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Get involved
A Chabad House runs on people who turn up. Challah that somebody baked, a lift that somebody drove, chairs that somebody stacked at eleven at night. Here is what that actually looks like, and how to offer.
There is no minimum. One afternoon a year is a real contribution and nobody keeps score. Say yes to the things that fit and no to the things that don’t; you are never signing up to a rota by asking what is needed.
And nothing is expected of you religiously. You do not need to keep Shabbat, keep kosher, read Hebrew, or believe anything in particular. People help here because it needs doing, and that is the whole of the qualification.
Each of these is something already happening — not a program invented for this page. Most of them have a page of their own with more detail, linked underneath.
Shape, bake and deliver fresh challahs to seniors and neighbors who could use one. It is the most sociable job on this list and the easiest to bring a child to.
Chabad Care has volunteers who visit seniors around San Jose week by week — a job that needs doing, a form that needs reading, or simply tea and an hour of company.
Somebody in a hospital bed locally, with nobody local to visit them. You do not need to know them, and you do not need to know what to say — the office will tell you what is helpful.
A lift to an appointment, to Shul on a Shabbat morning, or to a program somebody would otherwise miss. Often the single most useful thing anyone offers.
The Menorah lighting, the Seders, the Purim party, the Lag BaOmer barbecue, the Matzah factory. Setting up, cooking, running a table, watching a door, stacking chairs at the end.
Setting up and clearing the Kiddush after Shabbat morning, or setting two or three more places at your own Friday night table for a guest who has nowhere to go.
A Sunday morning at Hebrew School, or a summer at Camp Gan Israel. Camp roles have their own terms and their own page; anything else, ask.
A shiva house needs ten people for a Minyan, twice a day, so that Kaddish can be said — and it needs meals brought in, because the family should not be cooking. Both are made of neighbors turning up.
The Russian-speaking side of the community runs dinners, concerts, walks and a library. Speaking the language is a qualification all by itself.
More on most of these: Chabad Care for meals, visits and lifts, what’s on for the holiday programs, Hebrew School and Camp Gan Israel for children, shiva for a house in mourning, Kiddush and Shabbat hospitality for the weekly table, and the Russian-speaking community.
We run the Bay Area Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish burial society. Its volunteers perform the Taharah and sit shmirah so that a Jewish person is never left alone before burial. It is called the truest kindness because it is the only one that can never be repaid or even known about by the person who receives it.
No experience is needed and nobody arrives with any. What is asked is discretion, permanently, and being reachable at hours that are sometimes inconvenient. The women’s team is almost always short.
A building and a community generate exactly the sort of problems that somebody in the room already knows how to solve. A lawyer who will read a lease. An accountant who will look at a filing. A plumber who can diagnose a boiler, an electrician, a handyman with a van. A designer, a photographer, somebody who can build a spreadsheet that stops a mess recurring. A nurse. A translator.
Tell us what you do and we will keep it in mind rather than call you every week. Professional help offered once, at the right moment, is often worth more than a year of Sundays — and if we never call, nothing has been lost.
Plenty of what is on this list is done with children alongside — baking Challah, packing for a holiday program, delivering to a doorstep. Some of it is not, and visiting a hospital or a Shiva house is usually better done by an adult. Say who is coming with you and we will point you at the right thing.
Teenagers looking for their own thing, rather than their parents’, should start at CTeen.
Tick anything that sounds like you — the same nine, in the same words. Nothing on this form is a commitment: somebody will call and talk it through, and “actually, not that one” is a perfectly good end to that conversation.
There is no minimum. One afternoon a year is a real contribution, and nobody keeps score.
No. You do not need to keep Shabbat, keep kosher, read Hebrew, or believe anything in particular.
For baking Challah or packing for a holiday program, yes. Hospital and shiva visits are usually better done by an adult. Say who is coming and we will point you to the right thing.
The office will tell you what a role needs before you begin. Nothing on the form is a commitment.
Somebody from the office, to talk it through. “Actually, not that one” is a perfectly good end to that call.
Not everybody has time, and time is not the only thing this place runs on. Giving is on the donate page, and a small amount every month is the steadiest kind. Sponsoring a Kiddush feeds the whole community for a morning.
If you are the one who needs help rather than the one offering it, that is what Chabad Care is for, and it is asked for the same way — by phone, at any hour.