Social Justice Networks Now Forming!

Community Organizing for Social Justice depends on interest, opportunity and potential. As our house meetings continue, we are discovering that there is interest and potential for us to start working on a number of areas:

Housing Action Network
LA Voice is involved in an affordable housing action and many on our leadership team are connected to the real estate industry. Our Housing Action Network is involving real estate professionals with those in Los Angeles looking to increase the pool of affordable housing. Often on opposite sides of the issue, if we develop a dialogue between developers and community advocates for housing focused on cooperative problem solving the potentials are endless. Through our involvement with LA Voice we are presented with a unique opportunity. Imagine if solutions satisfactory to both sides can be developed! What an opportunity! The first meeting of the Housing Action Network and the LA Voice professionals happens this Friday, January 30th. More details to follow.

Community Support Network
Throught the efforts of Temple member Dr. Susan Donner and the project coordinator from LA Voice we are developing a parenting program for parents of young adolescents. Together with Counseling interns and professionals from the Stephen S. Wise Community (some of them Spanish speakers!) we'll develop a program to teach and strengthen parenting strategies for adolescents. This was something requested by the residents of Ramona Gardens (an area of Boyle Heights) at their latest meeting with the LA Voice rep and Susan Donner. As things develop there is potential to include Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters to help train student and young adult mentors to guide the young people in Boyle Heights.

It is exciting to see how our efforts are begining to take wing after only five months of organizing and house meetings that have involved about 100 people!

Interested in joining a network? Send an email to Rabbi Stern.

Community Organizing Writ Large

This article reflects the extent of the grass roots organizing that led to Obama's success and is still in operation as a means to implement the vision that he outlined. It is interesting for us and the work that we are doing at Stephen S. Wise because the networks that we are attempting to establish will also derive from our House Meetings (in the article they are called House Parties) and hopefully enable us to reach the goals for organizing Stephen S. Wise that we are developing as a Social Justice Leadership Team.

Time Magazine, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009
Obama's Permanent Grass-Roots Campaign

By Michael Scherer / Owings, Md.

For Kenneth Richardson II of Owings, Md., Barack Obama's election-night victory was not the end but the beginning. "We can't let this go," the 58-year-old father of three remembers thinking. "People feel invested. They feel they can actually do something." So he did. A couple of weeks after the confetti settled, he posted an alert on MyBarackObama.com proposing a new activist group in Calvert County, a rural exurb of Washington where the rolling farmland is dotted by weathered barns and crab shacks. Complete strangers signed up. A retired Air Force pilot, Phil Pfanschmidt, and his wife Joyce, both 71, came to the first meeting in December. So did Chris Melendez, a self-employed art dealer who lives about 30 miles away. Richardson's old motorcycle buddy Al Leandre brought his wife, a public-school teacher, and passed the word to some friends he had met through his government-contracting business. With a few clicks of a mouse, the Owings Grass Roots Group was born.

They were white and black, old and young, middle-class professionals who shared a collective frustration with the state of their country. At least four of the founding 12 had once been registered Republicans. Most had stories of helping the Obama campaign; all had internalized Obama's message of bottom-up, people-powered political change. "For anything that is going on in southern Maryland, Barack Obama personally can have an impact — through us," explained Leandre. (See pictures of Obama on Flickr.)

This sort of thing has been happening quietly all over the country this winter. For the first time in decades, a President will enter office at the spearhead of a social movement he created. The exact size can be measured in various ways. He controls a 13 million-name e-mail list, which is nearly the size of the NRA and the AFL-CIO combined. Three million people have given him money; 2 million have created profiles on Obama's social-networking site. More than 1.2 million volunteered for the campaign, which has trained about 20,000 in the business of community organizing.

But the best measurement of Obama's grass-roots power may still be its unrealized potential. In December, when the Owings group first met, about 4,500 house parties were held around the country, and a total of 550,000 people responded to an online survey asking how they would like to contribute their time and energy over the coming years. At about the same time, nearly 5,000 groups responded to a call from Obama's transition team for reports on the best ways to tackle health-care reform. More recently, some 100,000 people participated in an interactive feature on the transition website Change.gov, which allows people to vote on questions they want Obama to answer. Some popular examples: Will you legalize marijuana? Will you appoint a prosecutor to investigate possible Bush Administration crimes? All this was done with almost no publicity and barely a whisper of encouragement from Obama himself. As a scholar of online politics, Personal Democracy Forum's Micah Sifry, puts it, "I think Obama is sitting on a volcano."

The question for Obama is, Can he harness its power? Obama anchored his presidential ambitions in his background as a bottom-up community organizer and in his belief that two people together are exponentially more powerful than two people alone. "In the last 30 or 40 years, a lot of politics turned into marketing," explains Marshall Ganz, a Harvard professor and community organizer who has worked with Obama. "Marketing is all about selling soup to individuals. It's not about bringing people together." Obama's model, which has made him the envy of a generation of political consultants, focuses both on selling the soup and on giving his supporters the tools to make soup together — for one another. (Watch a video about Obama paraphernalia.)

This formula delivered huge returns during the campaign, and Obama swamped his opponents with vastly superior fundraising and grass-roots organizations. But it has never been tried on a large scale by a sitting President. So Obama's web of supporters and his online organizers must now feel their way into uncharted territory. During the campaign, Richardson, an unemployed customer-service specialist, downloaded phone numbers from the Obama website and then made calls from his home office to nudge voters to the polls. He hasn't heard directly from the Obama organization since, but with the help of the Obama website, Facebook and e-mail, he has created an Obama satellite organization on his own. The Owings group is in business, with a mission statement, the beginnings of a logo and plans to incorporate as a nonprofit.

Richardson's group has signed up overseas supporters and planned a series of community dinners and a potluck in honor of the Inauguration. On a recent NFL-playoff Sunday, 11 members gathered in Richardson's brick-lined den to discuss ways to improve local schools. "When we as a group put a package together to send to Barack Obama, what should we ask for?" Richardson posed the question at the start of the meeting. The answers were varied and thoughtful. Why not encourage high school students to get passports to promote foreign travel? Why not sponsor overseas pen-pal programs via the Internet? Should there be more awards to recognize great teachers?

Though few talk in public about it, a 13 million-man army, with foot soldiers ready to act in key congressional districts, could come in handy if the White House has trouble lining up votes for various bills and proposals that reach Capitol Hill. Obama's army can make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of e-mails — and it has proved it knows how to act fast. Rallying support for legislation is one mission; so is making sure the army is intact — and still writing checks — in a few years, when Obama is likely to seek re-election.

While his supporters seek out ways to stay involved, Obama's team is working to connect with citizens outside politics. Buffy Wicks, who helped run Obama's Missouri campaign, has spent the past couple of months putting together a new website, USAservice.org, designed to capitalize on Obama's call for Americans to volunteer in the days before the Inauguration. Even James Dobson's conservative Focus on the Family, no friend of Obama's campaign, is encouraging members to participate.

Meanwhile, at the transition office, Macon Phillips, 30, the director of new media, has been experimenting with other ways to remake the stodgy White House website. The new transition website invites comments at nearly every turn, with regular video responses from all ranks of Obama's incoming Administration and a promise to collate feedback into reports for policymakers, Cabinet officers, even the President. Citizens can view and comment on briefing papers submitted by the interest groups that have been lobbying Obama ever since he won the election. Most of these interactive devices will be carried over to the Obama White House site. Asked if all this feedback would really reach decision makers, Phillips responded, "I wouldn't enjoy my job if I felt the whole thing was a charade."

As one campaign ends and another begins, Obama will need to broaden his base without disappointing true believers like Richardson. In the 1970s, Richardson graduated from college with a degree in urban studies and hoped to work in the public sector. But his first job, working for then D.C. mayor Walter Washington, was dispiriting. He found himself handing out public-assistance checks to people who were gaming the system, an experience that led him to register as a Republican. Now, he says, he may finally be able to serve as he had always hoped. "I will be 59 in April," he said, "and I have never, ever come across something like this."

The Mayor Comes to Stephen S. Wise for Shabbat

This past Friday (1/9) night, Antonio Villaraigosa joined us for Shabbat Services. If you were there, you know how meaningful it was for the mayor of the second largest city in the nation to stand up before a Jewish community and affirm that he stands along side the Jewish community in its support of Israel. I'm sure that I wasn't the only one to feel the tears pool in my eyes. Mayor Villaraigosa didn't have to say anything. He is not involved in international politics, currently his ambitions may extend to governor which is also not a position that requires international participation. Nonetheless, he stood up firmly for Israel over the past week and subjected himself to vociferous objections from the city's Muslim population. Why did he do it?

The mayor told a story of growing up in Boyle Heights to immigrant parents. There he was guided through school by Jewish teachers, Jewish guidance counselors and Jewish administrators. Many of his neighbors in what was then a mixed Latino, Asian, Jewish community were Jewish and he remembers nothing but kindness and embrace from the Jews whose lives intersected with his own. He also spoke of his experiences as Speaker of the State Assembly and then later as mayor. Throughout his career, even until today, the Jewish community reached out to him with support, encouragement and cooperation. When Rabbi Herscher called the Mayor's office and invited him to our synagogue as an expression of gratitude for his support of Israel, it took him a few hours to arrange his schedule and commit to attending. You might say, it's good politics and that he's a smart politician. To which I'd say that it is and he is and so are we. But it also speaks to the painstaking work of relationship building that started when he was only a young boy in Boyle Heights.

You probably get where I'm going here: Our Boyle Heights-Stephen S. Wise Partnership Project is part and parcel of that relationship building with our city's Latino community. Latinos already play a significant role in the governance of this community along with many other ethnic representatives. Our relationship with them matters. Mayor Villaraigosa's connection to our community was built on a lifetime of positive, meaningful contact. Our partnershp project will affirm our synagogue's commitment to our Latino citizens not only in Boyle Heights but throughout the city. The dividends of that connection will be reaped in ways that we can't imagine today. Do you think that those Jewish teachers who touched little Antonio's life in the 1960's knew that he would one day be mayor? Of course not, but because they did our lives benefit.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This is a partnership project for the long term and one that stands to make our city even stronger -- perhaps in our lifetimes -- but certainly for our children.
(Thanks to Paul Jesser for the photos!)

A Christmas Eve Update

Strange to hear my post framed that way but I've discovered that as my contact with pastors, priests and parishioners of other faiths continues and grows I gain a deeper sense of my own Jewish spirituality. Last night (Christmas Eve), my family and I headed down to the Dolores Street Mission at Father Scott Santarosa's invitation. They have a Christmas Eve dinner for their 60 homeless men and Scott thought we might appreciate the experience. He was right. One woman and her family take responsibility for the whole dinner. Patti runs a home day care and is a resident of the community and for twelve years she has been calling upon her neighbors to help her cook and serve the food for this Christmas dinner. It was a traditional Latino spread with moles, Mexican punch (non-alcoholic), and all kinds of other dishes. The guests were mostly Latino and deeply appreciative of the food. Padre Scott opened with a prayer and asked me to offer an English/Spanish version of the Motzi before the meal. We served the men and sat at the tables with them to eat. They sang, rapped, told a few jokes -- all in Spanish so we understood little. The vast majority of the men were itinerant workers, few had the appearance of homeless people, many if not all were undocumented immigrants.

We were surprised to run into Mike Gagerman and his wife Cynthia Sanchez and their infant daughter. Cynthia runs the Social Service center at the church called Proyecto Pastoral. She brought her family to share Christmas Eve with the homeless of Dolores Mission as well as some of the staff who work at the center. Mike, a screenwriter, grew up at the Temple, his father is a past president. There were many places they could be besides this basement cafeteria, but clearly Cynthia's commitment to her work runs deep and Mike is at her side.

Watching the hostess Patti and her family give of their Christmas Eve to feed the homeless, listening to Father Scott's prayer (translated by another priest for us), watching the men show their profound appreciation for the meal and the coats that were handed out touched us all deeply. My daughter, Ellie, said: "I'm really glad we came. This was a special night."

As we left, we noticed that Father Scott had "disappeared". Looking for him, we found him sitting in the stairway with a homeless man who appeared to be troubled and more down on his luck than the others. Sitting there in the unlit, cold stairway, Scott was clearly counseling a wounded soul. Father Scott grew up in Sacramento in a comfortable middle class family. The pictures in his office show married siblings who are of a different world than the one where he has chosen to devote his life. Seeing him give of himself so generously with love and caring to these men who are at the fringes of society is inspiring. It doesn't take long to see the love he feels for them and to be taken in by his warmth and quiet charisma. As we got in the car, my wife said: "He's on our list for next Passover!" Watching Scott open his heart to so many, it will be our honor to open our home to welcome him to our seder. And, I believe that he'll elevate our seder by his presence just as he did for our souls this past Christmas Eve.

Our Visit to Dolores Mission Church

Jews return to Boyle Heights! On Monday (December 1), Jennifer Bernstein Smith and I went to the Dolores Mission church. This church will become our major partner if our Jewish Community Foundation grant is approved for our Stephen S. Wise, Boyle Heights partnership. It was pretty amazing to find ourselves in an island of peace in the midst of a violent neighborhood. The church serves as a homeless shelter during the night, runs a wonderfully equiped school, pre-school and community empowerment center. Father Scott Santarosa is a bright, committed young Jesuit priest who leads the church. He clearly has the respect and admiration of the community. We learned that there is no way to engage this large Latino community without recognizing their strong Catholic identity. While there, Jennifer Smith (who is 6 months pregnant) received a blessing from a Honduran woman who rises every day at 2:00 a.m. to cook breakfast for the men at the homeless shelter. Though bleary-eyed at our 6:30 p.m. meeting, her "mission" is to transform her community for the better. She seeks to end gang violence, strengthen education and reinforce family ties. The congregational organizing of the church helps her achieve her goals.

One of the key activities used by the church to revitalize hope is the wall of stars. After each one-on-one is completed the dreams of the participants are written on the stars placed near the altar of the church. Just as we do at our house meetings, this action records the dreams of the participants for a different LA and gives them a direction for their work. Imagine what we can do for LA if we partner with these hard working, determined folks to change the face of Boyle Heights?

We hope that we'll be able to have one of our Leadership Meetings with the Church Community in Boyle Heights soon. Though language presents a barrier I believe that you will be deeply inspired by the experience!

House Meeting Notes from 11/11/08

Last week, we held our 3rd house meeting at Melissa Benton’s home, hosted by Melissa and Jennifer Brown. I ran the meeting along with our, Sharon Almany and Joe Hari, a community organizer from LA Voice (a great stand-in for Jared Rivera). I have yet to attend a house meeting where I don’t walk away truly inspired. You walk away feeling empowered as a citizen of the Los Angeles and feel a deeper connection to members of our Temple community with whom you have shared the past two hours. As I sit through these meetings, it’s amazing to realize the power and resources we have as a congregation – sitting at the tips of our fingers. Our community members are already involved in so many different charitable organizations throughout the community – it’s astounding! Now it’s just about learning how to make proper use of our connections and strengths to make our community a better place.

Our meeting was made up of an older 20’s, younger 30’s crowd, so it was exciting to hear what concerns everyone had in comparison with our first two meetings (which were primarily made up of congregants ages 45+). As a member of this particular age group, I can tell you that because we have most of our wants and needs taken care, our Jewish identity demands that we must devote some part of our lives towards helping those who are in need. Because of this, it was tougher get these young participants to focus on issues of self-interest and of a local nature. Their attention was turned to the global issues of the current crises facing our country. As facilitators, we helped them understand that because of the national crisis, the needs of our city would be greater and that is precisely the place where our Social Justice work at Stephen S. Wise can make a difference. Once we convinced them that we can impact local concerns they focused on the common issues we’ve found in all other meetings: education, healthcare, traffic. Many of them focused particularly on air quality, recognizing that as young residents of L.A. the long term affects of air quality would affect them profoundly. The public school system was another area of concern for them as they worried about where they would send their own kids – yet unborn. As they came to understand the way that the CBCO (Congregational Based Community Organizing) process achieves action at a local level, participants learned that we can – and will – make a difference as long as we work through the process together.

LA Jewish Foundation Grant Application

Last week Jennifer Bernstein, Ron Stern and Jared Rivera (LA Voice) attended the LA Jewish Foundation Cutting Edge Grants Workshop. We went to explore the possibilities to apply for grant money to fund our work. As we listened to the presentation the wheels started spinning and we came up with the following idea still in development.

Could we create a partnership between Stephen S. Wise Temple membership and Latino residents in Boyle Heights where LA Voice has a strong presence?

A decade or two ago a program called Project Renewal linked communities in the U.S. with neighborhoods in Israel in serious need of rehabilitation. By engaging residents of the neighborhood with American Jews significant programs were developed that transformed both communities. Could we repeat that here in Los Angeles?

Now, Boyle Heights is one of the most gang infested, distressed neighborhoods in L.A. Once it was the hub of Jewish life. We spoke to a member of the Los Angeles Jewish Historical Society who was also at the grant workshop. They are the owners of the historic Breed Street Shul (see the link to the right). The synagogue and community center was built in the 1920s for the original Jewish population center in L.A. Currently it is in a serious state of disrepair. Their vision of renewal is to establish the schul as a community center for the Latino community and offer essential services to the area both originating in LA Jewish Federation agencies as well as other social support programs. At the same time, the rejuvenated synagouge could be come a living museum of the history of Boyle Heights recording both Jewish and Latino experiences in the neighborhood.

What if. . . .
*we brought our skilled and motivated membership to serve Boyle Heights?
*our college counselors, our therapists, our health professionals volunteered their time in the community?
*what if our real estate investors and builders helped to restore the Shul?
*we were able to secure funding for our first few years (LA Jewish Foundation grant)?
*we could obtain sources of funding for subsequent years?
*we created a model of urban renewal never before attempted in Los Angeles -- could Stephen S. Wise Temple establish itself as a synagogue on the cutting edge of the Jewish future?
*we could motivate our young people to volunteer their time giving purpose, hope and direction to the families in Boyle Heights?
*our grant application was approved and we received the first $250,000 towards establishing our project?

This is our vision. I am looking for your thoughts and reaction to this idea. Please feel free to write your responses below.