Charity in the Festival of Lights!

Celebrate Hanukkah also helping the environment and doing charity.


On Chanukah, it is traditional to give children Chanukah Guelt - Money Hanukkah. One reason for this custom is the opportunity to offer them positive reinforcement for exemplary behavior, and encourage them to donate a portion to tzedakah - charity. This commandment (mitzvah), helps children understand the importance of charity (tzedakah) also when they are adults.

Some useful examples for charity on Hanukkah:

Ner Shel Tzedakah (Candle of Justice)A project for the sixth night of Chanukah Dedicating the night of Chanukah 6 to learn about the problem of poverty. Donate the value of gifts (or the gifts themselves) that would otherwise exchange on that night to organizations that help the poor.

Light Among the Nations
If each family had one light bulb with a CFL (compact fluorescent lamps), it would have the same impact as removing 1.3 million cars off the road. Celebrate Chanukah taking action to resolve the crisis of climate change. This campaign is to involve the community Jewish education, advocacy, and concrete measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Visit the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) to find out how you can participate in this important campaign.

Sustaining the Light: A Social Justice Program Guide for Chanukah. A new program guide of the Commission for Social Action, which highlights the themes of social justice of Chanukah - the environment, economic justice, children's issues, religious freedom - and describes the activities that flow from them. In the guide you will find ideas of social action program for families, social action committees, youth groups and other groups synagogue. We hope this material will help you make your Chanukah observance one that inspires acts of righteousness (Tzedek) and tsedaká (charity).