His Brother's Keeper

This book presents a detail flashback about the American Jewish Society for Service. For half a century the Society has realized in concrete deeds the prophetic vision for the social order, a vision of service to the needy, of tzedakah, the Hebrew word for righteousness and also for charity. But that service takes the form not of donating funds, an impersonal, generic action, but of donating one's own strength and energy, personally and particularly. Giving a month and a half or more for five eight-hour days a week to build, paint, renovate, clean up, the young people gathered in the Society's projects have gotten as much as they have given. The experience of hard work for others carries with it lessons learned for a lifetime.