“Tikkun olam” is a Hebrew phrase meaning to repair or heal the world. On Wednesday, a couple of dozen students from the Hebrew School at Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven did their part to make that a reality. They loaded 128 bags of nonperishable food into vehicles to be transported to the Island Food Pantry located a few blocks away at Christ United Methodist Church.

One day last April 91 Islanders visited the Island Food Pantry. Each person collected their allotted three bags of donated food, which meant 273 bags were distributed in a single day. It was a record in the pantry’s 30-year history.

That number is expected to climb in the coming year, pantry director Armen Hanjian said this week.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the secular articulation of the deepest truths of all spiritual traditions. It is the best, deepest and highest ideals of all traditions,” says Rabbi Brian Walt, a founder and former director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. Three years ago, that organization began to produce prayers, sermons and teaching materials linking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to core Jewish values for use by Jewish congregations to celebrate International Human Rights Day. Today, Dec.

The shabbat service at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center next Friday, Jan. 16, at 5:30 p.m., will pay tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his friend and colleague Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

The Martha’s Vineyard NAACP will cosponsor the tribute; Rabbi Caryn Broitman will lead the memorial service.

Excerpts from Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel’s speeches and writings will be read as part of the service.

Celebrate Jewish Book Month with the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center at 130 Centre street in Vineyard Haven, with a special reading on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 2 p.m. by author and seasonal resident Professor Edward Kaplan. He will speak about his new book, Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America 1940-1972.

Refreshments will follow, as well as the center’s book fair, with books for all ages.

Some unpack prolific menorah collections, many make latkes, others
make doughnuts and most buy presents - but whatever a
family's traditions to prepare for Hanukkah, hundreds of Islanders
will light the first menorah candles at sundown this evening, the
beginning of the eight-night Festival of Lights.