What's new in Jewish social justice?

Yesterday morning, having attended an event sponsored by the Jewish Organizing Initiative the previous evening, I wondered aloud about the newness and the effectiveness of all the faith-based social justice organizing that I'm seeing and hearing about in Judaism and several Christian denominations, particularly among young people.

A few of your comments:

from Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the director of the Just Congregations program for the Union for Reform Judaism:

"You wondered whether there was a trend, and asked how effective faith-based organizing efforts are at making change. I would pose the question to the several hundred thousand residents of Massachusetts who now have quality, affordable health care access. It has been widely noted, by leaders like Speaker Sal Di Masi, and former Health Care for All chief, John McDonough that a critical component of this tremendous victory of Massachusetts health reform was the hard work of thousands of members of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Through their churches and synagogues, leaders held house meetings, collected tens of thousands of signatures, spoke to the press, and regularly met with legislators. Governors Romney and Patrick as well as Speaker Di Masi attended gatherings attended by thousands of GBIO leaders, and responded to our call for health reform. Over the last ten years, ordinary folks from Roxbury to West Newton, and Lexington to South Boston have joined together in their churches, temples, and other institutions as GBIO. We have brought our collective power to achieve other victories, like more text books in Boston Schools, the passage of the 100 million dollar affordable housing trust fund, which has grown to 250 million dollars and reform in the nursing care industry. For decades on a national level, synagogues, churches, mosques and other religious institutions have joined together through broad-based organizations and had major impact on the passage of living wage laws, construction of tens of thousands of units of affordable housing, reforms in the health care system, and myriad other local campaigns. I am proud of the strong role of the Jewish community in GBIO, and increasingly in broad-based organizing across the country. I have seen first hand how effective we can be as we put our faith in action."

from Margaret Frisch Klein:

"I was intrigued by your blog post and your attendance at the graduation of the young Jews working on social justice issues. I am a fifth year rabbinical student (my final year!) at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, largely due to my commitment to social justice. I would have loved a program such as you describe in your blog when I was just out of college. Other Jewish organizations for you to be aware of is Panim based in Washington, DC, and founded by Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Jewish Funds for Justice in New York--check out Rabbi Jill Jacobs and American Jewish World Service run by Ruth Messinger. Finally the Reform Movement has its Religious Action Center, also in DC that has inspired generations of Jews to work for social change--including me and my daughter. I have worked with many of my interfaith clergy on a variety of issues--health care, jobs, housing, schools and more. I have cherished working with organizations like the Merrimack Valley Project (which was actually founded on my dining room table) have brought people of all sorts to improve quality of life and the Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance which has hosted summer camps and summer pools in Lowell as part of our mission of being moral leadership, promoting interfaith dialog and being a source of mutual support. So you can see--this is really not a new phenomena.''

from Frances (Cookie) Avrin:

"I just read Young, Religious and Agitating. There is so much going on! My daughter, who was raised in Brookline discovered on-line in her senior year of college, Avodah (you can Google it) a one year Jewish social service corps currently in Brooklyn (where it started) D.C. and Chicago. She was in the 1st group in Chicago last year (after she graduated from college). It has a 3-pronged emphasis -- learning about Jewish commitment to social justice, learning about living together, as a community, on AmeriCorps wages and have a placement in an organization that works on issues of poverty/social justice. My daughter was placed in an incredibly dynamic 10 year old youth development program (Umoja Development Corp.- a major player in the youth development world in Chicago and beyond) in an Chicago low-income public high school on the West Side. The second year (this year) she was hired as staff for Umoja. It has been a transforming experience. Also, she has met other young adults from other religious volunteer group who do terrific social justice work (Catholic Volunteer Corps; Lutheran Volunteer Corps). All of this, however, is in Chicago. Just thought I'd let you know. We are not a religious family but believe this value based (for many -religious-based) progressive social service work is worthy for so many reasons.''

and from Molly Zeff, one of this year's JOI fellows:

"Thank you for your blog about JOI, an organization that has completely changed my life. And yes, I believe it is part of a trend--a trend of young people making change and building community at the same time. Kavod House, the National Havurah Institute, numerous independent minyanim (services) in NY, DC, Boston, and elsewhere, the growing network of Moishe Houses all over (of which Kavod House is a part), the Workmen's Circle's young crowd here in Boston...need I go on? We're young, we're enthusiastic, we've got tons of energy and more time than people with kids and a mortgage, and we're interested in building and have already built communities and political power. We are in our twenties and early thirties, we're moving beyond denominations in Judaism to build bridges across observance levels, and we're already creating a proven track record of taking a stand and making change. This is religion at its best and as it should be: a force for power and a source of strength and friendship."