Fleece blanket project puts tzedakah to work

3/4th Graders proudly show off their blanket /Torat Yisrael

Feeding the hungry, being kind to others, taking care of the earth – these acts of kindness are valuable Jewish traditions. Helping animals – tsar baalei chaim (prevention of cruelty to animals) – is also a very important Jewish value/mitzvah. The Cohen Schools’ Community Tzedakah Program, on Nov. 15, focused on teaching the Torah’s value of showing kindness to animals. Students got a hands-on experience in accepting the responsibility and importance of caring for other living things as members of the Jewish community.

In honor of “National Animal Shelter Week,” a program of the Humane Society of the United States, the teachers and students, worked together to make two-sided fleece-tie blankets, to be donated to the Cranston Animal Shelter. With the help of the programs’ facilitator, Barbara Dwares, excited and hard-working students picked out their special fleece fabric design, cut and tied the soft materials together into warm, cuddly blankets for the cats and dogs that live temporarily in the shelter. Many students took extra care and created special hiding places for smaller animals to curl up inside the blanket.

The blankets were taken to the Cranston Animal Shelter the following week.  The Cohen School students were happy to support the shelter, which provides a safe haven for the animals and helps find them loving, lifelong homes. Through this mitzvah, they provided comfort to the animals during a difficult time.

DORI ADLER is education director of the Cohen School at Temple Torat Yisrael.