For 11 days starting on Monday, Nov. 25, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation will join PJ Library, Parents Place and local Jewish preschools in a program that teaches tzedakah and provides holiday gifts to needy kids.
The Fifth Night Project asks kids to forgo their own gift on the fifth night of Hanukkah and instead donate a gift to a child in need. Collection bins will be set up at 18 Bay Area preschools from Nov. 25 through Dec. 6.
Suggested gifts are educational toys, games, books, and school and art supplies. The gifts, which should not be wrapped, will be distributed by Parents Place, a program of S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
In addition, there will be classroom and take-home activities to help make the project and Hanukkah meaningful for preschoolers and their families.
“The principle of tzedakah can be taught from a very young age, and kids can understand early on our collective responsibility to others in our community,” said Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO of the federation. “I’m so pleased that we can partner with these terrific preschools to help perform these precious mitzvot.”
Launched in 2011, the Fifth Night Project has collected more than 1,400 toys to date.
Collection bins are at the following preschools, some located in synagogues: Gan Noe, Helen Diller Family Preschool, Brotherhood Way Preschool, Sherith Israel, Emanu-El, Claude & Louise Rosenberg ECE Program (San Francisco); Peninsula JCC, Chai (Foster City); Temple Sholom (Burlingame); Beth Jacob (Redwood City); Gan Aviv (Sunnyvale); T’enna Preschool (Palo Alto); Beth Am (Los Altos); Osher Marin JCC ECE Preschool, Gan Israel (San Rafael); Southern Marin Jewish Community Preschool (Tiburon); Beth Ami (Santa Rosa); and Gan Israel (Petaluma).