Bellevue student Monica Droker was one of 80 Jewish teens from the Seattle area to participate in a recent three-day community service seminar. She also was nominated for the national youth teen board overseeing the national J-Serve experience.

The event, J-Serve 2009, the National Day of Jewish Youth Service on April 26, brought the students together to paint, plant, care for and help a variety of Jewish nonprofits around the area, such as Jewish Family Service, NCJW’s Shalom Bayit (domestic violence shelter), Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and other nonprofit organizations.

J-Serve provides participants with the opportunity to fulfill age-old Jewish values. By engaging in community service, J-Serve participants are fulfilling the ideals of gemilut chasadim, acts of loving kindness; tzedakah, just and charitable giving; and tikkun olam, the idea that Jews are duty bound to help fix a broken world.