{"id":19540,"date":"2016-06-10T00:34:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T07:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=19540"},"modified":"2016-06-08T15:33:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T22:33:59","slug":"interfaith-volunteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/06\/10\/interfaith-volunteering\/","title":{"rendered":"Interfaith volunteering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among her volunteer work, Heather Fenyes started Think Good, Do Good with her cousin. (photo from Heather Fenyes)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Heather Fenyes is a full-time volunteer. She is actively involved in Saskatoon\u2019s Jewish community, as well as with a number of organizations on the national Jewish scene. In 2011, she and her then nearly retired cousin, Jan Gitlin, started the organization Think Good, Do Good to create opportunities for people to engage in acts to improve their community.<\/p>\n

A teacher by education, Fenyes has spent many years volunteering at the local Hebrew school, at Agudas Israel Synagogue. \u201cWe\u2019re a pretty small community and we punch way above our weight class,\u201d she told the Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when I do things with respect to the Jewish community, while Think Good, Do Good is absolutely non-political, there is spill-over in both directions,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause things I care about aren\u2019t compartmentalized, so the kinds of philosophies we work with, with respect to coexistence, apply to what I want for Israel and what I want in Think Good, Do Good, and in my own community.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Fenyes\u2019 kids were growing older, she recognized they were probably going to leave Saskatoon once they finished high school. Unless she created something more tangible to keep herself busy, it would be a difficult time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Judaism tells me that we\u2019re not bound by thoughts, but compelled toward to action,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to do good things. I\u2019ve always wanted to work with that philosophy. I\u2019ve always been a passionate believer in social justice and collective responsibility and, frankly, good deeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fenyes decided a good place to begin was to pay a visit to Judge David Arnot, head of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, explaining to him that she wanted to find a way to work with him as a volunteer.<\/p>\n

That initial meeting has resulted in some annual activities that incorporate Muslim-Jewish outreach, Holocaust education and school events that often revolve around Raoul Wallenberg and the concept of \u201cthe power of one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an annual Holocaust memorial event in which we reach out to 2,000 students over a period of time,\u201d said Fenyes. \u201cI\u2019m married to a refugee whose family escaped Budapest in 1956 during the revolution, after having survived the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fenyes has been spending a lot of time in classrooms, leading various lessons on citizenship, reminding students that, with all of our rights come just as many, if not more, responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of conversations in classrooms about the things we take for granted and the things we are responsible for,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of this is just for the lesson itself, and a part of it is with the hope that teachers get this new curriculum, for K to 12 classes, in the very near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past three years, on March 21, which is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Gitlin and Fenyes have chosen 250 elementary students who they work with on citizenship and take them to the university campus \u2013 with their Think Good, Do Good buttons on \u2013 to speak with students in the halls. \u201cThey approach university students and ask if they have done something good today,\u201d said Fenyes. \u201cI learn infinitely more from these K to 12 students than I teach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While teaching one of the classes, Fenyes met a young student who said he was from Gaza. Fenyes suggested they talk about hummus. \u201cI have a lot of friends from the Middle East and we have an ongoing discussion about who makes the best hummus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis young man was enthralled and we had this adorable, non-substantial discussion about hummus … and the teacher was standing looking anxious in the corner\u2026. She said to me about a week later, \u2018You cannot believe what happened Heather. Not long before you\u2019d been in the classroom, this young man had been telling me about his family\u2019s discomfort with Jewish people and his strong negative feelings towards Israel. When you left the classroom, he had a change.\u2019 She said if she hadn\u2019t seen it herself, she wouldn\u2019t have believed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe approached the teacher and shared how moved he was by having met me and asked to write a paper … and, it was on coexistence or getting to know our neighbors … something completely opposite to the things he\u2019d been saying before.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how we say, \u2018To save one life\u2019? I\u2019m not saying that at all, but, if I changed one young man\u2019s way of thinking, that\u2019s a world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fenyes is very aware of the immigration statistics in Saskatchewan and the challenges they pose. \u201cIf we don\u2019t create some infrastructure and have conversations like you and I are having right now, and set up educational opportunities, we are going to be another failed example,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that we need to do it because it\u2019s the right thing to do. We need to do it because, otherwise, we\u2019re going to live in a different kind of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

This understanding really hit home when Fenyes\u2019 son received a death threat while studying at Western University. Fenyes did not need that wake up call, but it did remind her of why she was in classrooms and making connections with people of all faiths.<\/p>\n

Fenyes said they have learned from experience that, if the Jewish community alone puts on events such as the annual Raoul Wallenberg program \u2013 which this year took place on Feb. 5 \u2013 they do not have the same impact. Therefore, they have given the Catholic and public schools the mandate to organize the event. This year\u2019s program featured a young man who was born in Congo and lived in Kenya before immigrating to Saskatoon as a refugee; he just graduated from high school last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a city where we have two separate systems, the Catholic and the public school systems work together,\u201d said Fenyes. \u201cThe superintendents from each have been meeting, which is a great image and reality, to plan this event. One year, it\u2019s in a Catholic high school. The next year, it\u2019s in a public one.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another front, Fenyes is looking forward to finding ways to work with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that what we are doing in Saskatoon as a city and community is really impressive,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope we can infect others with some great kind of ailment \u2013 Think Good, Do Good. My kids tease me that I live my life with rose-colored glasses. They might mean it as an insult, but I take it as a compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among her volunteer work, Heather Fenyes started Think Good, Do Good with her cousin. (photo from Heather Fenyes) Heather Fenyes is a full-time volunteer. She is actively involved in Saskatoon\u2019s Jewish community, as well as with a number of organizations on the national Jewish scene. In 2011, she and her then nearly retired cousin, Jan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5934,5260,2826,1959,5877],"class_list":["post-19540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-fenyes","tag-interfaith","tag-saskatoon","tag-tikkun-olam","tag-volunteerism"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}