Labor Day message from Stuart Appelbaum

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 17:10:35 PM EDT

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) and of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/UFCW has a Labor Day timed op-ed in the JTA today.

In part:

all Jews with an innate sense of justice know it is morally wrong to deny any worker her right to organize.

A movement is building to strengthen U.S. labor laws. It calls for passing the Employee Free Choice Act, a proposal that would strengthen the rights of workers like Debbie Fontaine and crack down on employers who refuse to respect them.

American Jews have always taken pride in our zeal for social justice. The civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the other great crusades of our time all bear the indelible imprint of progressive Jews.

Not Just Remembering Katrina

by: Sheila Webb-Halpern

Mon Aug 25, 2008 at 17:49:24 PM EDT

Three years ago, we watched powerlessly as the Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  August 29th, the day Katrina hit New Orleans, is my birthday.  Each anniversary, I have remembered my feelings of distress, shock, anger, and outrage at what was happening in the incredible city of New Orleans.  I’ve never felt there was something I could do that would have direct and effective impact.  Now there is…

8th Degree, a new initiative from Jewish Funds for Justice, uses microlending to help rebuild and revitalize the Gulf Coast.  Through 8th Degree, we can engage in the highest degree of “righteous giving,” or tzedakah: lending money to help someone in need become self-sufficient.  The 8th Degree Infinity Fund is a loan fund that makes microloans to small business owners to provide them with the money they need to rebuild their businesses.
 
Through a tax-deductible donation of ANY SIZE, you can have a positive impact on a business owner, and thus a family and a community.  We can do more than remember this year.  Visit www.eighthdegree.org to find out more.

Divrei torah: tell me your fantasies

by: Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 14:22:30 PM EDT

As you may know, jspot features a d'var torah (Torah commentary) each week.  These pieces focus on the weekly Torah reading from a social justice point of view, and are written by a variety of scholars, activists, rabbis, and others. 

As I'm thinking about whom to invite to write for us next year, I'd love your thoughts--whose point of view would you like to see here?  What writers should we invite?

 For examples of past divrei torah, click here.

 Don't want to include your ideas in the comments?  Feel free to send an e-mail to me:  jjacobs[at]jewishjustice.org

Gender and age: a report from the National Havurah Committee Institute

by: Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 11:02:14 AM EDT

I just returned from the National Havurah Committee's summer institute, a weeklong learning/davening/singing/chatting, etc. experience. 

The major themes of the week were gender and social justice.  (that's "gender" and "social justice"--not "gender and social justice.")  

The folks at Jewschool have written pretty extensively about the gender conversations, so I won't reprise it all.  As mentioned there, one of the major issues revolved around the different understandings of gender identities/possibilities for gender identities among folks of different backgrounds and generation.  What I found even more surprising, though, were the similarities in the gender concerns of the thirtysomethings and the sixtysomethings.  (the 40s & 50s were, by and large, the missing generation at the Institute, but more on that later.)

First post- welcome and reflections on the Ninth of Av

by: Rachel Berger

Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 16:23:55 PM EDT

I am very excited and pleased to have recently joined JFSJ as one of 2 grant making fellows. During my time here I will be working closely with the grant making team around funding practices to create sustainable progressive change through community organizing.

One of unique and powerful tools organizers bring to the table is their story. Over the past week (and during my intense, 14 hour interview process) I had the privilege of hearing some of my new colleagues’ stories, stories relating to anger about injustice, stories about growing a Jewish awareness, stories about inspiration, and stories about dejection. All of these stories help illuminate their experience and reasons for coming to JFSJ.

Although my own story is still a work in progress, it is very much guided and shaped by my Jewish journey and my background in social work. Working to integrate these two driving forces, I have come to see my community, specifically the Jewish community, situated within and interdependent with the greater community of New York, as an ecosystem. I think that the health and well being of each person affects the whole such that when one person feels pain, the community hurts, and when some experience joy and success, those experiences reverberate throughout.

As the Ninth of Av recently passed, and I commemorated some of the painful parts of Jewish history, I participated in the retelling the very painful story of Lamentations. During that reading I was keeping two things I recently learned in mind. One was a quote in Robert Putnam’s Better Together by Father Alfonso Guevara, who said that by telling stories in house meetings “we make private pain public.” By reading the Book of Lamentations aloud I had the opportunity to do just that, and by extension, to experience the healing, strength, and mutual responsibility that followed. The other is the growing realization that when I tell my story, I don’t just recall a set of experiences that happened to me, I actually guide and even remake those memories deliberately. The story became a tool of power. This Ninth of Av, and over the next few years here, my goal was and will be that I take the stories I’ve got and the stories I collect, and use them to demand- and give- better.

I look forward to posting on Jspot freqently and reporting on how things are going, talking about grant making and leadership in the progressive movement, an- if I'm good- connecting that to Jewish spirtual life and community organizing!

Comfort me, please

by: Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg

Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 11:56:21 AM EDT

This morning as I read and was moved by the postings from rejewvenator and Jeremy Burton related to Tisha B’Av, I also felt a sense of relief. We have made it through yet another Tisha B’Av, and we are now on the other side – in the period of consolation.

I am struck by the optimism of our Jewish tradition, that there are only three weeks of admonition prior to Tisha B’Av as compared to seven weeks of consolation following that mournful day. For three weeks we read haftarot that admonish the sins that led to the destruction of the Temple, but for seven weeks our Prophets console us with hope that reversal, restoration and repair are possible.

Unseen, unvalued, its all politics

by: Jeremy Burton

Mon Aug 11, 2008 at 14:23:27 PM EDT

Party platforms are political documents, designed to send certain messages to various voters, from valuing the party base to outreach to the so called swing voters.

In this context, the latest news is striking: the current version of the Democrats' platform fails to mention "gay and lesbian families."  This omission is getting some attention in the GLBT media and today's Wall Street Journal.  It deserves far greater attention.

As GayCityNews reports:

Four years ago, the platform read, "We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families." The new language instead says, "We support full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibily, benefits, and protections." It is not clear what motivated this softening in language, but the shift comes in a platform that includes no references to specific LGBT family concerns, such as partnership protections, adoption, and parity in government programs like Social Security.

"Leading advocacy groups contacted by Gay City News declined comment," apparently because negotiations are ongoing.

This act of invisibility is disturbing, at best.  How is a party supposed to be a voice for change and protecting the rights of all Americans if it can't even bring itself to name them?

Stay tuned. 

Build it Union, support your team

by: Jeremy Burton

Mon Aug 11, 2008 at 11:55:19 AM EDT

Mik & I went to a Mets game last week & took note of the highly visible promotion of the NY Carpenters Union, the team's partner in building their new stadium.  As noted last year on this blog, the Mets have invested in publicly promoting their support for union labor on the new site - a task that has been taken over by 3rd baseman David Wright after the departure of Tom Glavine.

Since we're a non-partisan crowd, I'll tell you that the union workers of NY are similarly invested in the building of the new Yankee Stadium. With only 7 weeks left in the season, you can still get a souvenir pin at builditunion.com celebrating and supporting the carpenters work on both the new CitiField and/or the new Yankee Stadium. 

Because NY is union town, regardless of your partisan affliations.

California's new Jewish holiday?

by: Jeremy Burton

Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 22:35:12 PM EDT

The LA Times reported last week that the California Senate has approved May 22 as 'Harvey Milk Day'

Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) said the bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was appropriate to honor a man who, in 1977, became the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the United States and later made the cover of Time Magazine.

"His legacy as a civil rights leader is still felt today," she said.

Not one Republican voted for the bill, which also says the day shall have special significance in public school and other educational institutions and "encourages those entities to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date."

Which begs the question, is Milk a role model of Jewish leadership?  This question came up last May when I was at a retreat where Milk was held up as one of the many unusual and often unheralded role models of American Jewish leadership in the 20th century.

Why Will You Cry?

by: rejewvenator

Wed Aug 06, 2008 at 20:43:24 PM EDT

The Rambam writes in the Mishneh Torah (Laws of Fasting 5:3) that five events happened on the ninth day of Av: the sin of the Spies (about which we read in this week's parsha), the destruction of the First Temple and the Second Temple, the capture of Betar and the killing of the proto-messianic Bar Kochba and all his people, and finally, the plowing of the Temple Mount by Turnus Rufus. In short, for the Rambam, Tisha B'Av is the betrayal of hope. It is the time when the three promises that God makes the Jewish people are all reversed: that He will give them the land of their forefathers, that He will dwell among them, and that He will bring a messiah to redeem them.