JCA Blog

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

2007-10-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

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

The Leaders We've Been Waiting For?

2007-05-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

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

Why Should JCA Work in Support of Immigrant Rights?

2007-05-14T10:17:00.000-05:00

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.

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

2007-03-15T11:13:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-03-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

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)

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

2006-12-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

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.

Keith Ellison's Oath

2006-12-05T09:45:00.000-06:00

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

Get the Picture

2006-11-22T12:10:00.000-06:00

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

A JCA Member Posts on Immigrant Rights

2006-10-23T12:50:00.000-05:00

BLOOMINGTON -- A few sad remnants of a Minnesota family’s life traumatized by deportation were on display Sept. 29 near the entrance to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Bloomington.

About 30 people attended the news conference near the entrance to the building that houses ICE offices. Several of them signed a letter to the local ICE director requesting a meeting to discuss a moratorium on ICE’s deportation polices.

A child’s stuffed animal, bike and clothing were shown at news conference sponsored by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAC) to dramatize a call for a moratorium on deportations until comprehensive immigration reform legislation is passed by Congress. Jewish Community Action of Minnesota is a member of the coalition that sponsored the news conference to also announce a one-day fast for immigrant justice Sept. 30 at the Federal Court House in downtown Minneapolis.

The displayed belongings were reclaimed from a garage by a friend and brought to the news conference. The deported woman was remembered as a Minnesotan who lived here 17 years and was a working journalist with two school age daughters born in this country. She was apprehended by a bounty hunter, jailed for five weeks in Ramsey County before being deported to Guatemala. The children have been reunited with their mother.

“There has been a large increase in workplace and household raids of undocumented immigrants in the past few months,” said Francisco Segovia of the MIRAC. This has caused undocumented people and their families all over the country to live in constant fear of deportation, he added. “This is unjust for when we are close to passing comprehensive legislation that would grant a pathway to citizenship to the same undocumented working immigrants who are the targets of these ICE raids,” Segovia said.

“We need to oppose deportations that split up families and support a just immigration reform. Immigrants are an important part of our communities and deserve basic human rights to live and work without fear,” Segovia said.

MIRAC is a grass roots immigrant rights organization that was founded as part of the immigrant rights protests this year that MIRAC helped organized. MIRAC supports immediate legislation and full equality for all undocumented immigrants in this country and opposes militarization of the border and guest worker programs.

-David Zarkin

Good night Moon, Good night JCA…

2006-08-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

As I sit here on this rainy, second-to-last afternoon in my office, I’m extremely pensive. Half of my brain is jumbled with my move, travels and to-do list, while the other half is struggling to digest my transition.

Where was I two years ago, before I came to Minnesota and JCA? I had just returned from Thailand where my eyes were opened to the injustices of the world and more importantly the role that I had to play. But, I was lost. I knew that there were changes to be made, but not how to make them. Then I found JCA. Well, I should clarify- google found JCA!

Now, I know. It takes meetings and conversations. It takes asking. It takes passion and energy. It takes a willingness to know when to be serious and when to be silly. It takes people.

My hands are shaking as I type this. It is the all too familiar feeling that I get from caffeine after too many one to ones at coffee shops. I’ll miss this feeling.

I’ll miss coalition meetings that seemed long and intense, but always ended with great next steps towards action.

I’ll miss shabbat dinners that were brought people together for laughs, justice and great food.

I’ll miss our bustling office, which is either busy because we are working crazy hours or because we are just making fun of current policy or each other.

I’ll will even miss Minnesota nice.

I know that I am leaving Minnesota, but that Minnesota will never leave me. I know it’s overly sentimental, but somehow true. All of you have made an impact on my experience here. For those of you who are allies, thank you for your partnership. For those of you who are members, thank you for your relationship.

-Alyse Erman

Mr. Rosenthal Goes to Postville

2006-08-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

Last week, I had the opportunity to tour the Agriprocessors Plant in Postville, Iowa as part of a commission appointed by the Rabbinic Assembly and the United Synagogues of Conservative Jews led by Rabbi Morris Allen. This visit was spurred on by an article in the Forward which severely criticized the plant for violations of worker health and safety, among other problems. This is the largest Kosher meatpacking plant in the United States.

We spent nearly two full days there, meeting with government officials, workers, lay and religious leaders in the community, union reps, and the owner and key staff from the plant itself. For the first time, I had the chance to tour a meatpacking plant. It is clear to me that it is impossible to make this work easy or neat. It is very hard work, the pay is low, the hours are long and there are dangerous tasks to be performed. It is amazing how hard the work is, and how dedicated the workers are. It is important to note that 80% or more of the workers are from Guatemala and Mexico, many of whom are undocumented and speak little English. Anyone who wondered whether these workers are trying to improve their lives so they can stay in the US should have the chance that I had to meet these workers and talk to them.

Most exciting about this visit, and the work of the commission of which I am a part, is the opportunity to work on an issue that is very important to the Jewish community - kosher meat; is strongly rooted in Jewish values, respecting the dignity and well-being of workers and the stranger; and building relationships with immigrant workers as part of JCA's work on immigrant rights.

I expect we will be going back soon and we are committed to working with the plant management, workers and people in town to meet the challenges of producing quality Kosher meat while improving the conditions for workers and protecting their rights. More will be reported as we visit again.

-Vic Rosenthal

Kosher meat and immigrant rights

2006-06-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

Failed Messiah blog

Has anybody seen this blog? It includes a great deal of discussion (some of it inflammatory and unfair) about something we at Jewish Community Action know a little bit about:

Here’s a quick summary of the situation: In late May, The Forward, a left-leaning-though-not-disreputable Jewish weekly (www.forward.com) published an article alleging considerable worker injustice at AgriProcessors (Postville, Iowa), the nation's single largest producer of kosher beef and poultry.

This plant, which employs 800 or so mostly Latino people (Guatemalan immigrants, Mexican immigrants), is owned by the Rubashkin family, themselves members of the Lubavitcher Chassidic branch of Orthodox Judaism.

Well, leaders in the Conservative movement (in the interest of full disclosure, it should be stated that I am a member of a local Conservative synagogue, Beth Jacob in Mendota Heights, Minnesota), including Beth Jacob's Rabbi Morris Allen, and leadership in the Rabbinical Assembly (of Conservative rabbis) and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (the movement’s central coordinating body), were concerned. To say the least.

Meanwhile, Agriprocessors has been interested in showing that the plant’s conditions are good, and so was issued a report diametrically opposed to the account published in The Forward.

Complicated, isn’t it?

(Catch up by reading a whole series of articles, op-eds, and letters in The Forward and in The Jewish Press [www.jewishpress.com].)

Around the Twin Cities, and my guess is around the country, halachically observant, non-vegetarian Jews were wondering: Should I just not eat meat? Should I switch to free-range, organic, even though it’s not kosher? Is my outrage appropriate, or even useful?

What to do? How to learn the truth? A perplexing question.

Well, Rabbi Allen decided that Conservative Jewish leadership could make a difference. But know that this process—learn more, advocate for worker justice and immigrant rights, and ensure Jews that the kosher meat they eat is produced at an ethical and safe facility—well, it just isn’t going to happen overnight.

In fact, ANY real strategy for progressive change--the kind of change that would ensure worker justice and immigrant rights, even at ONE packing plant--isn't going to happen in three weeks. Or several months. Maybe not even in a year.

(Impatience is just one reason among many why the left has no power. One reason among many why the gains of the 20th century labor movement have been rolled back. One reason among many why we are powerless to change cruel, unethical, dangerous business practices. One reason among many why we have no vision for immigrant rights, no vision for an anti-racist society, no vision to end poverty....Because we expect magic wands to be waved, statements to be spoken, and things to change, in an instant. And we turn away from the long, hard work that it really takes to create change.)

But I digress. Jewish Community Action--a Twin Cities-based group that engages Jewish people and congregations in long-term solutions to social justice problems—is working in a supporting role to the aforementioned group of Conservative rabbis and leaders. We believe that they are showing wisdom in taking their time. They are holding conversations with people, learning more, and thinking about how positive relationships can make incremental changes. Changes that would ensure worker justice, immigrant rights, and could prove a model for labor practice and immigration reform throughout the U.S.

In the Twin Cities, there is no rabbi more in front on immigrant rights issues than Rabbi Morris Allen. He is passionately committed to justice, and would no more “wink and nod” at allegations of injustice than he would encourage his congregation to eat trayf.

When will it be time to invest?

2006-06-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

Last week, two different announcements were made about taxes. First, the House and Senate in Washington were debating whether to permanently eliminate the estate tax at a cost of billions of dollars per year to our country's future. Second, a group of affluent Minnesotans, in conjunction with Growth and Justice, ran a full page ad calling on the state to raise taxes, with the largest increase for those with the most resources, in order to invest in the future of our state for education, health care, child care and transportation.

With a national debt of $8 trillion and annual deficits in the hundreds of billions, it is hard to understand the call for eliminating more taxes. Of course, if your goal is to invest in the future of the richest families in the country, at the expense of all Americans, than eliminating the estate tax makes sense. It is important to recognize that many very wealthy Americans have said they don't want this tax eliminated and believe it is harmful to our future.

The full page ad was meant with sarcasm and derision by Governor Pawlenty. Apparently his only interest is to keep taxes down, despite the repeated reports of the growing number of uninsured in Minnesota and the huge disparities in education between white students and students of color. It is time for Minnesotans to seriously debate tax policy and make sure it is one of the key issues in the coming elections, both for Governor and Congress. We need to ask what kind of future we are building for our children when we are not prepared to invest in them with higher taxes. Yes, we should demand accountability from lawmakers and make sure they are investing well, but if we don't give them more resources through higher taxes, than they cannot invest in the future of our children.

Victory

2006-06-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

In the world of organizing, it is often hard to see tangible symbols of success or victory. Meetings come and go, coffee is sipped and policy is debated. We often lose sight of the goals and accomplishments because of the common frustrations of the day. But, last Friday night with the Indie Jews was quite a different story.

Just over a year ago a tiny group of unaffiliated Jews sat around a kitchen table to discuss the many conversations they had had with unaffiliated peers through JCA’s Inreach. There was a common consensus (and slight shock) that there were other Jews in the Twin Cities area that had a strong desire to have a Jewish community based on social justice, but not through a congregation.

A year later, nearly 30 people gathered to celebrate the one year anniversary of our first Indie Shabbat with a special Indie Jew birthday party- complete with cake, ice-cream and party hats!

The energy was celebratory and feeling was real. A true victory. Not of policy or government, but of community: Relationships, common ground, Judaism and justice.

Together we have built community. Together we have made change. Together we look to a future of social justice.

Thank you to ALL of the Indie Jews who have come to be a part of this movement.

Letter from a JCA Member

2006-06-08T12:37:00.000-05:00

(The following letter appeared in the Lakeshore Weekly News)
The Plan for Northwest Plymouth

Mayor Judy Johnson and the Plymouth City Council are about to make a decision to promote urban sprawl in the Northwest Sector of Plymouth. In deciding on low density development for this previously undeveloped part of Plymouth they are supporting the building of “McMansion” neighborhoods. That’s against the best interest of our community, our planet, our children, and our grandchildren.

We, if we are young enough, but for sure our children and grandchildren are threatened by climate change and global warming. It is a reality. There is no scientific debate. The polar ice caps are melting, the glaciers are disappearing, the CO2 levels are at a 650,000 year high. The burning of fossil fuels in Plymouth that means gasoline for cars – is the cause of global warming. Urban sprawl which is what the Mayor and the City council are advocating will foster global warming.

The alternative is to develop communities that allow for workforce/affordable housing that will enable the placement of mass transit. We need to reduce one care – one person transit that burns more gas.

So Madam Mayor and City Council it’s time to stop making decision based on political expediency and start deciding based on public good.

Victor Sandler M.D.
Open Spaces and Housing For All Coalition
Jewish Community Action

Taxes or Investment.

2006-05-30T08:35:00.000-05:00

Another article in the newspaper lambasting Democrats for recommending tax increases for political gain. Apparently, raising taxes in one county to pay for a new stadium is a good investment for the future, but raising income taxes for those most fortunate is not a good idea even if it increases investment in such programs as early childhood education and K-12 education.

We must change the debate in our state to talk about taxes as methods to invest. After all, many people put money away, that they could use to spend, on savings for their children's education. Why can't we as a community, meaning Minnesota, begin to think about tax increases as a means of investing our money for the future of our state. It's time to debate this as policy and not use it for political purposes.

Immigration Reform????

2006-05-26T11:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the US Senate finally passed a bill that begins to address some of the requirements for comprehensive reform. The bill includes a path to legalization for many of the undocumented immigrants, a national dream act, an increase in family visas and an increase in employment visas. It is great that members of the Senate recognize that our country must solve the current situation in a manner that respects human rights and enable families to reunite.

Unfortunately, far too many undocumented immigrants are left out of the path to legalization so their future is very much in doubt. There is much to much focus on enforcement and punishment including less access to the courts for immigrants, increases penalties to immigrants for even minor offenses, and would spend billions of dollars to build a wall at the southern border of the US.

Now the hard part is trying to reconcile this with the House of Representatives which only seems interested in punishment and enforcement, and is not interested in recognizing undocumented immigrants at all.

We must insist on a solution that is humane and is comprehensive. So far, even the Senate version comes up short but we must realize that our vigilant action and protests during the past few months has changed the tone of the debate and made it possible for comprehensive reform to have made as much progress as it has. So, watch for more alerts and keep in touch as we work hard to make sure the final bill truly honors human rights and provides a real path for legalization.
-Vic

Reflecting on May 1st

2006-05-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

As I drove down Lake street, east from the lakes, the signs were already clear. The usual bustle was replaced by empty sidewalks and closed businesses. Although the weather was rainy, the mood was festive as hundreds of immigrants and their supporters, myself included, rallied at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis this past Monday, May 1st. The event was a part of the nation-wide series of marches, protests, and rallies dubbed ‘a day without immigrants.’ Despite the fact that the national immigration issue focuses on Latinos, I spoke with immigrants from Laos and Russia who were there to express their concerns as well as stand in solidarity with all immigrant workers. I walked through the crowd with my good friend Eric, his mother a legal immigrant from Brazil. We were excited by the passion of the speakers, the energy of the Aztec dancers, and the sight of flags from Honduras, Uruguay, Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, all interspersed with the prevalent American banner. Members of the local spoken word group, Palabristas, performed emotional and inspiring pieces of poetry. Music, from salsa to tejano to hip-hop, kept people loose and energized.

While hundreds of thousands of immigrants across the country took action by not going to work, I was disappointed that many of the most visible and high profile Latino immigrants, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, among others, all played for their respective major league teams. Currently 36% of major league ball players were born in Latin America. While industries related to agriculture, landscaping, construction and food service were all effected, imagine the hit major league baseball would have taken.

But what effect would this one-day cessation of work and purchasing have? I think it proved that national comprehensive immigration reform is something that needs to be addressed in a just and equitable manner. Not next session, not next year, but now. I think we can change the hearts and minds of people across this state and the country, who know that hardworking people deserve fair treatment. We can organize for change and we can keep the pressure on our elected officials to take our voices seriously. Si, se puede. Yes, we can.
-Matt Levitt

Letter to the Editor (unpublished)

2006-04-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Star Tribune by a Jewish Community Action member:

It was disturbing to read in the March 28 Star Tribune article by Bob von Sternberg, "Seeking Good Homes," that "about 2400 homeless people stay in shelters or on the streets of MInneapolis and Hennepin County on any given night." partially due to a lack of affordable housing.

Last Sunday, I went door knocking for the Minneapolis Affordable Housing Coalition for a better condo conversion ordinance and learned that there are hundreds of units of affordable rental housing being converted to condominiums every year. The city does have an initiative to build new afforfdable housing, but unfortunately their investment has beenundermined by condo conversions. In 2004 the city funded 214 affordable rental units, while in the same year 402 affordable units were converted to condos, offsetting the city's investment by -188 units.

As a community member, I support a better condo conversion ordinance that would help preserve affordable housing and reduce the number of homeless in our city, as well as maintain economic diversity in our neighborhoods.

Reva Rosenbloom
Minneapolis, MN

JCA Blog

2006-04-10T17:29:00.000-05:00

40,000 + 100

Yesterday, as many as 40,000 people from around Minnesota Marched for Immigration with Dignity. This gathering--possibly the largest of its kind EVER to make its way to the steps of the State Capitol--signaled the willingness of Minnesotans from all walks of life to STAND UP to the hatemongerers, to the zenophobes, to the racists and say YES to the rights of hard-working, honest immigrants, regardless of their nation of origin or their current status.

But among the 40,000, about 100 people, members of Jewish Community Action, marched with a white banner proclaiming our organizational affiliation and alliance with immigrants in their struggle. Yes, we were only a tiny fraction of the marchers, most of whom were immigrants from many Mexico, Central and South America, and many other countries around the globe, but our presence there was significant.

We showed that Jews can be allies in the struggles of others, that Jews understand what it was like to "have been a stranger in a strange land," that Jews understand the significance of the injunction "zakhor" (remember!), that Jews can understand who we are while offering support to others in their struggles.

Most of all, the presence of Jewish people and Jewish Community Action on April 9th, 2006 demonstrated that we will act from our values to work for justice for everybody.

As we prepare for the holiday of Passover, during which we annually recount the ancient Israelite exodus from Egyptian bondage, let us keep in our hearts and minds the understanding that many others still struggle for their liberation from bondage and oppression, and let us deepen our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

Hag sameach - a zeisen Pesach - happy and healthy Passover.

Thinking about Immigrant Rights

2006-03-15T08:57:00.000-06:00

Another difficult vote in the Civil Law Committee in the MN House of Representatives. While House members claim it will make Minnesota safer if the police can ask people about their immigration status, the police, immigrants and most others strongly believe this will make us less safe. We ask the police to be responsible for our safety, and then members of the legislature with no law enforcement experience choose to ignore concerns cited about more racial profiling and fear of immigrants to report crimes.

What's worse, there is no vision or plan being presented by either political party to create real reform in ourstate or nation. We continue to treat immigrants as people to use for low paying jobs and then discard them as soon as possible. There is a need for a stronger voice of opposition in the House and the Senate to opposelegislation that will undermine local city ordinances trying to create a better environment for immigrants, that doesn't distinguish between who has documents and who doesn't. Jewish Community Action is part of a growing coalition of groups that recognizes the important contributions of immigrants and believes we must create a national lawthat includes a path to citizenship, family reunification and protections for workers.
-Vic

Dave's Slightly Cheeseball Shabbat Reflection

2006-03-14T12:46:00.000-06:00

Last Friday night I walked into Mt. Zion for Shabbat services, and felt the weight of my kippah like the lightest touch of G-d's hand on my head. It was a gentle touch that could not possibly guide me, and it was faint enough that in my usual frantic pace and consciousness, I might lose awareness of it entirely. Still, it was present enough to me then that it reassured me as I walked into the synagogue. A thought flashed through my head as I walked in: what does it mean to speak with a prophetic voice?

I thought about the young French Jewish man who was kidnapped and tortured and killed, and the way that the news of his death pierced me, hit me like a physical blow. I could see and feel the scene viscerally. How much more of a powder keg of hatred must the world become? Yet another reminder of the seemingly unalterable distance between the work we do and the world as it remains.

It's not enough, is it, to rail at the steady downpour of injustices upon the world, if one really wants to speak with a prophetic voice. But what does it require of us? What if we had to first imagine a future in which G-d becomes fully present in the world, and the world truly becomes a world of complete peace, and truth, and justice? And yet, how fruitless it would be, to perceive such a world in some distant, foggy, nearly unattainable future, a future so obscure that the pathways of our actions and judgments, our hopes and our great loves, would dissipate before reaching it, like footsteps lost in dense fog or snow!

Maybe prophetic vision requires of us a more difficult faith; not just the dissolute faith in a far-off future, but a kind of severe faith in the present, which brooks no excuse or explanation why true justice has not or cannot be achieved now, in a single instant in which the shackles of history and brutality fall away from us like paper. Maybe it is only in the context of this severe faith, against the backdrop of this deeply felt image of justice manifest in the world, this song of songs one can almost hear erupting from every throat in the unfolding of the next moment, that a frail human being can begin to speak with a prophetic voice.

Wouldn’t such a voice inflame us, and charge us with G-d’s imminent presence? It would shock us with the revelation that G-d’s presence remains at the threshold, the brink of *our* being, and can only be realized when we overflow ourselves and spill our wills into the world, transform ourselves and our society, and create the future of justice that remains locked inside us as a flickering possibility.

JCA's New Racial Justice Mission Statement

2006-02-28T11:50:00.000-06:00

The Racial Justice Leadership Team welcomes people of all faiths, colors, and backgrounds.

The Mission of JCA’s Racial Justice Leadership Team is to promote racial justice by ensuring that Jewish Community Action and the Jewish community combine education with action to address and to undo the social and economic impacts of racism:

JEWISH COMMITMENT:

We do this because a commitment to justice is at the core of Jewish teachings and Jewish life.

We remember that we were slaves in Egypt. This, and our experience through the centuries with devastating anti-Semitism, strengthens our commitment to racial justice.

RACISM AND POWER:

Race is an artificial "social construct," with real consequences.

Racism is the combination of racial prejudice with power.

In the United States, racism shapes not only individual behavior, but institutional policies and practices.

White privilege is the social and economic benefits received by white people because they are white. Since these benefits are embedded in United States culture, white people take them for granted. People of color are harmed because they are excluded from these benefits.

WHITE PRIVILEGE:

Our community needs to understand that most Jews now benefit from white privilege, even though the Jewish community itself is racially diverse.

Historically in the U.S., Jews were not considered white, but Jews of European descent “became white” in the mid-20th century.

As Jews in the United States, we possess a dual identity. For the majority of us whose ancestors were from Europe, we now enjoy the privileges of being white. We are also part of an ethnic minority that has been the victim of hate that leads to anti-Semitism.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACTION:

We have a responsibility to learn about and to understand racism and white privilege, as a basis for fighting for racial justice within the Jewish community and in the greater community.

We have a responsibility to understand and to help our partners understand the relationship between anti-Semitism and racism.

We also have a responsibility and a commitment to combat racism through education combined with action.

We build alliances with communities of color when taking action in the broader community.

Undoing racism requires both individual and institutional change.

Promoting racial justice requires conscious, ongoing practice and application.

Roof over your head? Eat out much?

2006-02-22T10:53:00.000-06:00

Do you have a roof over your head? Do you like to eat out?

Problem is...people (including some in the Jewish community) have an idea of their family's own immigrant background that's not quite accurate. One common myth: "My people came here legally, so should everyone else." Well, it's not that simple. First of all, immigration law until the 1920s was simpler. People could get in from Europe, including Eastern Europe, where most Jews came from, much more easily, than can people today who come from Mexico and points south. Second, all that changed beginning in the 1920s. Eastern Europeans could no longer get in easily--or at all. So, it's no accident that Jewish emigration to the U.S. dropped dramatically about that time, and that people were stuck in Europe during the '30s and '40s, in spite of their desperation to get out of there and to get in here. Second of all, there are not visas available for people who want to come here to take low-wage jobs. We want restaurants, which need restaurant workers, and we want roofs, which need roofers, and we want gardens, which need landscapers, but we don't want to give the visas to those most willing to do these difficult, dangerous, and exhausting jobs. So I ask all of you who have landscaped property, roofs over your head, and who like to eat in any restaurant, whether you are willing to do without these things?

Show Yourself

2006-02-22T09:57:00.000-06:00

Can anyone help me out?

If you know a whole bunch of undocument immigrants who are really excited about their status and think that being discriminated against, harrassed, or on a very good day just completely invisible is an awesome way to live, could you have them call me at the office? The gentleman I was speaking with last night thinks there are hordes of these people roaming the streets (maybe wearing matching outfits like breakdance troupes?) and I just don't believe him.

Also, if you know any unicorns, can you give them the office number too?

Thanks.

Unnatural Disasters

2006-02-21T16:01:00.000-06:00

I was in class last night, and our discussion turned to recent news stories about the investigation into health care workers' claims that individual doctors may have euthanized patients waiting to be evacuated from New Orleans hospitals post-Katrina.

My professor asked what we would do if we'd been a doctor in this situation. We also talked about how we might feel if we were a member of one of the patients' families. To me, the whole conversation, what to do with the people left behind, exposed the real tragedy - that people were left behind.

But it's easy to look at how the federal government left so many behind in the wake of a devastating natural disaster. It's more challenging to look at who's being left behind when it's business as usual.

On Feb. 1, 2006, Congress made $40 billion in permanent cuts that mean more people uninsured and underinsured, fewer children receiving child support payments, and new federal welfare policies shutting down much of the state flexibility in welfare to work programs.

How will these cuts affect Minnesotans?

One in 9 Minnesotans are currently on Medicaid. The budget cuts will increase their copayments and make it legal for providers to deny coverage to those who can not meet the copayments. This will effectively undo legal protections currently in place that make it illegal for pharmacists to deny medications to persons covered by Medicaid.

Many Minnesotan Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly those with disabilities, could lose access to medically-necessary services like therapy, eyeglasses, and hearing aids.

The cuts in welfare-to-work provisions could force Minnesota to make large cuts in child care subsidies for low-income families not receiving federal cash assistance, undermining our state's long-standing efforts to "make work pay" as part of its welfare reform agenda.

While the budget agreement does include funding for federal energy assistance programming, those funds are not available until 2007, so there will be no help for Minnesotans this winter. (Source: Minnesota Budget Project)

So here's my question: if you were the family member of one of the one in nine Minnesotans who may do without medication, or if you were the family member of one of the 343,000 Minnesotans without any health coverage at all, how would you feel about the way they've been left behind? Not by a natural disaster but intentionally, by budget cuts that further limit assistance to those who already need it most?

Staff

If you're interested in learning more about how federal budget cuts will impact Minnesotans and what we can still do, join me at a briefing held by Affirmative Options next Tuesday.

Rabbi Allen's Speech from the March for Immigrant Rights

2006-02-16T15:50:00.000-06:00

Minneapolis, February 12, 2006

We live in a world that is increasingly fragile. For too many people, the fate of humanity as a whole is of little concern as long as their particular grouping within the family of humanity is viable and protected. I am rabbi Morris Allen and I stand here before you today as a representative of my congregational community, Beth Jacob in Mendota Heights, of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association, and of the larger Jewish community through Jewish community action to tell you that there is no security for any one of us, if those on the margins of society feel threatened and at risk. The ancient rabbi Hillel over 2000 years ago addressed the importance of creating alliances and the necessity for interaction this way.

Im ayn ani li mil li, Uksheani Latzmi mah ani, vim lo acshav, amatia
If I am not for me, who will be?
But if I am only for me, what am I
And if not now, then when?

Judaism teaches the following—You shall know the heart of the stranger for you yourself were strangers in a strange land. At the heart of our story of origin as a people, is the realization that our enslavement in Egypt demanded that we never lose sight of what it means to be marginalized, that we forever identify with those whose fate at any given time is on the margins, whose connection to the society in which they live is trampled upon by those who are willing to ignore or oppress. Our core story demands that working for justice for those who are the stranger in every generation in any society is the fulfillment of the biblical command that is imposed upon us. My parents are first generation Americans, their parents having fled from the political torture and economic privation of the Jew in Europe 90 years ago. In the early part of the 20th century, the huddled masses were the Jewish immigrants the Irish the Italians. They were abused and taken advantage of, they struggled mightily to establish a place for themselves in the land of the free. They lived through the taunts of anti-Semitism and anti Catholicism and worked in the sweatshops where their concerns were ignored. They were no different than the immigrant today whether from Mexico, Somalia, Liberia, Cambodia or any other from whom one seeks to find refuge in America. They were subject to governmental games no different than INS workers today who stage phony OSHA gathering to identify non- documented workers. They were subject to fear and degradation, they were victims of societal indifference and often times societal anger. Immigration has always been a wedge issue for those who try to create fear and insecurity in society and to capitalize on that. Back then, the phrase was "lets keep America American," today it is lets make sure we are not paying for those who come here "illegally." Today in the words of the ancient sage Hillel, we immigrants and children and grandchildren of immigrants say if we are not for ourselves who will be, but if we are only for ourselves what are we. But perhaps most important, if not now then when—when will find see an America where the immigrant is celebrated for their contributions, where the immigrant is seen as the greatest fulfillment that this country has to offer—hope opportunity and freedom. Together, as people of religious traditions all, we can begin to change a society that is indifferent and often times beligerent. Remember the heart of the stranger for we were all once strangers in a strange land. Let us march together and let us stand together shoulder to shoulder to insure that hope, opportunity and freedom are finally realized and accessible for all.

Rabbi Morris Allen
Beth Jacob Congregation

A Response to Govenor Pawlenty's Proposal to Pass Anti-Immigration Legislation

2006-01-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'd like to state my opinion regarding the negative effects of the Pawlenty's proposed anti-immigration legislation. There's also a close correlation between the impact of this proposed legislation with city policy and practice, particularly regarding the role of public safety officials.

It is clear that the enforcement of immigration policy is a federal issue and NOT a state or city responsibility. This has been wisely recognized by both the Minneapolis and St. Paul City Councils in the passage of ordinances that in no way limit the ability of officials to investigate suspected criminal activity. In fact, one could argue that adding immigration responsibilities to an already over-burdened police force will make it less likely that they will have time to identify and arrest criminals, regardless of where they were born. The January 4th, 2006 press release from the offices of both Mayors and Chiefs of Police in Minneapolis and St. Paul, clearly states opposition to "Govenor Pawlenty's attempt to intervene in our ability to protect and serve people in our cities with misguided, unfunded, and unworkable approaches that would not improve the safety of our citizens in any substantial fashion..."

Such policies will lead to an increased need for law enforcement to racial profile. If the proposed laws are passed, police will be asked to seek out undocumented individuals and to check visa status and place of birth. Such practices will likely reverse progress that has been made in preventing racial profiling. The Minnesota statute prohibiting racial profiling states that "the legislature finds that the reality or public perception of racial profiling alienates people from police, hinders community policing efforts, and causes law enforcement to lose credibility and trust among the people law enforcement is sworn to protect and serve." Surely this statute should serve as a precendent and a framework for Govenor Pawlenty's actions!
-Louisa Hext

Praying with our feet

2005-12-09T09:34:00.000-06:00

Tonight I walked with a woman named Sheila. We marched with her fellow Union health care workers from a rally at Bethany Lutheran Church to Riverside Hospital; you may have seen it on the news. I spent the time talking with Sheila, who agreed to let me tell you her story; I hope it inspires you to continue doing whatever you are doing to work for a better world.

Sheila grew up in Mississippi; at 24, she was living with her mother, working a fast-food job, and looking after her baby boy. She told me it was hard to leave her mother, but she decided to come to Minnesota for a better life and a better job, 14 years ago. Today, Sheila works as a nurse’s assistant at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and is proud to talk about her daughter, in 9th grade, and her son, who is studying film-making at MCTC. With state aid, she pays for an apartment in Bloomington, and was recently able to purchase a car to get her more easily back and forth to work. Sheila is now a Union member with SEIU, and was recently chosen to serve on the negotiating committee as workers at Abbott and other Twin Cities hospitals move to bargain new contracts. Sheila is still unable to afford health insurance for herself and her children, and told me as we marched that she hopes to win health care not only for herself but for her co-workers.

Tonight was certainly not the first rally or march I’ve attended. But tonight was the first time I marched as a Jew, wearing a kippah (I was the only one as far as I know). As we sat down to eat pizza in the church basement afterwards, Sheila saw me begin to pray and asked me to say it out loud. So I said the motzie, with more emotion than I usually find in myself, and she said amen. We talked about our families, traded stories, and after a while, she said she needed to get back to her daughter.

I walked back to my car, lost in thought and emotion. After such a journey, and years as a health care provider, Sheila cannot afford health insurance herself, and relies on state aid to pay her rent. She put her faith in exodus and hard work; I can’t help but feel that our society has failed her in some fundamental way. But I’m not sure Sheila would agree. She is speaking up, taking leadership; she and her fellow Union members are challenging our society to take a hard look at those who are overlooked, and to treat them fairly. In 2003, 45 million Americans went without health insurance. I think about my parents who will retire in the coming years; I think about prescription coverage, and a promise that we ought to make to all who dwell among us. I hope that we’re all strong enough to join people like Sheila in the coming years, and pray with our feet. Shabbat Shalom!

"Our employers in America have an obligation not to hire illegal immigrants"--President George Bush

2005-11-29T15:41:00.000-06:00

According to today's New York Times, President Bush toured the area near El Paso, Texas, in the jacket of a Border Patrol agent.

He said, "Our employers in America have an obligation not to hire illegal immigrants."

At Jewish Community Action, we believe that it is because of need that people cross borders without papers, or overstay tourist visas. They need to earn a living, they need to support family in their country of origin, they need to escape violence or oppression.

Many times in Jewish history, this was true. Many Jews escaped from Nazi occupied Europe, and Czarist Russia, and fifteenth-century Spain, and Plantaganet England. Even without proper papers, they managed to get across borders, desperate for better, safer, more secure lives, in which they were free to work, practice their religion, live out their natural lives.

On the other hand, some people believe that immigrants put stresses on government and social service programs, take jobs away from U.S. citizens, and are changing America in troubling ways.

What do you think? Should the Jewish community take a stand on this? And, if so, what should our stand be?

Immigrant rights has been called the "civil rights issue of the 21st century," but we want to hear what you have to say!

Are Euro-American Jews white? And if so, have we always been white? Your thoughts welcomed....

2005-11-29T10:11:00.000-06:00

Submitted for your consideration....Until recently (perhaps the last half-century of so), Jews and the Jewish community were often the targets of virulent anti-semitism, akin to racism both in the intensity of its irrationality and in the efficacy of the institutional barriers it established.

Jews could bypass such barriers through conversion, assimilation, through "passing." Well, sometimes, but not always. The Nazi-era's use of generations of church baptismal records allowed that regime to root out long-hidden or long-forgotten Jewish ancestry, and made Jewishness a matter of racial identity, not religious belief.

So, what does it mean in the context of an anti-racist, social justice movement that Euro-American Jews are typically people who look white?

And what might it mean for Jews to claim "un-whiteness?"

Where should the loyalties of Euro-American Jews lie?

Grassroots Organizations Issue Call to Action in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina: December 8-10 Survivors' Assembly

2005-11-29T09:59:00.000-06:00

The Problem and Opportunity:
As leaders of grassroots advocacy organizations all across the country, we call for an ethical reconstruction of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Above all, the voices and needs of Katrina impacted residents must drive this process.

We understand that far from an unforeseeable disaster, Hurricane Katrina was a forecasted event that exposed decades of calculated indifference in federal policy toward the poor, creating a disaster of Biblical proportions. While the impact crossed racial lines, clearly, people of color suffered disproportionately. Low-income African Americans and other people of color, left behind in the economy due to our nation’s misguided budget priorities, were also left behind to face the fury of the hurricane and its aftermath. New Orleans is the manifestation of a tragedy that has already occurred in every city in our nation, but for the direction of the wind and the water.

The magnitude of the destruction, degradation and death flowing out of New Orleans provides an opportunity to forge a national progressive movement of equal magnitude. The witnessing by the whole nation, in real time, the brutal unmasked poverty and racism that reflects U.S. policy toward African Americans, other minorities and the poor has generated great social energy for change. The single most important factor to help focus and realize that social energy is to assist the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to gain a real voice in the reconstruction of their city and region. Their voice will provide a challenge to the negative national policies and priorities that target minorities and the poor all over the nation. It is our hope to join in forging a national movement that addresses racism, poverty, the lack of democracy, our relationship to the environment and related concerns exposed by Katrina.

Assessment and Direction:
We believe that good government addresses the needs of the most vulnerable first. Katrina throws into relief the harsh reality of long-term, failed governmental policies including the systematic dismantling of the nation’s safety net, the redistribution of wealth through tax cuts to the affluent and the redirection of resources to the war in Iraq.

We reject the divide and conquer strategies of those in power that would pit the needs of migrant workers, now toiling at great risk for low wages in the clean up effort, against the needs of those displaced.

In order to bring immediate relief to Katrina’s victims and ensure that the reconstruction of New Orleans is ethical, humane and just, we support the following:

1. We support the Right of Safe Return for Katrina impacted residents. Accordingly:
 The voices of the displaced must drive an ethical reconstruction process
 All former residents must have the right to return and rebuild
 All former residents must have the right to return to a safe community. This extends to the city’s soil, air, water, structures, food systems and waste systems.

2. We support the right of all laborers now cleaning and rebuilding New Orleans to fair treatment. Accordingly:

 All workers are entitled to a living wage, safe working conditions and the right to bargain collectively
 All workers are entitled to decent housing
 All undocumented workers are entitled to work without fear of deportation and/or other forms of harassment

3. We support immediate relief for former residents from New Orleans and surrounding area now dispersed throughout the nation. Accordingly:

 We support a full accounting of all funds raised by the Red Cross for Katrina victims. Further we call for the use all those funds to identify, locate, and create community among the displaced residents, including partnering with and funding culturally competent and linguistically accessible organizations to provide transportation, food, decent shelter, health care, mental health and social services, education and jobs
 We support the federal government funding the rebuilding of all of New Orleans, including its schools, low-income and affordable housing, and infrastructure
 We reject the draining of overtaxed local shelters and social service systems to address the needs of Katrina area residents and support instead the redistribution of funds currently dedicated to unwarranted military expenditures in Iraq and to tax cuts being proposed for the wealthy for Katrina relief efforts.

As the leaders of organizations that advocate on a variety of issues – from education reform to environmental justice, from food security to juvenile justice, from labor organizing to civil rights – we understand that only by foregrounding the voices of those most impacted can we ethically rebuild New Orleans. These voices will drive us toward a result that will prevent the entirely foreseeable, man-made tragedy of permanent displacement.

An Urgent Call to Action:
We call on all progressive and grassroots organizations and all of the New Orleans community, no matter where they are temporarily located, to come together and unite in the struggle to reconstruct New Orleans. The nation needs a relatively united voice from New Orleans to support. Additionally, we urge everyone (not just former residents of New Orleans) to contact their Congressional representatives immediately and demand that the budget being considered provide funding to reconstruct New Orleans without further cutting the already under funded existing social programs.

Finally and most importantly we urge that every person and/or organization help locate and re-connect New Orleans former residents in or around your community, urging and assisting those who desire to attend a Survivors Assembly for Reconstruction to be held December 9th in Jackson, Mississippi. The Survivors Assembly will be an occasion for former residents from New Orleans to gather, build unity among themselves as they consider and envision a new and better New Orleans and Gulf Coast Region. The Survivors Assembly will be followed on December 10th by a Demonstration in New Orleans to Protest Crimes against Humanity and to share whatever plans/thoughts/visions they choose to share about the reconstruction of New Orleans and the wider region. We urge anyone who can to join with the survivors on December 10th in New Orleans as a show of national solidarity and support. Details on this historic gathering can be obtained from the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition at 1-888-310-PHRF (7473), or on the web at http://www.communitylaborunited.net
or E-mail at info@communitylaborunited.net.

Give Thanks No More; It¹s Time for a NationalDay of Atonement

2005-11-29T09:21:00.000-06:00

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting. In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States. That the world¹s great powers achieved ³greatness² through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable. But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It¹s now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful. One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter. Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it¹s also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians¹ land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving ³wild beasts² from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, ³both being beasts of prey, tho¹ they differ in shape.² Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the ³merciless Indian Savages² -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn¹t stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, ³[W]e shall destroy all of them.²As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process ³due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway.² Roosevelt also once said, ³I don¹t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn¹t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.²How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here¹s how ³respectable² politicians, pundits, and professors play the game: When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations¹ lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history. In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who ³settled² the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things. But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable -- such as the genocide of indigenous people as the foundational act in the creation of the United States -- suddenly the value of history drops precipitously and one is asked, ³Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?²This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn¹t spend too much time thinking about history. This off-and-on engagement with history isn¹t of mere academic interest; as the dominant imperial power of the moment, U.S. elites have a clear stake in the contemporary propaganda value of that history. Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action.Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America¹s much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to ³humble our proud nation² and ³undermine young people¹s faith in our country.²Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power. History does matter, which is why people in power put so much energy into controlling it. The United States is hardly the only society that has created such mythology. While some historians in Great Britain continue to talk about the benefits that the empire brought to India, political movements in India want to make the mythology of Hindutva into historical fact. Abuses of history go on in the former empire and the former colony.History can be one of the many ways we create and impose hierarchy, or it can be part of a process of liberation. The truth won¹t set us free, but the telling of truth at least opens the possibility of freedom. As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects on the day¹s mythology on our minds.

Authors Website: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/home.htmAuthors Bio: Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the board of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center, http://thirdcoastactivist.org/. He is the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (both from City Lights Books). He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.

Reading Recommendation from a JCA Member

2005-11-28T08:44:00.000-06:00

Dave Zarkin asked us to post his review of The Slick Boys: A Ten Point Plan To Rescue Your Community By Three Chicago Cops Who Are Making It Happen:

Hope in the face of poverty and despair is offered by three Chicago cops, who are also rap artists, in their book, The Slick Boys, a 10-point Plan to Rescue your Community.Education, jobs, job training, chemical dependency rehabilitation, hope and understanding are themes repeated in real life stories narrated by Eric Davis, James Martin and Randy Holcomb, three police officers who made arrests, mediated gang warfare and befriended children in crisis in Chicago’s turbulent housing projects.

These resourceful cops use music and humor that children understand to provide hope and redirect them away from gangs into responsible lives. Problems of gangs, drugs and crime cross community lines from inner city to suburbs. Community involvement and spending more time with their children is the message that Davis, Martin and Holcomb repeat throughout this quick read.

Readers will find the helpful organizations listings useful. Some of the entries include the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Washington, DC; Jewish Big Brother and Big Sister Association of Greater Boston; and National Center for Youth with Disabilities, University of Minnesota. Much of this information we already knew or we could find in books by noted scholars, but coming from three hardened Chicago cops it grabbed my attention.
-Dave Zarkin

A Jewish perspective on capital punishment

2005-11-14T10:03:00.000-06:00

The opinion piece, below, was written by Daniel Sokatch, executive director of California's Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA). PJA is an ally to Jewish Community Action.

Please read this piece and consider signing a petition to urge California's Governor Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams...quickly! See the petition at http:/www.savetookie.org.

2005-11-11
Should Tookie Die?
Williams' jailhouse rehabilitation should spare him from the death penalty.
By Daniel Sokatch

Just about one month from now, at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 13, the State of California will execute Stanley Tookie Williams. He will die by lethal injection in the death chamber of San Quentin State Prison, home to the nation's largest death row. At every execution, small crowds gather outside the prison, some to protest, some to applaud. This time, thousands of people across the country - far more than is usual for an American execution - will be paying attention. Williams' story has reignited a conversation about capital punishment, galvanizing people - many of whom have never been outspoken opponents of the death penalty - to spare his life. Their ranks include a growing numbers of Jews. Indeed, the Williams case ought to force on Jews a hard look at what, exactly, our tradition says about the death penalty.

For the past 24 years, Williams, 51, has lived on death row in San Quentin. He started down the path that put him there early on. In 1971, at the age of 17, Williams, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles, co-founded the Crips. It quickly became Los Angeles', and then the nation's, most notorious street gang. In 1979, authorities charged Williams with the brutal murders, during two separate robberies, of four people who had no gang connections whatsoever: Albert Lewis Owens, a Whittier convenience store clerk in one incident; and, in the other, Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee Chen Lin - a husband and wife and their adult daughter, owners of a Los Angeles motel. All were gunned down, execution style, in cold blood.

Williams claimed that he did not commit the crimes, but two years later, a jury convicted him and a judge sentenced him to die. While it is not uncommon for capital defendants to claim innocence, serious questions about the testimony and evidence that convicted him were raised - and rejected - on appeal. Among them, Williams alleges that his trial was unfairly moved from Los Angeles to Torrance, where all African Americans in the jury pool were dismissed, and the case was heard by an all-white jury.

But even if Williams is, as he claims, innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted, let's be clear: He was, at the time of his arrest, a dangerous criminal who had done more than his share of reprehensible things. By all accounts, he had been involved in or connected to the kinds of terrible crimes for which he was tried.

But Williams' story doesn't stop there. And what followed is not merely the familiar tale of a convicted killer trying to avoid execution through legal maneuvers. In prison, Williams began to rehabilitate himself. He publicly left the Crips, a position that involved risk to his family and to himself, even behind bars. He then apologized for creating the gang and perpetrating "black-on-black genocide" stating, "I pray that one day my apology will be accepted. I also pray that your suffering, caused by gang violence, will soon come to an end as more gang members wake up and stop hurting themselves and others. I vow to spend the rest of my life working toward solutions."

This was no ordinary jailhouse conversion. Williams devoted himself to fighting gangs. He spoke out. He wrote nine children's books to steer children away from gang-banging, which he describes as "banging on your own people." One of these books, "Life in Prison" (Seastar, 2001), received an award from the American Library Association and is used in schools, libraries, juvenile correctional facilities and prisons throughout the country. Williams also recorded anti-gang public service announcements, and began meeting with young people from at-risk communities to tell them to stay away from gangs, and to describe for them the horrors of prison. He also started the Internet Project for Street Peace, which encourages gangs to stop fighting each other. He created a "Protocol for Peace," a model agreement to end gang feuds, and last year, the Crips and the Bloods in Newark, N.J., signed it, ushering in a truce that has remained in effect.

This work led a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to state, in 2002, that Williams' anti-gang initiatives made him a strong candidate for clemency from the governor. This sentiment was supported by a deputy mayor of Newark, who, in a letter supporting clemency, cited a dramatic reduction in gang-related crime in his city following the signing of what is referred to as "Tookie's Protocol for Peace."

His was too good a story for Hollywood to miss. In last year's made-for-TV movie, Jamie Foxx played Williams in "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams
Story." Williams serves as an inspiration for a generation of vulnerable young people in our inner-cities, kids who are listening when he tells them not to throw away their lives like he did.

But the story of Williams also speaks to us as Jews. Our tradition teaches that within every person, even the worst criminal, there exists a nekudah tovah, a point of pure goodness. The Jewish obligation is to work to uncover that point of goodness, in ourselves and in others, so that it can transform us through the process of teshuvah, the radical idea that we can change, that we can always be better than we are. The concept of teshuvah holds the promise that even the most wicked cannot be defined solely by their worst acts. The divine spark always contains within it the potential for change. This is, of course, the promise of the High Holidays, and just last month, many of us sat in shul on Yom Kippur, affirming our own capacity for transformation and listening to the Book of Jonah, which teaches that no matter how terrible our acts, we are capable of changing for the better, just like the inhabitants of Nineveh.

But what about the death penalty specifically? Many American Jews, if they think about capital punishment at all, don't consider it a Jewish issue. Yet within Judaism, there's significant consensus: All major denominations of Judaism have taken stands opposing the death penalty or supporting a moratorium on executions. Getting to this point, however, has required a long, nuanced and fascinating evolution.

Biblical law mandates capital punishment for no fewer than 36 offenses, from murder to the desecration of Shabbat to talking back to your parents. Of course, neither the letter nor the spirit of this law reflects current Jewish values. More broadly speaking, Jewish tradition offers three basic rationales for a death penalty: deterrence, retribution and the restoration of balance to a social fabric torn by a terrible crime-like murder. But how do these principles apply today?

First, there is simply no evidence that capital punishment serves as a deterrent. In fact, in each year over the past decade, states without the death penalty have had lower murder rates than states that have capital punishment. And we now live at a time and in a society where retribution can be achieved by means other than capital punishment. Long prison sentences - especially life without parole -unavailable in biblical and talmudic times, can now fulfill the retributive inclination of Jewish law. At the same time, it guarantees that the ultimate nightmare - the execution of an innocent - does not occur. Finally, long prison sentences also serve to remove the murderer from society, allowing for the restoration of the social fabric that would be at risk if dangerous criminals were returned to the streets. In the Williams case, those calling for clemency are arguing that he should be spared, not freed.

The very things that make so many of us uneasy about the death penalty today also concerned the rabbis 2,000 years ago. While they could not write the death penalty out of the Torah, they erected almost insurmountable procedural and evidentiary safeguards and obstacles that essentially ensured that a Sanhedrin, a Jewish court, would never hand down a death sentence. For example, the rabbis ruled that two witnesses were required to testify not only that they witnessed the murder for which a criminal was being condemned, but also that they had warned the perpetrator beforehand that, if he carried out the offense, he would be executed, and that he accepted this warning and nevertheless stated his willingness to carry out the act.

Jewish unease with the capital punishment also informed the decision of the State of Israel not to have a death penalty except in the case of convicted Nazi war criminals. To date, despite its ongoing battle with terrorism, only one person, Adolph Eichmann, has been tried and executed by the Jewish State.

In the United States, despite decades of trying, the justice system has proven unable to create a foolproof death penalty. In Jewish tradition, this alone would be reason enough to oppose capital punishment. But the rabbis make an even more profound claim. Mishna tells us that those appearing as witnesses in capital cases were instructed: One who destroys a single soul, it is as if he has destroyed an entire world. And one who sustains and saves a single soul, it is as if that person sustained a whole world (M Sanhedrin 4:5). In other words, even when confronted with a person who is accused of horrendous crimes, we are still obligated to recognize the value and inestimable worth of every human being. We are compelled to consider the potential contribution the condemned might make if spared. Who, at the time of his conviction in 1981, would have thought that Williams would be capable of work that, in 2001, led to him being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Judaism also abhors an inequitable dual system of justice, especially in capital cases. The Levitical demand for "one standard for the stranger and the citizen alike" is reinforced in the Talmud (B Sanhedrin 32a) to ensure procedural fairness in capital proceedings. The fact that the death penalty in the United States disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color serves to underscore its incompatibility with Jewish values. Whether or not Williams received a fair trial and sentencing, it is horribly clear that many people, who, like him, are poor and black, do not.

My Jewish values convince me that the capital punishment system in our state and in our country is beyond repair. I could cite the example of Illinois, where a Republican governor, a man who is a conservative Christian and once ardently supported the death penalty, ordered a halt to executions. He then commuted all death sentences to life sentences. Ethically, he had little alternative after students at Northwestern University discovered that more people on Illinois' death row were innocent of the crimes for which they'd been sentenced to death than the number of people Illinois had executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s.

More recently, the state of Georgia apologized for what it now acknowledges was the "grievous error" of executing Lena Baker, a black woman, in 1945. And a Missouri prosecutor just reopened an investigation to determine whether, as many now fear, the state mistakenly executed Larry Griffin in 1995. And the Supreme Court, as far back as 1987, acknowledged what we all know - that if you are poor or a person of color - you are far more likely to get the death penalty than you are if you are white or a person of means. And California's system of justice is as overburdened and flawed as that of many other states where such problems arise. So if we begin in December a Texas-style run of executions (in addition to Williams, two other death row inmates have received their execution dates) we, too, will risk killing innocent people. We, too, will create dual systems of capital justice: one for the poor and blacks and Latinos, and one for those privileged by having white skin or money.

But even death-penalty supporters are speaking up to save Williams. They, too, recognize that something is terribly wrong when a state can execute a man who is literally saving the lives of others every day that he lives.

Innocent or guilty, victim of a flawed trial or not, Williams is set to die in one month's time: a young criminal who evolved into something more, someone more than even the sum of some truly horrible crimes.

Was his transformation entirely sincere?

I believe it was. But in the end, the worth of his contribution does not depend on how much of him is truly redeemed versus how much his pursuit of good works is spurred on by his fear of death. He is now a force for good in the world, keeping others from making the same mistakes he made.

His appeals have been exhausted, and time is almost up. The only way Williams' life will be saved is if Gov. Schwarzenegger decides to spare him.

If we believe the things that we pray and the things that we say, if we are committed to the values that we claim to treasure, we do not have the luxury of complacency when confronted with what we are about to do to Tookie Williams. Because let's be clear: if the State of California executes this man, it will do so in our name. We will stand as his executioner in the death chamber next month.

Whether you are for or against the death penalty, there are two questions that we - as Jews, Californians and Americans - have to answer: Does the man
deserve to die? And do we want to be the ones to kill him? no.

Daniel Sokatch is the executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance and part of a multifaith coalition seeking to stop the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams.

Breaking News from Congress

2005-11-10T17:12:00.000-06:00

JCAers,

Great work everyone. Our letters and calls to members of the Minnesota Congressional delegation made a
difference. We have temporarily convinced the House leadership to pull the Budget Reconciliation Act with
all of its budget cuts from consideration (see below). But its not done and your help is still needed. So keep
calling and writing to Congress and keep up the pressure. We need to prevail on this issue.

Vic

Breaking News
“It is great news that the Reconciliation Bill, with its appalling cuts in food stamps and other programs essential to low-income families, has been pulled for now. It should be dropped totally and permanently.” This statement from FRAC President Jim Weill came just minutes after learning that the House leadership, short of votes to pass the FY 2006 Budget Reconciliation Bill, “pulled” it from consideration this Thursday afternoon. With cuts to food stamps among the issues dividing Republican Members, the development is a testimony to the effectiveness of so many anti-hunger groups, immigrant advocates, state government officials, and other allies that have worked to defeat those cuts.

More work remains to defeat the measure, however. The bill could be brought back to the floor during the week of November 14th. This special edition of the “Update” has background on the outlook, action needed and a “Special Analysis--Talking Points Against Food Stamp Cuts” attached.

Voting...with skim milk, please.

2005-11-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

Something I remember from childhood - on election days, upon returning home and changing out of her work clothes, my mother used to stick her "I Voted" sticker to the corner of her vanity mirror. Sometimes the caption varied; for school board elections they might have read "Hug me, I voted today," and I always hugged her. Clearly, she must deserve it - she'd voted. Voting was something grown-ups did and it merited receiving a sticker that one could wear all day and then display at home on the vanity mirror. To a little kid, anything that gets you a sticker is a big deal.

Voting is still a big deal to me, which is why today, as on other election days, I was up early. I was as excited as I am on birthday mornings. I only hit the snooze bar THREE times instead of the usual six or seven. I really like arriving within 5 minutes of the polls opening and seeing what number I am. Today I was number 17 while at the last primary I was number 3. That says something about the turnout at primaries, but we'll address that another time.

In any case, why is voting so exciting to me? It's the one time when I know I have a voice. When my opinion actually counts and will be counted. I'm taking an active interest in my community, and the fact that I showed up obligates those in power to recognize that my community and I exist. I work for an organization that's all about building power, and voting makes me feel powerful.

After I voted and got my sticker, I walked a few blocks to the coffee shop nearest my house and got a cup of coffee for the drive in to work. And doing that right after voting made me think about connections between the two. They're really the same thing, aren't they? By spending my money in my neighborhood I'm helping to sustain our local economy and helping show what an excellent place North Minneapolis is for small business (it really is - come check us out, entrepreneurs). By voting I'm supporting the public officials I feel strongly about and showing the powers that be that our community has a strong, vital voice that must be heard.

So get out and vote. Vote as frequently as you're allowed, and do everything you can to make your community (be it the Jewish community, the activist community, or the Victory Neighborhood community) have the biggest impact and loudest voice it can. Citizens, engage!
-Mrotzie

Welcome to JCA's Blog

2005-11-08T14:50:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Jewish Community Action's new blog.

We're excited to be able to start dialogue and build community online! JCA's staff will post frequently about a range of topics - from our issue campaigns to current legislation and events we find interesting.

We invite you to participate in the conversation!

First, some ground rules, for us and for you:
1. JCA is non-partisan, and we hope you'll respect that in your comments.
2. No hate speech or personal attacks.
3. We won't post in this blog on Jewish holidays (including Shabbat), and we hope you won't comment at those times either.

If you'd like more information about JCA, visit our website
at www.jewishcommunityaction.org.