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40 Things You Can Do To Make a Difference

“It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to waste the opportunity”. Ethics of the Fathers 2:21

An old man was walking on the beach at dawn when he noticed a young man picking up starfish stranded by the retreating tide and throwing them back in the sea one by one. He went up to him and asked him why he was doing this. The young man replied that the starfish would die if left exposed to the morning sun. ‘But the beach goes on for miles, and there are thousands of starfish. You will not be able to save them all. How can your effort make a difference?’. The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. ‘To this one,’ he said, ‘it makes a difference’.

Retold from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley

“We do not have to redeem the world all together in one go. We do it one day at a time, one person at a time, one act at a time. A single life, said the sages, is like a universe. Save a life and you save the world. Change a life and you begin to change the world”.

To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Sacks (p.72)

How to make the most of this ideas bank on the website

Each of the 40 ideas on this page can be done by yourself, in a small group, or as part of an organisation or community.

Form a social action group in your synagogue, school, community or workplace and use this book to choose which projects you want to get involved with. By helping and caring for each other and others, your community will be strengthened.
Bring your family closer by picking some of these things to do together or alternatively, each family member can choose a different idea.
A youth movement can incorporate some of the ideas into a social action or chesed (lovingkindness) committee.
A school can use this ideas bank to plan and launch their charity or social action initiatives for the year.
Help to create or enhance a Bnei Mitzvah programme. Ask the young people to choose 12 or 13 ideas and challenge them to do them all in the run-up to their Bar/Batmitzvah.
A Jewish society at a mainstream school could choose an idea to learn about and do and be an example to the rest of the school.
Challenge yourself: Choose ideas you like most or you can do most easily and start doing them.

The final challenge is to do something regularly. A one-off event is wonderful, but just think how much more you could achieve by making a regular commitment. Whether it is weekly, monthly or annually, turning what you do into a lifetime habit will make the greatest difference.