeer volunteers commit to spending time with a mental health client for a year or more. Research has shown that most Compeer clients see improvements in multiple areas of their lives as a result ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Earle Marsh
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Volunteer Spotlight: Earle Marsh

Miriam Arond2023-06-13T13:59:13-04:00April 21st, 2023|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal, General|Tags: earle marsh, national volunteer month, volunteer, Nonprofit, Westchester|

Earle Marsh had a flourishing career, working at some of the biggest names in media, including the A.C Nielson Company, NBC, CBS and Showtime. He even wrote an award-winning book that received the American Book Award in 1980: The Complete Directory to Primetime Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-present. It was released in nine editions from 1979 to 2007. When he left Showtime in 1984 Earle bought his first computer and found a new field of fascination and interest. He learned enough, completely self-taught, to run the IT (Information Technology) operation for a law firm in Manhattan from 1991 ...

10 Reasons to Support the WJCS Gala!
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10 Reasons to Support the WJCS Gala!

Miriam Arond2023-04-03T12:41:16-04:00January 22nd, 2023|Categories: Gala, General|Tags: fundraiser, human services, early childhood, volunteer, Gala, Trauma, Nonprofit, Mental Health, Westchester|

Support the WJCS Gala!

Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Cohn
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Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Cohn

Miriam Arond2022-12-05T17:09:35-05:00December 5th, 2022|Categories: Feature, Featured Homepage, Featured Internal, General|Tags: international volunteer day, volunteer|

WJCS is privileged to have over 250 active volunteers. Here, Steve Cohn, shares his experience as a WJCS volunteer. "When I ended my 30-year career as Editor-in-Chief of Media Industry Newsletter in July 2016, I answered a "request for volunteers" post on the White Plains Library's website. After going through a background check (made me feel like a VIP), I worked on event information on library flyers. In March 2020, with the onset of COVID-19, the library shut everything down. (The reopened library now posts announcements online-only, with the writing done in-house.) That initial experience put me on a volunteering ...

It’s Volunteer Appreciation Week!
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It’s Volunteer Appreciation Week!

Grace Oshin2021-04-30T18:35:44-04:00April 16th, 2021|Categories: General|Tags: volunteering, Volunteer Appreciation, Doing Good, volunteer, Nonprofit, Westchester|

It's Volunteer Appreciation Week, a perfect time to celebrate the 250+ active volunteers who assist WJCS staff in many of our 80+ programs. We are so grateful to all of our volunteers, who range in age from young students to seniors, for the dedication and skills they bring to their work at our agency. While our volunteer opportunities are currently primarily virtual because of the coronavirus, they still provide plenty of opportunities to help others and make a difference. Our volunteers tell us they feel that helping others helps them. It provides purpose to their lives. As Rabbi Hillel ...