One of the Temple’s ongoing Tikkun Olam projects is our partnership with Clinic With a Heart, which is located just a few blocks from the Temple. Clinic With a Heart provides free medical services to the uninsured and underinsured. They also help connect their patients with other social services.
We have a team of over twenty members and friends who provide the mitzvah of service at the clinic on the fourth Thursday evening of the month. The Temple is one of eight local faith communities that serve at the clinic, so our partnership with Clinic With a Heart helps us build interfaith connections while it fulfills the mitzvah of caring for those in need. New participants are always welcome.
In the Shulchan Aruch, the sixteenth-century Code of Jewish Law, we read that: “if someone has medications, and another person is sick and needs them, it is forbidden to raise their prices beyond what is appropriate” (Yoreh De’ah 336:3). Clinic With a Heart shares this value, and the Temple is proud to help enable the Clinic’s work for our community.
Clinic with a Heart collects no insurance money or government funds; it relies on funding from sponsoring organizations. Our annual commitment is $1,800, or $150 per month, which is not funded in our congregational budget. Happily, with individual donations, we have met this obligation every year. The funds we contribute help to pay for clinic supplies and prescription medications for the patients. If you would like to support our commitment to Clinic with a Heart, you may make a donation to the Temple, designated for the clinic.
