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Social Justice Committee Summary

Summary of Social Justice Committee Meeting.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
 
 Present:  Gary Brown, Joan Schaeffer, Dorothy Serotta, Morris and Annette Eisenberg, Carla Neufeld, Lolly Green, Bruce Jay.
 
1.  Immigration:  Gary announced that the Shavuot celebration on Tuesday evening May 22nd will deal with “welcoming the stranger” as it discusses the theme in the Book of Ruth.  Rabbi Jody is interested in developing this theme and in the fall an event will take place with the participation of the American Jewish Committee.  There will be a chance for the members to express their support for comprehensive immigration reform to their congressional representatives.  It was suggested that the action could be taken through the URJ/RAC web page.  In addition, some more information and opportunities for further education will be offered so the complexities of this issue can be absorbed by those that are interested.  In addition, the clothing collected for the 101 Haitians in detention will have another destination since only new items would be accepted. 
  1. PACT:  As members of PACT we have once again been requested to raise donations from individuals.  The PACT President talks about getting money from her hair dresser and eye doctor.  Gary asked about what we had done in the past and was informed that we had never contributed to this campaign since it was not part of our tradition to raise money in this way.  We pay our dues ($500 a year).  In addition, the discussion turned to the effectiveness of PACT and what can be done to improve their follow-up on issues and their lack of clout as shown by politicians no showing up at their recent accountability sessions (i.e., County Mayor Alvarez at the March 26th event).  While acknowledging the low level of communication and activity, it was judged that PACT needed to get its new Executive Director in place before any improvement could be expected.
 
Gary reported on our participation in the PACT Housing Committee.  This was the item where Mayor Alvarez didn’t show at two PACT accountability sessions.  A “Lunch with the Mayor” campaign is being launched by PACT to get people to call the Mayor’s office at lunch time between May 21st and June 1st asking when he will receive a PACT delegation to discuss the “housing crisis”.  A recent forum on the subject was cancelled due to the litigation by the County of HUD’s decision to intervene in the County’s housing efforts.  A meeting of the Committee will be scheduled hopefully for next week to discuss next steps. 
 
 
  1. Project Step-Up:  Joan Schaeffer reported that the trip to Orlando for a competition on creative problem solving and financial support for the awards luncheon has been given.  She will check if the donor for the luncheon wants to be recognized.  We are still waiting for a new wish list from the school’s Principal.  Joan will ask Mark Buchbinder if he would help communicating with her.  The Temple has some volunteers working with the school and we hope to have additional projects to support.  We will follow up on the request of Temple Member Valerie Rosen to celebrate the birthday of her child through a service project at the school.    
 
  1. URJ Position on Iraq:  A draft message informing the congregation was approved to send to our membership through the FLAME and website.  Dorothy said that she had already included it on the Sisterhood page. 
 
  1. New Business:  A request from Rabbi Jody to see what might be done to assist in the local production of “Any One of Us” a program on jailed women will be investigated by Gary.
 
  1. Contacting potential committee members:  Gary and Bruce will work to get others to help call some of the people that recently requested information about our SocJust Committee.  This will focus on people that haven’t responded to recent e-mails.  We’ll be asking “What do you want to get from Social Justice activities at Temple Israel?”
 
  1. Feeding at the Homeless Assistance Center (HAC) of the Community Partnership for the Homeless:  Each month Temple provides $735 to this organization for feeding hundreds of people at their residence.  For the past 18 years the Temple has had hands on feeding staffed by volunteers.  Most recently, this meant a group coordinated by Karen Raley would go twice a month to the HAC.  Karen was the last Temple member to regularly go and she now is unable to continue.  We will remove her as the contact person.  It was decided to encourage our Temple members to step up to the plate (no pun intended) and renew our commitment to hands on Mitzvah work in this area.  Annette Eisenberg volunteered to speak to Sisterhood about the HAC.  Gary will ask Rabbi Jody to make a plea and we’ll use other means of communication to the congregation.  The use of volunteers was emphasized as a way to provide dignity to the hundreds of people that are housed and fed at the HAC. 
 
The next regular meeting of the Committee will be at 6 PM on June 21st. 
 
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