For more than 5 years, Beth Israel-Juea members have committed themselves to a social-action project called The Book Connection Literacy and Tutoring Program with the McLaren Child Development Center, which is located in the Bayview/Hunters Point district of San Francisco. The program serves low-income kids, teaching literacy and math (with rap music).
The program has collected hundreds of books for the Center and tutored many great kids. Please drop off used children's books (still in good condition) to the BIJ Office.
Ronnie Zuckerberg, a leader of the social action committee and a member of the Board of Trustees has spearheaded this project.
In 2004, the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism awarded The Book Connection the Irving Fain Social Action Award. The Fain Awards are awarded every two years to congregations that have successfully involved large numbers of congregants in their social action programs or that have developed genuinely innovative and/or particularly effective projects.