LO's youngest champion explains her passion

Treasurer Ed Malley visits Sigal and her stunning presentation

My name is Sigal Alcheck and I go to Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School. The Tzedakah Project is when all of the students in the 7th grade choose different organizations to support and we raise money all year. The root tzedek means justice, so tzedakah literally means "doing justice."

I chose Lotus Outreach because I believe that it is an effective way of helping the people less fortunate than I am. When I was doing the research in the beginning of the year, I stumbled across an article on trafficking. When I first read about sexual abuse I was astonished. I can't imagine that girls who are my age, who live in the same world as me, are being treated like that. I knew from that moment that I wanted to help.

I have chosen a sermon about slavery today and how it relates to Pesach, which is the Jewish holiday celebrating the exodus from Egypt after being slaves there for hundreds of years. The sermon explains that we, as Jews, were once slaves in Egypt and no one helped us. We have gained many rights, but the people who are slaves in third world countries don't have any. We know how it feels and now it is our turn to help.

During Pesach we have a seder to remember that we were once slaves, we still live in a world which accepts slavery and it is our duty to liberate them. The book of Deuteronomy says: "You shall not turn over to his master a slave who is rescued from his master to you. He shall dwell with you in your midst, in whatever place he will choose in one of your cities, which is beneficial to him; you shall not taunt him.”
לא תסגיר עבד אל אדניו אשר ינצל אליך מעם אדני: עמך ישב בקרבך במקומ אש– יבחר באחד שעריך בטוב לו לא תוננו

To me, this quote means that if someone is a slave it is not their fault, and that we should help them learn how to be free instead of holding it over them. After we came out of Egypt, a whole generation of people died in the desert because they didn't know how to be free. People thought that it was a better life for them being slaves and wanted to go running back to Egypt. When someone has been treated as an object that can be traded his/her whole life, they need help to learn how to be free.

Lotus Outreach helps with education, counseling, healthcare and even clean water. If these people go straight back to working, they will probably be taken advantage of. Lotus Outreach gives people like this an education so that they can have a better life than the average person who lives in poverty in Southeast Asia and rural India.

These people are coming out of slavery. No one helped us when we were in Egypt, but we shouldn't make the same mistake of not helping. If we just stand by and watch people suffer, it is also on our shoulders.

We can help these people if we do it together. The main Jewish value that Lotus Outreach reflects is tikun olam, or fixing the world. Lotus Outreach helps to stop the cycle of poverty which is helping to make the world a better place for everyone who lives in it.

From the Tzedakah Project I learned that I need to be more aware of different problems in the world. I also need to be more appreciative of what I have and give more aid to those less fortunate. The process that we have been going through all year really helped us all grow as people.

People told me that this subject might be too inappropriate for me. But I thought, "If it's inappropriate for me, then its definitely not appropriate for the five year old girls who it's actually happening to."