JUST ENGAGE

I spent Monday through Thursday, December 10-14, in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley experiencing two very different JCRCs and seeing in easy view the relative power of the whole enterprise. San Francisco is one of the stalwarts of the movement; it has a very large staff, an admired and able director in Rabbi Doug Kahn, and a dynamic lay leadership. The meeting at which I spoke had a large turnout, focused on the JCPA and the problems faced today by Israel after Annapolis. There was a feeling of family and commitment in the room and I understood why it is such a powerful and contributory agency As a top JCRC  San Francisco recognizes its responsibility to the whole CRC movement and takes its role seriously as the basic address for Jewish public engagement in San Francisco.

The JCRC in the Silicon Valley is a very different kind of organization. Under the professional leadership of an able and caring director, Diane Fisher, and a strong lay engagement that JCRC has come back to life after a short hiatus during which it was barely breathing. The meeting Wednesday was attended by nearly twenty people including the CEO of the Jewish Federation and the community was focused on confronting and fighting against hunger, protecting the environment, and  Moslem-Jewish relations. Thursday morning I spoke at an interfaith gathering in San Jose about the JCPA poverty program and I could already see that this newly revitalized JCRC was already respected in the non-Jewish community and that Diane and her leadership were building something that would soon have power and lthe ability to make a difference in the Silicon Valley.

When I first took the job as exec of the JCPA only about two years ago, I was told that the JCRC movement was in trouble, that JCRCs were not doing much.  Just not true—as I travel the country—everywhere I go—I see power, dynamism, and relevancy. There are powerhouses like San Francisco and up-and-coming organizations like Silicon Valley. They are doing great work in 125 communities around America and, the truth be known,  I feel lucky to be in this job and to see that everywhere I go, we are making a difference, helping this world to be a better place.

This food stamp challenge is different than I imagined. I thought that, because it would happen between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it would enhance my spiritual life and bring me to new heights…..Rather, I have discovered that it is, indeed, a yicchy way to have to live. The food choices are limited; coffee is non-existent; the world seems constricted and small.

Before I began, I wondered if I would become less empathetic and discover that a food stamp diet is not so bad…. However, after 5 days on approximately $1/meal, I can attest that it is simply horrible. I am in day 5 feeling as if it is day 50 realizing what limits this diet places on life’s fulfillment were it to be a constant. To grow up on this over-starched way of being limits our humanity. Physically, it is not healthy; emotionally it is constricting, sort of like I imagine one feels when they are way over-sedated; and spiritually, it feels like living in a dim light wondering about where and how the presence of G-d ever shows its beautiful face.

The press conference yesterday was phenomenal. I enjoyed writing and giving my remarks (click here to read a copy of the transcript). Several members of Congress, great colleagues in Hadar Susskind, Melissa Boteach, and Jared Feldman, terrific work done by Rabinowitz and Dorf, our public relations folks, and a lot of press. I challenged the press to do their part. Hunger and poverty are not going to end because a couple of hundred people around the country are taking the challenge but because a few million people simply decide that the richest country in the history of the world must not tolerate the state of affairs in which tens of millions live in a nutritionally debased way and have no health insurance at all. That will take all of us including the press.

The challenge is for us to wake up every morning and ask ourselves ‘what can I do today?’ Gaining a little empathy is good; raising awareness about the problem is also important. But empathy and awareness-raising are means to the end of ACTING to end poverty in America.

It might be too high a mountain to end poverty for the whole world but to not end it here in America is unconscionable. The question we should challenge ourselves with is ‘why the apathy?’ What is wrong with us? Why don’t we look in the faces of the needy who live in our midst and say: “G-d is there in that face; it could well be me; how can I change this?’

I just got back from volunteering at DC Central Kitchen, a truly inspiration place, where they not only prepare 4,000 meals a day for those who are hungry in the greater-DC area, but provide job training, support and hope to help people pull themselves out of poverty. Joining me were Melissa, Congressman Keith Ellison, a Muslim democrat from Minnesota and a lot of fun to chop vegetables with, and Ellen Vollinger from the Food Research and Action Center. Chopping onions and cucumbers under the vigilant eye of Dot, a graduate of one of the DC Central Kitchen’s programs, hearing Carolyn’s story of salvation….she is a woman who seven years ago lived on the streets and now runs the volunteer program for the kitchen….and listening to Mike, the executive director, explain the overview of what the kitchen does, was inspirational. These are people who wake up every morning and make the world a bit better for those in need. They ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’. This has been a good way to enter day 5. I see in just the work we did at the kitchen, the tears caused by the onions, and the spirit generated by the great hearts and souls of the people who make that kitchen function—I feel and see that spark of hope that could possibly affect and intrude in all of our lives—making us just a bit better and a bit more able to respond to the challenge of poverty in America. As I feel that spark, I, at least for the moment, think maybe this is the right time of year for the challenge; maybe I do feel that extra ray of spiritual focus that I hoped the food stamp challenge would bring to these holy days.

The Food Stamp Challenge is in full swing. People from all across the country taking the Food Stamp Challenge with JCPA to call attention to inadequacy of the food stamp benefit and the importance of healthy nutrition for all Americans.

Yesterday the JCPA officially launched the its new poverty campaign, “There Shall Be No Needy Among You.” This campaign is based on the combining service and advocacy in a holistic approach to activism. In that spirit, JCPA Executive Director Rabbi Steve Gutow and Congressman Keith Ellison volunteered today at soup kitchen in Washington DC.

We look at you—the world of the blogosphere out there–and ask you to tell us what you think. The problems we are facing don’t end–poverty is rampant and the differences between the rich and the poor in America are not only huge but sometimes reflects who lives and who dies–remember New Orleans–who lived and who died depended on how much money was in your pocket? Could you get out of that place? The rich did and the poor did not. It isn’t much different in other cities without hurricanes. No money, no houses, no health care, no education–and you and your kids grow up to fail; it shouldn’t go on. What can we do to stop it? You tell us….

The JCPA wants to do something to turn the corner –to change the equation–and for us our campaign to stop poverty in America is just part of the whole–we are fighting against the rapes and genocide, starvation and displacement of millions in Darfur. We are fighting to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, working to make Israel safe and secure in a very dangerous neighborhood, trying to stop racial profiling and working to pass hate crimes legislation. We’re organizing to combat global warming and reduce our relentless reliance on carbon fuels. We want to keep prayer out of our public schools and science in them, and we think human trafficking must be prevented by human action and law enforcement.

The American Jewish community has a broad agenda. Our job as the umbrella agency for public policy is to hear the voices of Jews, Jewish communities and Jewish organizations around the nation and to try to help realize the goals of the shared agenda crafted by these voices.

We are establishing this blog so that you can weigh in, so that you can tell us what you think about the issues and about the way in which we address them. We need your thoughts. Tell us when we are right and when we are wrong. We are at our best–effective, targeted in our approach, and bringing a moral perspective to the political debate in our nation– only when you help us. Our hope is that this blog will facilitate debate and discussion amongst the pluralistic voices that make up our community. When a discussion topic is posted, you can respond to one another and bring the experience of your community to bear on the issue at hand. When a guest “blogger” who is an expert on climate change posts his/her thoughts, the entire community will have the opportunity to instantaneously contribute to the debate on the best course of action.

It is our hope that this new blog will also help incorporate the next generation of activists into Jewish communal life. As we look to young people to bring new perspectives and continuity to our work, we must meet them where they are, on the internet, and engage them on the broad range of issues that the American Jewish community is facing.

Finally, part of JCPA’s mission is to “to protect, preserve and promote a just American society, one that is democratic and pluralistic”. Establishing this blog will help us as we strive towards this goal; adding a more democratic media that flattens communications and enables more exchange is ideologically consistent with our mission of promoting a more democratic and pluralistic America that empowers more voices to participate in decision-making.

Please join the fray. Help us find the way. We are looking to you.

Thanks in advance.

Steve