This post originally appeared on RJ.org

About 200 Jewish activists, rabbis, and communal leaders gathered in New York City for the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network for Justice’s (JOIN for Justice) recent National Summit. At the summit, JOIN for Justice honored the URJ’s Senior Vice President Rabbi Jonah Pesner with the Tekiah Social Justice Award.

Rabbi Pesner was honored for his work as a pioneer in the field of Jewish organizing and particularly for founding Just Congregations, the URJ’s groundbreaking community organizing effort. During his 20-year career, he has engaged thousands of synagogue congregants to join together in successful campaigns for health care access, affordable housing, public education, gay and lesbian rights, and rights for nursing care workers.

Speaking at the ceremony were Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the URJ; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center; and Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Program Director, Jewish Life and Values, Nathan Cummings Foundation. Rabbi Rosenn’s remarks follow.

It feels most appropriate to be honoring Jonah in this sanctuary today. In 1996 I joined Jonah’s class for our final year of rabbinical school here at HUC. It just so happens that my most vivid memory of Jonah is of him sitting right there in the first row of that middle section. His hair down to his shoulders, he had a sort of, well, groovy air about him. Jonah had grown up in the bosom of the Reform movement, and was for all intents and purposes the quintessential poster child for the movement.

Though we respected each other from a distance, we really didn’t know each other well. Upon ordination, I went off to be a Hillel Rabbi at Columbia University, and Jonah became an Assistant Rabbi in Westport, Connecticut. And I think it is safe to say, we didn’t expect to see each other again outside of the occasional rabbinic conference.

Fast forward seven years. I had just come to the Nathan Cummings Foundation and as part of developing the field of Jewish social justice, I was thinking about how to grow congregation-based community Organizing beyond the handful of synagogues that did organizing back then. Everyone I talked with about it kept telling me about Temple Israel, this synagogue in Boston that really “got” organizing – and no one could tell me about Temple Israel without mentioning in the same breath a remarkable young rabbi named Jonah Pesner.

Around this same time, it became clear to me that the Reform Movement was key to bringing congregation-based community organizing to a larger scale. I began to have conversations with Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the then-president of the Reform Movement, and with Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center – conversations about what it would mean to introduce organizing to many more congregations across the country. I would say they were intrigued and skeptical in about equal measure.

It was not until Jonah came into the picture as a trusted Reform rabbi beloved by his community that Eric and David could fully get on board. And quite honestly, it was not until Jonah took a huge leap of faith leaving Temple Israel to start Just Congregations that the Nathan Cummings Foundation could fully get behind it. Over the last decade, first locally and then on the national stage, Jonah has played an absolutely pivotal role in the burgeoning of organizing in the Jewish community.

In a few minutes, David will speak about Jonah’s impact on the Reform Movement’s social justice work. But I just want to preface that by saying that beyond engaging scores of Reform synagogues across the country in organizing through Just Congregation, Jonah has been an inspiring teacher and mentor to seminarians, working with Jeannie Appleman and Meir Lakein, to train several hundred rabbinical students who in turn are engaging their communities in meaningful social change, joining together across lines of religion, race, and class, all while strengthening the fabric of their congregations. Just as Jonah has been central to the seminary training, so too JOIN for Justice has been blessed to have Jonah’s leadership at the helm.

Indeed Jonah’s leadership has been instrumental to making real the vision of a Jewish community that is developing leaders, building power, and bringing our world closer to wholeness. But what is it about Jonah that makes him such an exceptional leader and someone so many of us learn from? Is it his charisma? His passion? His incredible loyalty? Is it Jonah’s impressive ability to access to his inner preacher? Or how deeply he feels things? Is it his ability to be “relational” at a moment’s notice? Or who knows, maybe it’s the frequency with which he is moved to tears?

I am sure none of these things hurt!

But I actually believe that the power of Jonah’s leadership rests in no small part in the way in which his activism and Jewish life are authentically tied up with one another. This week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, sometimes referred to as the holiness code, is unique in the way in which it indiscriminately mixes ritual mitzvot with social mitzvot.

In the same passage, we are told not to wear clothes made of two kinds of material and that we should leave the fallen fruit of our vineyard for the poor and the stranger. We are told the proper way to offer a sacrifice to God, what today has become prayer. And we are instructed that the wages of a laborer should not be held until the next morning.

Implicit in this quick succession of laws is the assertion that religious life and work of social justice are most powerful when woven together.

We are cautioned in this week’s parsha not to let organizing become a religion or let ritual distract us from acting justly.

And indeed Jonah’s life is a profound embodiment of the intertwining of the two. Every organizer’s fundamental tools are themselves and their stories. What is most powerful about Jonah’s stories are the way in which his commitment grows from a deep combination of the ethical and the religious. His is an activism growing out of faith and a faith that points towards action in the world.

To know Jonah is to know what it means to lead from a place of deep power that emerges from this union. It is why we honor Jonah this afternoon for his tremendous leadership and it is why we are inspired by him to look inside ourselves to find that place of meeting – that place where our spiritual lives meet our lives as activists. For it is in this place that transformation of ourselves, our communities, and our world is truly possible.

Thank you Jonah for giving us this opportunity to celebrate and honor you, our colleague, our teacher, and my friend.

Kate Bigam is the URJ’s Social Media and Community Manager. Prior to this, she served as a Congregational Representative for the URJ’s East District and at the Religious Action Center as Press Secretary and as a 2007-2008 Eisendrath Legislative Assistant. She is a native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and currently resides in Portsmouth, N.H.

Last week was jam-packed and inspired.

When I became a Jeremiah Fellow with Bend The Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice in 2011, I didn’t know just how much of a transformative experience it would be.  As we come to the end of our cohort term, I reflect.

I am thankful for the many opportunities I have had because of being actively involved with Bend The Arc.  Being able to say yes to invitations to engage volunteers, celebrated lay leaders, the White House and prominent civil rights activists since the fall of 2011 has been powerful.  Being encouraged to head to New York for a community engagement training in its inaugural season was, naturally, a no brainer. I’ve come to know that when Bend the Arc calls, it’s time to say yes, take action and dive in.

Participating in the JOIN for Justice National Summit has made a lot of lightbulbs light in my head.

Ping! Pow! 

…The thoughts began to flash when I landed in NY and teamed up with some of the fellows in my cohort and our fabulous team of mentors as part of the Jewish Social Justice Round Table’s Civic Engagement Campaign track.  Dialoguing and learning best practices from other Jewish social action organizations, groups and volunteers in this intensive 3-day setting was invaluable and gave me an awareness of Jewish social action that made me even more dedicated to activism and community organizing.  There was a lot to gain from convening in a mindshare with individuals representing California’s Bay Area, Detroit, Minnesota, New York, Los Angeles, Maryland, Chicago and Florida.

What is the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable (JSJRT)? 

“The Jewish Social Justice Roundtable is a cooperative partnership among Jewish organizations working to elevate social justice to the center of Jewish life. Our members are committed to collaborating on progressive issues and creating explicity Jewish structures to address them. Although member organizations do not always work on the same issues or campaigns, they do share the goal of changing the underlying systems causing injustice in today’s society – whether on the local, state, national or international level – through direct service, capacity-building, advocacy and organizing. 

In 2011, we began a national Civic Engagement Campaign, guided by Jewish values. Led by nine anchor organizations across the country, we are holding candidate forums, building capacity, and forming alliances to increase civic participation in the Jewish community.”

 Take Aways

As we individually and collectively take the insightful training we received in New York back to our communities to implement strategic campaigns, I keep the following in my sinews:

1) Every win should be celebrated on the road to justice.  Often times we forget that when the muck overshadows the good.  It’s time to remember to celebrate because it’s time for winning.  Small, big – celebrate.

2) Jews are on the ground for GBLT rights in states I’d never imagined.  I am part of Jewish inclusion teams and have spoken on panels this past year for Jewish diversity and inclusion in Los Angeles and Maryland. To hear that people are on the ground engaging their communities to act for marriage equality in states like Minnesota empowers me. JOIN expanded my scope of hope.

3) Action vs. Activity.  I hadn’t really grok’d the difference between the two terms until I sat in a session the first day of our convening.  As 2012′s election month fast approaches, all of us from each of the eight organizations present at this year’s Civic Engagement Campaign training will be implementing activities.  But, more than just launching a series of activities, we dissected the true meaning of making things happen; that is, engaging in strategic actions around key issues. This allows power and relationships to be built for the future in our respective communities and organizations.  Really understanding the difference between action and activity is power.

I would have loved to been able to attend some of the other plenaries in order to network and learn with other members of the training.  Perhaps at future summits, there will be a way to work this into the track, though I thought being able to attend a few larger group sessions with the entire summit participant roster was thoughtful.

All in all, I’m super excited and super charged post-JOIN; and really, it is just the beginning!  I feel a subtle shift occurred, perhaps on a cellular level, for me at the training. Super cool.

Now, I am looking forward to celebrating some wins in 2012 with my fellow Jewish-based community organizers!

JOIN for Justice National Summit was a blast.  I’d recommend it to anyone serious about diving into efficient and meaningful community organizing development, especially if you are privy to or involved with any of the Jewish Social Justice Round Table’s organizations*.

*To read about the organizations in the Round Table, please click here to view the list at the National Council of Jewish Women’s website. (Note: Progressive Jewish Alliance + Jewish Funds for Justice is now Bend the Arc.)

Tera Greene is an Artivist/Writer/Social Entrepreneur and award-winning DJ. She has blogged with the Jewish Journal Online’s “Oy Gay” blog since 2010. Follow her on twitter @djnovajade.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 16, 2012   –   5:30-7:30/8

5:30-6:15: Snacks & fun!
6:15-7:30: Action!
7:30-8:00: Pizza!

WHERE: The Cathedral Church Of Saint Paul
138 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
02111

For more information on the action, contact Maddie MacWilliams or call 617-596-3278

This post originally appeared on No Power in the ‘Verse.

I spent last Sunday and Monday in New York, at the HUC-JIR campus, attending the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network for Justice (JOIN for Justice) first National Summit, the organization’s first. I heard about it through Jews United for Justice, one of my favorite D.C. organizations. As a rabbi, I want to do organizing, so it was a good opportunity to network with other Jews doing social justice work. Indeed, those two days I walked around thinking, “Yes. These are my people.”

Simply put, the conference was awesome, for little and big reasons. I am dork, so I really liked that everything ran on time and stuck to the schedule. (Not everyone showed up on time to sessions (myself included on one occasion!) but that’s a different kettle of fish.) Every session I attended had a written agenda of what was to be covered, and in good organizing fashion, the agenda was reviewed and affirmed before each session. What can I say? I like knowing that presenters know what they’re doing.

The conference also got me super excited about moving to Boston. Bostonophiles had told me what a great city it is for social justice, but seeing is believing. I heard about so much good work going on and/or based there (where JOIN itself is located!), through Moishe Kavod House, Jewish Association for Law & Social Action, Massachusetts Senior Action Council, Boston Workman’s Circle, Keshet, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, and more. I’m thrilled about the potential opportunities I’m going to have in rabbinical school.

And I heard some downright inspiring speakers: In the opening assembly, Simon Greer of Nathan Cummings talked about the Jewish legacy and future of social justice: “At the March on Washington, Jews blended in; at Occupy Wall Street, Jews stood out.” Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance spoke about community/labor coalition building: “All progressive movements, worker-related or not, bank on the utilization of the labor movement. We have to lift it up.” Marshall Ganz of the Kennedy School highlighted the necessity of a moral aspect to social justice work: “One cannot long last as a light to the world and a darkness at home.” Gordon Whitman of PICO emphasized the importance ofreligious Judaism: “We can’t have just a secular Jewish social justice movement.” Nancy Kaufmanof the National Council of Jewish Women: “Social justice comes from Jewish values — but has universal goals.”

One of my favorite sessions was “Mindfulness and Organizing Work,” led by Rabbis David Adelson and Lisa Goldstein. I really identified with Rabbi Goldstein’s section on text study as a mindfulness practice. As she noted, looking at a piece of text is the default Jewish spiritual practice in organizing — but doing so often puts participants into an intellectual space that can be anxiety-producing and can lead to tearing others down. “How can I demonstrate that I know more about Judaism than others? What if I don’t understand what someone else says? How can I show my independence of thought by disagreeing with the author?” Instead, Rabbi Goldstein suggested looking at text from mindful perspective: “What it wise, beautiful, true, or helpful about this text? What does this text teach me about myself and about where I am in the world?”

The Prophet Isaiah (I love the prophet art at HUC!); photo by Salem Pearce (via instagram)

Personally (as opposed to professionally), my favorite part of the conference was seeing my old friend David Segal (now Rabbi David Segal). We hadn’t seen each other since high school, when I was his yearbook editor. We’d friended each other on Facebook within the past couple of years, so we had some idea of what the other was doing. But because of the time built into the schedule for relational meetings (thanks, JOIN!), we were able to make that deeper connection as adults and as organizers. I got to hear about his path to the rabbinate and to Aspen, and I got to tell him about my path to Judaism and to the rabbinate. When we parted, headed to different sessions, he told me a story that gave me chills.

A friend of his, also a convert and a rabbi, shared with him a midrash (or perhaps a midrash on amidrash?): Between creation and when the Israelites went out of Egypt, G-d is said to have visited and offered Torah to all of the nations of the earth, who ultimately rejected it; only the Israelite nation, at Mount Sinai, accepted it — becoming the “chosen” people. David’s friend noted that in each of the rejecting nations, though, a few people in the back of the crowd raised their hands and said, “Wait! I want it.” That is him, he said.

That is me, too.

Salem Pearce is a proud Texan (is there any other kind?) who now lives in Washington, D.C., working and volunteering in the nonprofit world. This Summer she will start at Hebrew College Rabbinical School – follow her reflections at salempearce.com

Amanda created three large drawings. Want to see the drawings in person? We’ll announce when the drawings will be installed in our office!

It was time to eat and I’d picked up one of the boxes containing lunch, all of which were sealed with a sticker identifying them as strictly kosher. But traditional halacha requires hand-washing with a blessing before saying ha-motzi, which I’d be doing before eating my sandwich. So I’d gone with a water bottle to the drinking fountain to wash my hands. And that’s where I saw the cup, left by someone else who followed the same rules.

When I think back on the conference, that moment is only one of many where I felt connected to other attendees. On the surface, these moments look very different from each other, and they felt different as well. Unlike the hand-washing situation, there were times when I felt frustrated, challenged, and overwhelmed… but I realized upon reflection that I needed to incorporate what had been said or what had happened into my own understanding.

Community isn’t about always feeling comfortable.

There was the session for clergy that I asked to attend so I could listen. The rabbis were talking about the challenge of trying to use organizing techniques to strengthen synagogues and other institutions, which tend to have entrenched cultures that resist change. And the main advice I heard was to be patient, to accept that it can take several years to be trusted as part of that culture, before which it can be difficult or impossible to make a significant difference.

Be patient?? I was frustrated. Organizing is a model that uses “the action” as one of its main tools! I had to spend time thinking over the difference between patience and apathy, and about the idea of doing work that you know will be less than ideal while you build up the people and systems that will make better work possible.

Then there was the session on meditation and using quiet practices to stay focused and centered enough to continue emotionally trying efforts. Another participant spoke up when there was room for questions. “Why are we talking so much?” she demanded. “If this is a session on silence, why are we talking? I’m tired of all this talking. I’m even tired of hearing myself talk!” (Similarly, in a discussion about engaging young adults, an acquaintance of mine asked “What songs should we sing?” in an attempt to remind us that there are many ways to feel connected and they don’t all involve talking.)

Stop changing the subject! I thought to myself. What’s being said is important! And it wasn’t until later on that I remembered all the times I’ve complained that there should be more singing in synagogue, that meetings shouldn’t only be about rushing through the agenda, that there needs to be room for people to sing and be quiet and laugh and connect.

The conference pushed me to consider what those connections should look like and encouraged me to use the relational meeting as the building block for creating that community. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I got home.

Melissa Nunes-Harwitt is a Jewish educator and activist, and she is a graduate of Yale University and the Drisha Institute for Jewish Studies in Manhattan.

Presenter Marjorie Fine, Director of the Linchpin Campaign at the National Summit

Originally posted in Global Voices. 

What exactly is “organizing”? It’s a term people are using a lot more these days. From Wall Street to Tahrir Square, people are organizing for different kinds of change. But the idea of organizing from the ground up toward a common goal often makes people uncomfortable. Why is that?

As a fundraiser at AJWS, I can relate to this discomfort. Asking someone to make a financial gift is often met with apprehension, similar to the kind of apprehension someone feels when asked to sign a petition, call their member of Congress, or participate in a protest. It’s the “ask” that often puts people in a place where they are forced to think about how they tackle issues of injustice and whether they are willing to step up and take action. To get people to say “yes,” you need to build a relationship—which is really what organizing is all about.

Last week, I attended the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network (JOIN for Justice) National Summit at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, along with a number of my AJWS colleagues and a group of incredible AJWS volunteers. Together, we learned more about organizing, what makes it Jewish, and how we are collectively harnessing our power to change the world on issues ranging from local labor unions to the U.S. Farm Bill. We were joined by some of the most influential leaders in organizing, including Heather Booth of the Midwest Academy and Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, as well as representatives from more than 20 organizations from across the country.

As a fundraiser, I was instantly drawn to the organizing models we discussed at the summit based on the premise of building relationships. This makes so much sense. Whether you are supporting a cause by donating money or by donating your time and skills through activism, you are becoming part of a larger movement. My views on philanthropy mirror my views on organizing. If you know there is a problem, you must work to fix it in whatever way you can.

The JOIN for Justice Summit was unique because it brought together people who are working on a wide range of issues. Facing so many problems head on can be overwhelming, but it is important to figure out what you are passionate about and support it in whichever way you can.

For 27 years, AJWS has been bringing people together to mobilize around issues of injustice affecting the world’s most marginalized populations. AJWS’s Reverse Hunger campaign is pushing Congress to uphold recent changes to the Farm Bill and its international food aid policies. The existing policies will provide more funding for local and regional procurement of food and will prevent the U.S. government from undermining local economies when we ship food aid overseas.

After many one-to-one relational meetings and petition signatures, a powerful coalition created the Jewish Platform for a Just Farm Bill. AJWS’s community leaders also began having meetings with members of Congress across the country (led by the same incredible volunteers who were at the JOIN Summit), to tell Congress that this change is crucial to the lives of millions of people in the developing world.

Bottom line: organizing really works! And it’s a tool that is becoming more and more useful for AJWS’s work in the developing world and in the U.S.

Interested in organizing your community around food justice? Learn more about the Reverse Hunger campaign to take action through a variety of organizing efforts.

Organizing can feel overwhelming, but I often remind myself of what Ruth Messinger reminds synagogue congregations: “It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but you are not free to desist from it.” (Mishna, Pirkei Avot 2:16)

Leah Kagan is a development officer at American Jewish World Service.

Yet Alinsky’s legacy is coming home. On April 29 and 30, a new group, JOIN for Justice, debuted at a conference it hosted, which it called the first Jewish community organizing summit. And JOIN itself, whose acronym stands for Jewish Organizing Institute and Network, was created late last year to train Jewish groups in community organizing, or the work of supporting a group of people creating social change.

Read the full story about the Summit in the Jewish Week.

4) Just how funny an organizer’s “blooper reel” can be 
With apologies to the iconic Emma Goldman, I do believe that if I can’t laugh, then it’s *definitely* not my revolution.  As organizers we are encouraged to learn from our mistakes, but how often do we make time and space to celebrate the inevitable moments of absurdity?  Ilana Lerman and Yavilah McCoy’s Sunday evening extravaganza of “storytelling, skits and comedy” promises to have us laughing at our “flaws and fiascoes.”  I, for one, can’t wait.

3) How different folks understand the relationship between their Jewish identities and commitment to justice work 
Participating in the JOIN for Justice fellowship has offered me my first opportunity to explore the connections between my identity as a Jew and my passion for challenging injustice.  I have loved learning the myriad ways in which the JOIN fellows, trainers, mentors and staff have contemplated and honored these connections in their own lives, and I hope to hear many more stories, perspectives and ideas that enrich my own spiritual and professional journeys.

2) How to “sustain justice activism for the long haul” 
Organizing, as a discipline, has a notoriously high rate of attrition and burnout.  I am deeply inspired by the passion and dedication my colleagues bring to their work, but I worry for the toll this toil takes on our individual and collective ability to sustain social change work.  The workshop being offered by Heather Booth, Vivian Rothstein, and Lisa Gallatin promises to feature the “motivations, strategies and advice” that “seasoned organizers” have for the “younger generation.”  O wise sages, I am ready to receive your counsel…

1) All about you! 
That’s right, you!  Because one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my fellowship year thus far is: relationship-building truly makes the world go ’round.  When we share our stories with one another, we chip away at whatever artificial boundaries the world as it is has imposed on us, and we create the space necessary to forge deep bonds of hope, love, and commitment to action.  So, whoever you are, if you’ll be at the Summit, track me down and tell me your story.  I’ll share mine in return, and we’ll be on our way to a better world.

Anna Lifson is a proud native of Madison, Wisconsin. She has also lived in the Twin Cities of Minnesota (where she graduated from Macalester College in 2006), Oaxaca/Chiapas, Mexico, and Washington, DC; most recently, she has called the Boston area home since 2009. Anna is a Jewish Organizing Fellow this year, and she works with Boston Mobilization’s Sub/Urban Justice program to engage local teens on issues of privilege, oppression and action for social justice.

Sunday April 22, 12:00pm-8:00pm
Hebrew College, 160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA

Tickets: $36 adults; $18 for those under 18
Includes a locally sourced Kosher vegetarian dinner.

Register here! For more information contact Leora Mallach at 617-877-2036

Co-sponsored by Ganei Beantown: Beantown Jewish Gardens and Hebrew College. Supported in part by a CJP Innovation Grant.

Sessions at the conference will include:

• Agricultural dimensions of the Jewish calendar cycle
• Contemporary Jewish spiritual practice
• Kosher ritual slaughter and eating ethics
• Models of Community Supported Agriculture and Sustainable Simchas
• Shuk (marketplace) with educational resources, local vendors of Judaica crafts, sustainable food goodies (to purchase and to taste) and community partners
• Wool spinning, sauerkraut making & wheat threshing
• Workers’ rights, food aid and access

See here for full list of titles, educators and detailed workshop descriptions. JOIN for Justice alumna Meira Soloff will be one of the presenters!