With an emphasis on social justice, IC Tzedek is based in the Jewish community of Ithaca College. It works to promote service, advocacy and education on social justice issues at the college, in town and internationally. The meaning of justice varies between individuals. But in the sense of Tzedek work, social justice is geared toward creating a world of equal opportunity where human rights are honored and respected.

IC Tzedek takes its name from the Hebrew word Tzedek, which means justice or charity. There is a passage in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, which says “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” The line is a reminder that beyond the details of how different people live their lives, we have a similar driving purpose at our core: to be good, righteous and decent to one another.

In the beginning of the semester, IC Tzedek students attended the Save Darfur rally in New York City. In September and October, we organized a voter registration initiative, which supplied absentee ballots to more than 40 students before Election Day. In November, we set up a “Locks of Love” event and collected more than 200 inches of hair for children who have lost theirs due to medical reasons.

More recently, in November and the first week of December, we have focused on advocacy for Burma, a country in southeast Asia which is in the midst of violence, political oppression and ethnic cleansing. For this, we partnered with the International Campaign for the Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma. The theme, “A Week of Action,” emphasized interaction with political refugees living in Ithaca.

For next semester, we have a fair trade coffee project in the works, which will raise funds for an interfaith coffee co-op in Uganda that is aspiring to spread a message of peace. Because the project is fair-trade oriented, the workers will receive a living wage. This will enable them to purchase bed nets which protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria, buy school supplies and medicine, and bring electricity and running water into their village.

We are also planning a trip to the Gulf Coast where helpful hands are desperately needed, and we are planning campaigns to fight hunger and homelessness. We would also like to organize lectures to educate students on the Military Commissions Act, signed by the president Oct. 17, which has undermined individual freedoms and protections of the constitution.

Everyone has some ideal for how the world should be run. What we need to do is turn our thoughts into action. In social justice work, people may not always agree with the values you hold and the way you go about seeing those ideals take shape. The important thing is to be respectful of the different ways people approach the world.

It may seem like a big task to affect change, but there are things anyone can do as part of their daily routine to make a difference. One is to switch your shopping habits to fair trade. There is an abundance of fair trade coffee on campus, in town or at Starbucks. Even at Dunkin’ Donuts, espresso is fair trade, though regular coffee is not.

Beyond coffee, fair trade chocolate, bananas and soap are available at GreenStar. And if it’s too much effort to go to fair trade stores, there are “one-click campaigns” on the Internet, which allow you to donate to needy organizations from home. A busy student can help the world just by surfing the Web. It’s easy, and many of the campaigns are linked from Tzedek’s national homepage, www.hillel.org/tzedek.

Another idea would be to keep a charity box  — a tzedakah box in Hebrew — in your house. Every time you come home, empty some change into the box. Then bring your coins to the store and drop them in the Coinstar machine. If you enter the code “5555,” your money will be donated to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. If you can keep your receipts, drop them of at Muller Chapel to add to the college’s donation total.

In this modern age, it couldn’t be easier to incorporate the values of charity and justice into everyday living. You don’t have to be Jewish to support IC Tzedek or social justice campaigns. Anyone with the will to see the world become a better place can make change happen if they try.

Julie Berger is a junior culture and communication major. E-mail her at jberger1@ithaca.edu.