This year’s Sternberger Social Justice Award recipient, the Shepherd’s Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church, was chosen to recognize the center’s dedication to issues of social justice in our community. The Shepherd’s Center provides services and opportunities to enable those 50 years of age and older to maintain and improve their quality of life and enhance their lives by allowing them to stay in their homes as long as possible and as safely as possible.
These services for seniors in our community such as transportation (to and from medical and therapy appointments, the pharmacy and grocery store), handy helpers (minor repairs inside and outside their homes) and friendly callers (to homebound individuals for reassurance and companionship) qualified the Shepherd’s Center to receive the 2014 Rabbi Richard S. Sternberger Social Justice Award. The late Rabbi Sternberger established the award in 1992 to keep alive his profound commitment to social activism and Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew phrase that means “repairing the world.” He was deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement during the 1960’s with all the personal and professional risk that involved. He unflinchingly preached sermons to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Rabbi Sternberger never forgot that the search for the divine and for human spirituality is inseparable from the search for a just society.
The Shepherd’s Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church can be reached in McLean at (703) 506-2199 or at info@scmafc.org.
