Monday, October 15, 2007

ICED...an immigration game, and other online social justice games

Into online gaming? Frankly, It's only recently that I'd even heard of this phenom, the apotheosis of virtual reality, in which gamers assume online-only identities to live out fantasies.

Or to live out horrors.

Yesterday's Star Tribune published a great story about online games who virtually immerse themselves in the horrors of Darfur, the challenges that face immigrants, or the day to day struggle of poverty.

See the Strib's story.

Anybody out there who has participated in these games? Want to report on your experiences? How can we use them in our work to educate and engage local Jewish people in addressing the root causes of poverty, racism, and other forms of systemic injustice?

-Suzanne Bring

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Leaders We've Been Waiting For?

Jewish Community Action is holding its Annual Membership Celebration and the theme is "We are the leaders we have been waiting for." Never has this been more true. One look at the State Capitol and we know it is up to us to decide how our state is going to respond to so many unmet needs.

Apparently, the Governor does not believe it is worth raising taxes on the richest Minnesotans in order to reduce class sizes, provide more health insurance for children, make sure undocumented immigrant children have access to higher education, and increase access to public transit. While Democratic leaders started out with good plans and optimism about meeting many of these needs, we think that leadership requires you to stick with those plans even when facing strong opposition. Leadership requires you to take big risks.

As the Governor vetoed one spending bill after another, Democratic leadership has chosen to trim the spending, remove the income tax increase and remove other important policy initiatives, including the Dream Act. No override attempts - total capitulation to the Governor.

Maybe it is time for the Governor to report to Minnesotans why children can't have access to health care, and why students can't have access to higher education, and why the government needed to shut down. Maybe it is time for the Democrats to call out the Governor and leave it up to him to shut down the government. Leaders take risks and act on the urgency of unmet needs in our state.

Attend our annual celebration and work with Jewish Community Action to discover the leadership we need in our state.

-Vic Rosenthal

Monday, May 14, 2007

Why Should JCA Work in Support of Immigrant Rights?

This story from Joe Miniares says it well. As Jews, we must work in support of racial justice and oppose all forms of racial profiling. This story talks about how immigrant rights is a racial justice issue and how vigilant and intentional we must be as allies with all immigrants to change our federal and state laws:

Joe Minjares: 'Legal,' but by no more than a generation
(Published: May 03, 2007)


Perhaps it's knowing what all Latinos know, or should know, in their hearts. It is the hurt of being on the fringes of the used, dismissed and forgotten. Knowing that people like us, even related to us, are an expendable, low-cost human fuel.

It is the hurt of a man who must choose whether to voice dissent in defense of his heredity or to remain a silent, unquestioning, good American.

And it is shame. Shame for remaining silent in this spectacle of disrespect for generations of sacrifice and blood given to help build this empire. An elitist, racist disrespect, of which we become part through our silence.

So here I hide, having been afraid to voice my silent rage. Protective of my accumulated wealth. Protective of my public face and perceived status.

Protective. From whom? From what?

Who in the hell am I trying to kid? The truth is:

The only thing that separates me from arrest and the word "illegal" is a generation. There is no legal or illegal in blood lines. Is that safe enough? Is that protective enough? The fact that I call this "my" country and served four years during the Vietnam War, that I pay my taxes and go to AA, have never been in jail and own a popular Mexican restaurant -- is that safe enough?

No. Because, as long as brown people are being arrested, I will be only on the edge of acceptance. As long as I wear this brown skin, look the way I do, I will always be on the list of usual suspects.

I'm just another Mexican in the eyes of an America that has become punch-drunk on gossip, wild rumors and lies. So now we're annoyed and itching to get back at someone -- better yet, someone who can't hit back.

These unfortunates who sit in cells waiting to be deported are my grandparents in the early 1900s. They are my cousins and brothers and uncles who were rousted from their Minnesota homes and workplaces in the 1930s and sent back to Mexico, only to be called back when the Union Pacific needed gandy dancers, Crystal Sugar needed people with strong backs who were hungry enough to work for 12 cents a ton and could handle a topping knife, and a U.S. military seeing war coming with Germany figured brown would work just as well as white and black for cannon fodder.

So as I stand here, yelling into the wind of anti-immigrant public opinion led by a governor whose memory will be reviled by my grandchildren as Minnesota's answer to the segregationist Orval Faubus. Shouting, pleading, demanding that America give my people the same as they give you and yours: the opportunity to live in dignity and without fear.

That America give my people the same opportunity to enter this country legally that it gave your grandparents and great-grandparents. That America give this generation of Latino people the right and the time to assimilate into Americans as your past generations had.

I am not an educated man, but it seems to me that one look at the transformation of Lake Street in south Minneapolis says that the future of this country is worth giving hardworking brown people legal access to the American Garden.

We are here to work and build and fulfill our dreams. We want to love our families and revere the memory of our parents and grandparents, and that of our ethnic heritage. We want to wave the Mexican flag on Cinco de Mayo the way the Irish do Ireland's on St. Paddy's day. In October we want to enjoy German bratwurst during Oktoberfest and invite German-Americans to remember their departed loved ones on our Day of the Dead.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is on the fast track, with aspirations that extend outside our borders and using this human tragedy to further his political ambitions. He is reminiscent of Gen. William Westmoreland, demanding more latitude to chase the brown people. We called it "body count" back then. Today it's a body count by profile.

I ask myself what I would do if I were stopped and asked for further identification. Having already been a victim of racial profiling, I find that prospect very plausible. I ask you, Gov. Pawlenty: What should I do? Shall I give in for the good of national security? Shall I give in because people who look like me take jobs from people who look like you? What would you do if you were me, Governor? You, of whom some people whisper about potential greatness, what do you choose? Submit to bigoted paranoia or hold your head up and say no?

Tell us, Governor. A lot of brown Americans are waiting for your answer.

Joe Minjares, Minneapolis, owns Pepito's Restaurant.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Rabbi Morris Allen's testimony on behalf of a state bill, the meatpacking workers' bill of rights

It is truly an honor to present testimony before the committee chaired by my distinguished Senator, Jim Metzen. Sen. Metzen, as you know represents the 39th Senate District. It runs from South St. Paul to Mendota Heights. There is great economic disparity between the communities. That economic disparity should not translate into any disparity in the dignity of the labor that any one performs --whether in Mendota Heights or South St Paul. As a state we cannot tolerate any situation where the dignity of a human being is considered a matter of debate, or an issue worthy of disregard. What this bill represents is the powerful voice of this state weighing in on matter of human dignity with resolve and commitment.

I have spent the better part of 21 years in the pulpit, in the same congregation, promoting the observance of Kashrut, the Jewish Dietary laws. Kosher means fit. The animal which we are permitted to eat must be kosher--must be fit. The slaughter of the animal must be done in a kosher manner- it must be fit. The meat from that animal must be processed in a kosher fashion- it must be fit. I am not sure if anyone of you has seen kosher slaughter. It is truly a moving and beautiful act, carried out by a trained individual who must approach the animal about to be slaughtered with awe and respect. The purpose of their act is to remind us that in the taking of the animal's life, we continue to understand that we must minimize its suffering and understand with gratitude the gift that the meat represents. I have witnessed this act, done by a trained ritual slaughterer--called a shochet. It is moving and meaningful.

But what happens when the person down the line must work on and process that meat. Should we not be as concerned about that worker down the line as we are about the meat coming down the line. Should the meat not be produced in a way that we say the worker is also fit--is also kosher. The ancient Jewish scholar, Maimonides stated that a product which is the result of tainted labor is not to be used. Our workers need to be treated in a way that is just as kosher as the meat which they are producing. They too need to know that their work is kosher, that it is fit.

We should not tolerate a workplace where training takes place in a language other than the language in which one is able to communicate. In a world in which meatpacking workers are often new workers from Guatemala and other Spanish-speaking countries, their ability to be fully trained and able to understand the intensity of the work they are to perform should not be compromised by the language by which they are trained.

Workers in this industry need to know that their bodily needs can be taken care of and are protected by the state of Minnesota. One aspect of the laws of kosher meat involve the lung itself--whether it is smooth or not. That is the difference between glatt and non-glatt meat. Our concern as Jews about the lung of an animal should in no way compromise our concern as citizens of this state about the bladder of the line-worker.

Let me just close with the following. At one plant I visited, I met with a worker from another plant that happens to be a union plant. As the chair of the commission I chair for the USCJ and the RA(the congregational and rabbinic arms of the Conservative Jewish movement), I opened our meeting with the following:

"I am a Conservative Rabbi and serve as the chair of our joint commission on worker dignity and kashrut. We are interested in knowing what it is like for you to work in a plant that processes the meat that we are obligated to eat."

He turned to me and said:

"I have worked in X plant for 10 years. In that time I have on a daily basis worked next to rabbis and ritual slaughterers who were slaughtering and supervising the meat. In that entire time, no rabbi has ever has me what it is like FOR ME to work in such a plant."

At that point, I realized that all faith communities sometimes focus exclusively on the rituals that we are to perform, and forget the ethics by which we are to live. This Bill, coming from the state itself, secular in nature, reminds us all that the purpose of our lives is to celebrate the dignity of labor and the dignity of the individual performing that labor.

--Rabbi Morris J. Allen

I, Too, Am An Immigrant (by Steven S. Foldes)

Why do you people care about this, about us?” asked a man in Spanish, as I stood in front of a crowd of Latinos at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on the West Side of St. Paul, Minnesota. It was not a hostile question, but one of curiosity. Most of this crowd of recent immigrants, many of whom were undocumented, probably had never knowingly met a Jew, much less discussed with one driver’s licenses for undocumented workers. The speaker’s curiosity was further aroused because I came to the gathering as a representative of my synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, and of Jewish Community Action, a Twin Cities social justice organization.

“I am an immigrant myself,” I explained. “I escaped during a revolution, crossing a dangerous border from Hungary with my family in 1956 when I was seven years old. We were fleeing a repressive Communist regime. But Jews have been immigrants for centuries, throughout the world and often involuntarily. Most Jews came to the U.S. three or four generations ago to escape antisemitism and desperate poverty, and those who came to settle in St. Paul first lived here on the West Side.” I pointed out that they were only the latest immigrants to arrive on the West Side and, though still surprised, this explanation seemed to satisfy my questioner.

I came of age politically as a college student during the Viet Nam protests of the 1960s, and I have championed many causes, ranging from universal healthcare coverage to peace in the Middle East. But no issue has engaged me more than the growing plight of immigrants and refugees throughout the world and, especially, in the U. S. The 2000 census revealed that nearly one in ten people living here were foreign-born, the highest proportion since the 1930s. More than 900,000 refugees entered the U.S. since 1993. Millions of new immigrants will come, with and without documents, making immigration one of the key issues of this century. Some will become our physicians and our intellectuals, but most will continue to supply the shadow army of minimum-wage laborers who pick our fruits and vegetables, fry our French fries, fix our roofs, and clean our hotel rooms. They will continue to transform our downtowns and suburbs and create a veritable Babel of languages in our public schools, often causing anxiety and false claims about their drain on our economy and social services.

For me, the myriad social issues generated by these changes are personal, because I understand only too well the difficult lives of these resettled immigrants. When I arrived in Los Angeles, having already lost most of my family during the Holocaust, I instantly lost my language, my friends, my school, my favorite foods, my culture, and everything else familiar. We suddenly became poor, and my family went to work at menial jobs. It took years for me to gain a foothold in American society, and my parents and grandparents never felt fully accepted here.

If we are to take seriously that the Torah commands us no fewer than 31 times to remember the stranger, for we were once strangers in the land of Mitzrayim, it is incumbent on us as Jews to ally ourselves with other immigrants. And we must care for the undocumented as well as the documented for, as my rabbi, Morris Allen, asserts, we were perhaps the original “undocumented workers.”

We make alliances in two ways. First, we must organize. Shuls and their social justice committees must reach out to immigrant communities and their religious institutions. Social justice organizations, such as Jewish Community Action and Just Congregations, which use organizing as a tool to create grassroots coalitions, can play a critical leadership role. Second, we must listen to the immigrants. Only by listening, as we did to the Latino immigrants we met, did we come to understand that their key community issue was driver’s licenses, without which undocumented workers could contribute to our economy but not establish even minimal lives.

Those initial conversations at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church grew into a movement that engaged Jews from many Twin Cities congregations, along with a church-based social justice organization named ISAIAH, the Catholic Church, business leaders, and elected officials. We lost the driver’s license campaign after 9/11, but our coalition led the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to enact “separation ordinances,” barring all city departments, including the police, from inquiring about any resident’s immigration status in the course of city business.

The alliances we built through these campaigns invigorated our shul’s social justice
committee and gave new meaning to our congregation’s mission of tikkun olam. It enriched our lives and reestablished a place for Jews, as Jews, in the coalition of progressive organizations that seeks social and economic justice in Minnesota and our nation. And it led us most recently toward an emerging issue of importance to both immigrants and Jews: the struggle for safe working conditions and economic justice for the Latinos who work in the Jewish-owned kosher meat packing plants of Iowa.

Steven S. Foldes, PhD, is an anthropologist. He is Director of Research and Evaluation at the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Jewish Community Action and a member of the Board of Directors of Beth Jacob Congregation. REPRINTED with permission from Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, March 2007 (www.shma.com)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

What is the purpose of the raid at the Swift Plant?

Everyone seems to agree that America's system of immigration is broken and needs an overhaul. Polls have indicated that a majority of the country support comprehensive reform and reject the Republican House approach of enforcement only. Even President Bush rejects this approach.

However, two weeks before Christmas, and on a Latino religious holiday, ICE sweeps into Swift plants across the country, including Worthington, MN and rounds up workers. With no opportunity to deal with their children, families are torn apart and towns are shattered. Why now? ICE has concerns about fraudalent documents being used, but that has been the case for years, and why? Because the United States has failed to reform the immigration system, because businesses need labor, and because immigrants need to work to care for the family, immigrants sometimes overstay their visas, or enter the country without documents.

These workers are trying to live up to the American dream. Work hard, provide for their families. Does the government plan to deport these adults with or without their children? What will this do the production of meat from these plants and the impact on towns if these plants can't operate? How does this decision by ICE square with the government's concern about family values? If there are problems with fraudulent documents, meet with the unions who represent workers, meet with the plant and develop an orderly process. This inept attack on workers and their families doesn't accomplish anything but the disruption of businesses and the destruction of families.

ICE needs to reunite families and work with Congress to develop real reform of the broken immigration system. This is the wrong approach at the wrong time and we need our Congressional delegation to step in to help these workers and families.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Keith Ellison's Oath

The story in Friday's Star Tribune reported that Congressman-elect Keith Ellison plans to place his hand on the Q'ran when he takes his oath of office in the House of Representatives. We know that Keith Ellison is the first Muslim elected to the US House of Representatives.

Mr. Ellison is being criticized by conservatives and some talk show hosts for not wanting to swear his oath to office with his hand on the New Testament. Some have said that if he isn't willing to put his hand on the Christian bible then he is not fit for office.

It is clear that many people in this country need a lesson in the US Constitution. The first amendment clearly lays out the Establishment clause and the Free Exercise Clause. The establishment clause says that the United States cannot establish a religion that all Americans must follow. Therefore, we cannot compel Americans to swear on a bible anymore than we should expect Keith Ellison to forego his holy book, the Q'ran, for the New Testament. The free exercise clause states that all Americans are free to practice whatever religion they wish, free of any restraint, including no religion if that is their choice.

This civics lesson should be taught to those individuals who want to criticize Mr. Ellison for his decision about how he wishes to be sworn in for office.

Finally, regardless of your party affiliation or whether you voted for Mr. Ellison, Americans should celebrate the fact that our country will now have a Muslim serving in Congress.

As Jews, we know firsthand the many obstacles we needed to overcome to be accepted in the broader community, and in politics. Many Jews now serve in Congress, in the House and the Senate. Now that the United States has elected its first Muslim to office, let's celebrate that step, and not try to dictate how this or any other individual should practice his/her religion.

-Vic Rosenthal

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Get the Picture

Passion driven by creativity has resulted in two wonderful photo exhibits on display now at Carleton College and St. Olaf University in Northfield.

You’ve got to have creative passion to do what Carleton history Prof. Harry M. Williams and his seminar students did this year with Common Criminals or Portraits of Dissent? Mug shots from the Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56. The exhibit shows 16 of about 90 who protested arrest in 1956 during a yearlong boycott of segregated intrastate bus transportation. This puts human faces on the struggle for civil rights in the South. A short narrative with some biography information accompanies each photo, some of which are blurry which adds to the dramatic impact.

Also related to social justice is Portraits of Home, Families in Search of Shelter in Greater Minnesota. The bottom line here is that many Minnesotans lack a warm bed, a solid roof and dependable utilities. The photos will tear your heart out in this exhibit, sponsored by Greater Minnesota Housing Fund features some of the state’s most talented photographers. For more
information, visit www.gmhg.com. This should spur more people to get involved in efforts to advance affordable housing for all of Minnesota.

-JCA Member David Zarkin