You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
Pirkei Avot 20:21
Social Action & Tikkun Olam
At CDS, we inspire not only Jewish learning, but a daily life guided by Jewish values and ethics. Our goal is for students to become accustomed to tzedakah (charitable giving) and gemilut hasadim (acts of kindness) as a way of life. Our graduates are known for their engagement in tikkun olam (repairing the world), as compassionate upstanders and changemakers of great moral courage.
MLK Day at CDS
Instead of taking the day off, students at Community Day School take on the essential themes of Martin Luther King Jr. Day together with the broader Pittsburgh community in a day of learning, service, and reflection. MLK Day is truly day set apart from “business as usual” at CDS, with a relevant, challenging, and impactful social justice curriculum developed by our faculty in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves and Repair the World.
In every grade, from Early Childhood through Middle School, our students engage with the question of what it means to be an "upstander" and how to live out Dr. King’s dream in our turbulent and politically divided times. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day curriculum is designed as a call to action for both children and their families in a moment in history when action is sorely needed.
Past themes have included "Women in Civil Rights" and "Fences," exploring how and why neighborhoods separate us, as well as “Borders,” focusing on the systems and institutions that have produced barriers to access, opportunity, and peace in Pittsburgh, the U.S., and worldwide.
At times, we’re asked why a Jewish day school like ours chooses to spend the day doing this kind of work. In response, we can only ask, “How can we not?”
CDS parent Shiri Friedman