The App

A digital tool of action and reflection for a more just world

About Our iPhone and Android Apps

Designed for American Jews and their allies, the Tzedek Box app:

• Alerts you to timely news and action opportunities in the world of Jewish justice work

• Serves as an interactive journal for your reflections after engaging in acts of advocacy, activism and civic change

• Enables you to form or join “tribes” to get involved in justice work with others

Includes notifications to activate your justice actions and reflections

• Offers an annual “cheshbon tzedek,” a personalized accounting of your year

For our Opportunities section, we are currently aggregating actions from the partners of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. We hope that this introduction to these organizations inspires your deeper engagement with them. We aspire to showcase more local events over time.

We consider the contents of your box yours and private unless you choose to share them; we will only use tags from data that users apply to their entries in the aggregate in order to understand trends.

The app was built by Edon Valdman (Valdman Works) and funded by a grant from the Be Wise Fellowship at Hebrew Union College.

Tribes

The Tzedek Box is private and self-reflective. In the spirit of Rambam’s ladder of tzedakah, the point is not self-congratulation or public recognition. However, you can form or join a tribe with peers -- recalling the 12 tribes of Israel, who each pooled their resources to contribute to the Greater Good. Here, you can share your actions with others, to activate the multiplying power of the Biblical verse “tzedek tzedek tirdof” (Deuteronomy 16:20): justice, justice you must pursue.
Portfolio

Forming Your Own Tribe

1. Create a tribe. Go to your profile page, click "Tribes," and create one. Don't forget to include a photo for your tribe.

2. Choose a date. Choose a date (either Pesach Sheni in May, when we are having a general opening of the boxes, or any date after that) when you as a group will collectively open your boxes in order to reflect on the work you all have done.

3. Teach your members. Alert your members that they should join your tribe, either telling them via e-mail, video or live announcement why you're using the app, how they can join (by downloading the app and joining the tribe via their profile page) and how to enter their own (anonymous) actions into the group box (check out the "Tzedek Box Pro-Tips" slideshow above). Name the date you've chosen for opening the boxes.

4. Admit new members into your tribe. Monitor your tribe via your profile page to admit new members and grant them access to the tribe. (You should receive a notification every time someone wants to join.)

5. Share actions they can take. Every time you have an action for your group to take, use the pad and pencil tool in the center of the menu bar, fill out a card about the action, and contribute it to your tribe's box. Everyone in your tribe will receive a notification of the action, and it will also appear in the "Tribes" feed on the Opportunities screen.

6. Host an annual gathering. Once a year, plan an event where people will open up their individual boxes, and where people can share their reflections about reviewing their actions -- and rededicate themselves to deeper action in the coming year.