EMAIL TO OUR EDUCATION ADVOCACY GROUP:

Dear Advocate for CA Educational Reform:
We’re sending you this email because you’ve expressed interest in advocating for meaningful change in our local public school system or been a part of our Social Justice work. As you’ve read in some of our previous correspondences, our core committee continues to research the vital issues affecting education reform. Our challenge, and this should come as no surprise given the difficulty of this problem, is that the sands are constantly shifting. Whether it’s a change in LAUSD leadership or the budget crisis facing the state no sooner do we move forward on an issue when circumstances change and the parameters shift. This doesn’t mean that nothing can be done and when an opportunity arises our overall commitment to advocacy on behalf of our kids remains firm. That is the purpose of this email: an opportunity for action!
First the background: Governor Brown has proposed extending the current state tax revenue levels beyond July 2011's expiration date. This would allow the state budget to maintain current amounts of funding for public education as well as other services. If those levels are not maintained, major cuts in education are guaranteed. This will most likely be devastating to school districts throughout the state not to mention our colleges and universities.
Two partner organizations have reached out to us and have requested our support to help them as they fight to keep state revenues for education at existing levels:
FIRST:  The teachers of Lanai Elementary are participating in an UTLA sponsored demonstration on May 13th. Click here. While we are not advocating for or against support of UTLA, many of us are parents of children who have benefited from the dedication of teachers at Lanai, 35% of whom have received notices that they will be laid off next year. This is an opportunity to support teachers and raise our voices for adequate school funding.  Continuing the state revenue levels would avoid many if not all of these layoffs.  The Lanai flyer is attached to this mailing it includes all the details.
SECOND:  Educate our State will be holding a rally at Milikan (not Milken!) Middle School on May 24^th as part of their state-wide day of action. Click here for more information. We’ve met with the local leadership of Educate our State and believe that they are an important non-partisan advocacy group for education reform. Details about this rally continue to develop, you can see the latest information on the Educate our State website. 
This is a chance for action and an opportunity to speak out to the press and our legislators about our passion to provide for the education of our children. We’d like to bring a contingent from our congregation group to both of the rallies.
Sorry if you’ve received duplicates of this email, we’ve cast a wide net to call attention to this important issue.
Thanks for taking the time to give this your consideration! We’ll see you there!
Rabbi Ron Stern, Sharon Almany, Laurie Bahar and the Education Advocacy Group of Stephen S. Wise Temple

Post Listening Sessions: An Education Reform Update

Two different Listening Sessions were held during the month of February at Stephen S. Wise Temple. While our congregant’s concerns regarding education in Los Angeles are quite serious, we were pleased by the participation. The individual stories we heard were interesting, often depressing, and occasionally heart-wrenching. By being there though, our community showed its interest in bettering the public education situation in our city. A few common themes emerged:

o Middle school transition issues
o Lack of parent involvement at the middle school level
o Schools losing music, art and library funding
o Teacher effectiveness issues
o Concerns over ear-marked funding. Specifically, money raised by middle and high school “student stores.”


Where do we go from here?

Our Leadership Team has met again and is conducting further research into State Ed Code and LAUSD restrictions surrounding the use of Student Store and Associate Student Body (ASB) funds. As expressed by many, middle schools are desperately short of necessary resources and supplies. At the same time, it seems that any number of middle and high schools have a significant pot of money sitting in accounts unavailable for necessities because this money is so heavily ear-marked. Our Team is looking into the possibility of easing restrictions on these funds in order to make them available to be spent at the discretion of a school’s Principal to address important issues specific to each school.

We do not have the power to increase budgets but if we could help free up money for our schools, we’d feel impactful. Additionally, by tackling this issue, we’re tackling an issue that effects middle-schools – where are members see the greatest need.

On a final important note, our Social Justice Education Reform work is also about strengthening our congregation. As such, if you would like to host a listening session at your home with your friends from the Temple, please contact Sharon Almany or Laurie Bahar. Involving more congregants will help add to our common story as we work together to improve public schools.

Other questions or ideas? Please feel free to be in touch with us. Regardless, we thank you again for your interest and will continue to keep you updated as our work continues.

Regards,
Sharon Almany, Laurie Bahar & Jennifer Smith

You're Invited! Stephen S. Wise Temple Education Reform: Listening Sessions

We are taking this opportunity to reach out and let you know where we are at in our Education Reform efforts. Since our event in October, our group has been busy with additional research meetings and monitoring the changes occurring within LAUSD, as well as learning about education reform efforts state and nationwide. As we are all aware, Education Reform is a critical issue in our city, inspiring attention from a variety of advocacy groups. Our group is currently reaching out to various organizations to learn more about their efforts, to be heard, and potentially join forces.

At our October event, we focused on the two main themes of Local Budget Control (also referred to as Transparent Budgeting) and Teacher Effectiveness. Now we want to hear from YOU… hear your personal story!

Since having the chance to hear from experts and listen to research findings, we now want the opportunity to hear why you are passionate about Education Reform in our city. We will be holding Listening Sessions with those of you who attended our October event - or those of you who couldn't make it but are interested - to hear your individual stories, build relationships between individuals who care about this issue, and link local stories to larger issues. We are offering two different Listening Session times:

February 15th at 9:30 am OR February 23rd at 7:00 pm with the request that you will attend one session. You may RSVP to JSmith@WiseLA.org with your name, email, and selected Listening Session to attend.

As we learn more from you about your passions and dreams to improve our schools as well as enhance opportunities for our youth, we will strive to unite this energy with the work being done by others in our community. Our voices, and ultimately our impact, may be greater if we can integrate our efforts. So, thank you for your interest in improving our city’s schools. Whether you currently have children in our public schools, you’d like to in the future, or you’re just an interested, civic-minded person concerned about the future of our great city, we welcome your input and encourage your involvement.

Sincerely,
Sharon Almany
Laurie Bahar
Jennifer Smith

United Way Education Summit

We wanted to share a great opportunity with those of you that are passionate about Education Reform in our city...

United Way of Greater Los Angeles presents their 2011 Education Summit
Tuesday, March 22, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Los Angeles Convention Center

Register now at www.2011educationsummit.eventbrite.com

Registration fee is $75
($60 if registering before February 4)
Includes breakfast, lunch and parking
Tables available for purchase.
For more information Contact Kimberly Dillon
at kdillon@unitedwayla.org or call 213.808.6245.

Factions in school debate need a time-out

Email Steve Lopez, let's hear the voices of parents speaking out for constructive solutions!  

Factions in school debate need a time-out

Mayor Villaraigosa, L.A. Unified and the teachers union need to start acting like adults when it comes to watching out for students' needs.

Steve Lopez
5:10 PM PST, December 18, 2010

Pardon me, kids, but is it too much to ask that teachers union representatives, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. Unified School District officials begin acting like adults?

Here we are, nearly certain to see more budget cuts and layoffs at schools in the spring — and possibly for years to come — and I'm not hearing anyone talk seriously about how to proceed with the least amount of damage to the children.

We've got Villaraigosa attacking United Teachers Los Angeles for beating back proposed reforms.

We've got UTLA officials flat-out refusing to give an inch on reforms that are being adopted throughout the country.

And we've got school board members whose only idea of how to deal with the looming crisis is to try to raise a few measly bucks by selling branding rights to corporations. Don't be surprised if your child's graduation ceremony is held in Chevron Auditorium at Halliburton High.

Thanks, but no thanks. Can't we preserve what little innocence is left in our children, rather than remind them we don't value their education enough to support it without corporate marketing campaigns?

If the school board wanted to do something productive about corporate support, it would take the lead in ending the huge property tax advantage that corporations enjoy in California. Commercial property got the same benefits from Proposition 13 as residential property did. But because their land doesn't change hands as often, many big businesses in the state pay property taxes based on a fraction of the true value.

Every time I mention Prop. 13, I get buried under complaints from people claiming they were about to be taxed out of their homes before the tax-cutting proposition was passed in 1978. Yes, tax relief was needed for thousands of Californians. But it didn't need to be as drastic as it was, and corporations shouldn't have gotten the same deal.

With California now ranked 47^th in the nation in funding per student, it's time for school boards across the state to tell the incoming governor to push for a "split roll" that would differentiate between homeowners and corporate landowners. Jerry Brown has been warning of fiscal disaster that's worse than he imagined, and he's asking the right questions: What do we value and want to pay for, and how do we intend to pay for it?

Whatever the answers, I'm guessing they won't come soon enough to head off another round of layoffs in L.A. Unified and beyond. And that means that more teachers could be let go regardless of their ability in the classroom, based on nothing but years of service.

Teachers are right: They're made out to be the villains in the current national conversation on public education, when, in fact, parents, students, principals, administrators and money are all part of both the problem and the solution.

Halfway through my daughter's third year in a terrific L.A. Unified public school, I've got a great appreciation of teachers. The range of student abilities and behavior issues in classrooms is staggering, and a tough job is made harder as support services are stripped away one after another.

But just as principals and administrators are not created equal, neither are teachers, as UTLA would have you believe. It seems to me they all would benefit from a system that examines why certain teachers are better at classroom management or teaching fifth-grade math and then rewards them by bumping up their pay, while giving more training to those who need it.

I've heard all the arguments against the value-added system in which teachers are graded on their students' test score improvements, and they have some merit: there are lots of variables in a classroom, test scores don't necessarily measure learning and value-added isn't perfect.

But nobody said it is. LAUSD has proposed that just 30% of a teacher's evaluation be based on test scores.

UTLA's position?

Test scores shouldn't go into evaluations at all.

End of discussion.

Really? Couldn't tests account for a mere 10% to 20% of an evaluation?

No, UTLA Treasurer David Goldberg told me, repeating UTLA President A.J. Duffy's unwavering insistence that there's no evidence test scores are a credible tool.

There's no evidence kids are benefiting from the inability of the grownups to compromise. Ted Mitchell, chair of the state Board of Education, said the two sides ought to be able to find some mutually beneficial common ground. If the UTLA doesn't bend a bit, he said, "it's going to be the laggard" as other districts enjoy the extra freedoms and money tied to reform.

UTLA has to do something other than say "no." It should long ago have come up with a better evaluation system to avoid being force-fed one.

Goldberg said the union has been working on a better system, and he referred me to the union's 10-point policy statement on the subject.

Frankly, I wasn't impressed. The statement is high on general beliefs and short on practical details.

OK, parents, teachers, readers, taxpayers and citizens of the world, I've got a question for you:

Would you support a system in which 20% of a teacher's evaluation is based on test scores, 80% is based on peer review by teachers and administrators, those who score the highest get raises, those who score the lowest get training, principals get evaluated as vigorously and as often as teachers, and layoffs, when necessary, are based on a combination of seniority and performance?

Let me know what you think, and I'll make sure the district and the union hear what you have to say.  --- [EMAIL Steve Lopez, click the link below.  Let him know that you are from Stephen S. Wise or a parent's association at a school or both!]

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Waiting for Superman-- The Movement

Though there is certainly room for debate about the solutions offered by the "Waiting for Superman" documentary (are charter schools the "only" solution, for example?) the issues raised are relevant and worthy of a great deal of attention.  Even more significant, the documentary producers and directors see their film as a conversation starter and another resource for pushing this nation towards meaningful change.   Sign up for their newsletter, follow their blog, be engaged! 
Click here to go to the Waiting for Superman Web Site.  

George Skelton on California Schools

Getting an A in overcoming the odds

California schools are not as good as they should be, but they are significantly better than their reputation.

George Skelton
Capitol Journal
December 6, 2010
From Sacramento

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Truth is, California's public schools never were all that great. And today, they're not nearly as crummy as critics claim.

In fact, they're pretty good, especially given all the problems of funding and diversity. They've always been pretty good — not exactly A-1, but not failures either.

With 1,000 districts, 9,900 schools and 6 million students — the largest K-12 system in the country — there is inescapably a scattering of winners and losers.

"We're not where we ought to be," acknowledges veteran education consultant John Mockler, a Capitol legend who wrote the complex school finance law, Proposition 98.

"But the 'California schools suck' industry is just full of it," he adds. "When these guys start talking about how California's schools used to be great and today they're going to hell in a hand basket, they're just wrong. Our students are making incredibly consistent academic progress."

Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell says, "Student test scores have been up for eight years in a row. The achievement gap is narrowing. And that's what I'm proudest of."

The "achievement gap" is the difference between the higher test scores of whites and Asians versus the lower results of blacks and Latinos.

Mockler, a compulsive numbers-cruncher, says that the increase in black and Latino students taking algebra in the eighth grade and scoring "proficient" or "advanced" — the highest ratings — "is one of the most dramatic, positive academic changes in the history of education in this state and the nation."

I wince every time I hear some revisionist carry on about how California public schools used to be the envy of the universe and now they're not capable of teaching dogs to bark. I suspect that most of these people —the latest and loudest being Meg Whitman — never attended California schools.

I did, back in the so-called golden era after World War II. And I remember that whenever a new kid arrived from out of state, the newcomer always seemed to be way ahead of us, especially in reading.

My public schooling was in rural Ojai. It was basically cozy and comfortable. Some bright kids were teachers' pets and excelled. Some who needed encouragement and help got neither. Some of us were lucky enough to be inspired by just the right teacher or two.

The schools were good, not great. Can't believe they were the best in America.

Higher ed? That's a different story. Our excellent colleges and universities were proudly affordable and open to anyone with motivation and grades. They were a Californian's birthright. Today, they're shamefully pricey with limited space.

"We have more high school students eligible for college than ever," O'Connell says. "The bad news is we have fewer seats in college."

But this column is about California's improving elementary and high schools.

"Look at the data," Mockler urges.

For starters, one must realize that a fourth of K-12 students are English learners who go home and speak another language. "That makes it more difficult to learn," Mockler says.

Mockler has computed data comparing old test scores with the most recent. For example:

-- Seven years ago, 35% of all California students scored proficient or advanced in reading. This year, 52% did, a gain of 49%. For whites, the number rose from 53% to 69%. For Latinos, the figures doubled from 20% to 40%. For blacks, 22% to 39%.

-- During the same period, the number of math students scoring in the top two ranks rose from 35% to 48%, a 37% improvement. Whites improved from 47% to 59%; Latinos from 23% to 39% (up 70%) and blacks from 19% to 32% (68%).

-- There was a 176% increase in the number of Latinos taking eighth-grade algebra, and the percentage of these students testing in the top two ranks rose from 20 to 37. Among black eighth-graders, there was an 85% increase in algebra students, with the percentage achieving the highest rankings, rocketing from 17 to 41.

-- High school students are taking 60% more college-prep math and science courses than seven years ago, and the number testing proficient or advanced has doubled.

Credit a decade of reforms, mainly started by Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis: class-size reductions, tougher curriculum, higher standards and lots of testing.

Much of that is in jeopardy, however, because of program cutbacks as Sacramento attempts to fill a seemingly bottomless budget hole. Class-size reduction is practically history.

"It pains me to see larger class sizes," O'Connell says, noting that as a legislator he wrote the class-size law and Wilson found the money for it.

"We've seen a major disinvestment in public education the last few years. Schools are operating with $21 billion less than anticipated three years ago."

Here are some other Mockler data:

-- California was spending $825 less per student than the national average two years ago. And it's undoubtedly gotten worse, he says.

-- Forty years ago, California allotted 5.6% of its personal income to K-12 schools. As of 2008, that had fallen to 3.7%.

--The average American school has 34% more teachers, 40% more administrators and 75% more counselors per student than California does.

"If California education was a baseball team, we'd be playing the other states with six players and they'd have nine," Mockler says.

Still, California's public schools have been performing far better than anyone would think from listening to the catcalls of a cranky crowd.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

An Opportunity for More Learning about Value Added Evaluations

Click the title below to visit the KPCC web page. 

Making Better Teachers: the Fight Over "Value-Added" Evaluation
Thursday, November 11, 2010
6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Crawford Family Forum
474 S. Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105


Recent articles in the Los Angeles Times regarding “value-added” teacher assessments have generated a nationwide debate on how best to evaluate teachers. That debate has pitted President Obama’s Secretary of Education against teacher union leaders and many academics. AirTalk host Larry Mantle and guest experts debate the "value-added" teacher method of evaluating teachers. If not "value-added" then what is the best way to evaluate teachers and ultimately benefit the kids in the classroom? And what role should student performance play in assessing teacher performance?

Guests:

Eric Hanushek, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute. From 1999 to 2002 he was the national education columnist of The New York Times. He is the author of Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right.

Report on WiseLA's Research on LAUSD School Reform

As we work to build our advocacy for LAUSD reform, we've had many research meetings.  Here are the people we met with which guided us towards our advocacy for Transparent Budgeting and Teacher Effectiveness Procedures: 
Michelle Windmueller, Principal, Selma Elementary
Leadership of Temple Isaiah Education Reform committee.
Drew Furedi and others from Taskforce for Teacher Effectiveness (LAUSD)
Julie Flappan and John Rodgers - IDEA (UCLA) The Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access
Saskia Pallais (Partnership for LA schools)
Leticia Garcia - Senator Gloria Romero's Education Specialist -
Tamar Galatzan, LAUSD Board Member
Peter Kuhns, ACCE - Aug 11th 10.
Antonia Viaragosa: Mayor's Listening Session on Education -
Steve Zimmer LAUSD Board Member
Yolie Flores, LAUSD Board Member

Clearly, we have surveyed a broad range of experts and their information has been invaluable and will guide us as we move forward.  Thanks to our committed LAUSD Education Reform Leadership Team for the commitment and thoughtfulness. 

On Sunday, October 10th we had our first Education Reform Forum.  Tamar Galatzan, Steve Zimmer, Drew Furedi, Marshal Tuck (form the Partnership for LA School), and Julie Flappan presented.  Nearly 200 people learned about their initiatives and passions and had the opportunity to ask questions about the work being done. 

Waiting For Superman - See the movie become an advocate!

Find out more about Waiting for Superman and the issues that are addressed in the movie.  How can you become a partner with them in School Reform?  Click here. 

See Rabbi Stern's Sermon: Reform our Schools Now!

Click Here

Rabbi Stern's Sermon: Breaking the Cycle of our "Money Culture"

Video of LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer speaking about Bank Accountability

Report from the Teacher Effectiveness Task force of LAUSD and UTLA

LAUSD Teacher Effectiveness Task Force Web Page

(Image only, use text above to link to the web site)

LAUSD Board moves to reform collective bargaining process to bring teacher workforce stability to local campuses

From the Office of Communications and Media Relations of LAUSD (June 15, 2010):
LAUSD BOARD MOVES TO REFORM COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCESS TO BRING TEACHER WORKFORCE STABILITY TO LOCAL CAMPUSES
Resolution seeks flexibility in allowing reduction- in-force based on criteria other than seniority

(Los Angeles, CA) The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education today approved a resolution to ensure school site workforce stability and equal access to effective teachers for all students. The resolution was passed on a 4-1 vote with one abstention. The resolution, Protecting Equal Access and Opportunity for All Our Students, was introduced by LAUSD Board Vice President Yolie Flores and Board Member Tamar Galatzan.

The resolution calls for Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines to engage the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Public Counsel, the State Board of Education, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and other advocates to join the District in urging California lawmakers to immediately support legislative changes that would give school districts flexibility to protect equal access and educational opportunities for all students by allowing reductions-in-force based on criteria other than seniority.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that every student – in every one of our classrooms – is taught by an outstanding teacher,” said Board Vice President Flores. “To ensure school site stability and equal access to effective teachers, the District needs to be able to staff schools in a manner that minimizes the impact of seniority-based layoffs and simultaneously acknowledges the contributions of high quality teachers, regardless of their years of experience. Indeed, parents and students alike are asking that we find a way to make decisions based on whose teaching is the strongest, not on who’s been teaching the longest.”

The resolution also directs the superintendent to immediately develop a negotiations strategy to reform and improve all aspects of the collective bargaining agreement that may impede the ability to protect the stability of teaching staffs at all District schools. It further seeks to work and engage reform partners to revise and improve procedures affecting staffing at school sites.

"Providing a quality education to our students is not possible without the ability to keep our strongest teachers in the classroom," said LAUSD Boardmember Galatzan. "This resolution brings us a step closer to meeting that goal across the District."

During the last round of layoffs, a number of schools in the District had 50 percent or more of their teachers receiving reduction-in-force notices in 2009. These schools were often low performing with high percentages of low-income students. A large number of those teachers laid off were new, enthusiastic and effective teachers who are typically the drivers of high achievement and providers of a quality education for all students.

The recent preliminary injunction issued in the Reed v. LAUSD et al. lawsuit (it suspends budgetbased teacher layoffs at three District middle schools for the 2010-2011 school year only) is a lower court ruling. It is not binding authority that would allow the District to skip other schools this year or any District schools in the future.

Also, there is no settled legal authority under which the District may “skip” entire school sites under Education Code Section 44955. The statute permits deviation from a seniority-based layoff in only two circumstances: 1) where less senior teachers have special training or experience that more senior teachers do not have, and 2) when a constitutional violation has been identified and skipping is needed in order to maintain or achieve compliance.

The resolution also calls for the District to do everything it can to provide equal educational opportunities to students attending LAUSD schools, encourage local staffing control that focus on quality recruitment and retention of classified and certificated personnel, and pursue opportunities to amend the current collective bargaining agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). This will allow schools the ability to staff and maintain optimum stability in the best interest of the students’ instructional program.

Commenting on the Board’s action today, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, "The current, broken system fails to recognize the invaluable contributions talented teachers make in the lives of our students. We cannot stand by while our children suffer from teacher layoffs that prevent schools from providing a stable workforce of quality teachers.

“Our primary concern must be that every student has access to a high quality education--one that enables them to get into and graduate from college--and I congratulate the school board for passing this resolution and continuing to protect the rights of our students,” he continued.

www.lausd.net

HIAS' Immgration Reform Advocacy

We Were Strangers, Too:
the Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform

HIAS and our national and local Jewish organization partners have launched We Were Strangers, Too: the Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform. This campaign calls on Congress to make immigration reform a priority in the 111th Congress.


The We Were Strangers, Too campaign calls for immigration legislation that:

Keeps families united and decreases the waiting time for family re-unification.

Creates pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Creates a plan for future migration flows in order to protect all workers' rights.

Empowers immigrants to fully integrate by providing financial support to local governments and community organizations that offer classes and services.

Establishes border protection and enforcement policies that bolster our national security, while balancing enforcement with economic development and human and civil rights.

Read more click here. . . .

IKAR's Open Letter about Immigration Reform

Dear friend,
A national movement supporting comprehensive immigration reform has been gathering momentum in recent weeks. Humane immigration reform is a moral issue that has a special resonance for the Jewish community. With the memory of being “strangers in a strange land” fresh in our hearts and minds after Pesach, many of us believe that it is vital for us to stand together as Jews in voicing our support for reform. One way to voice support is to sign the open letter by clicking here. This letter and its signatures will be sent to our members of congress, senators, and of course, to President Obama.
Please read the open letter and consider signing it. And, please forward it to your congregants, American Jewish friends, family, and colleagues. The more people who sign the letter, the more powerful our collective voice will be.

Please include your email address so that you can be kept up to date
with the journey this letter takes.

This open letter was put together by members of IKAR. IKAR is a Los
Angeles based Jewish spiritual community that stands at the
intersection of spirituality and social justice. For information about
IKAR click here

From the Website: www.faithforjustice.org

Enjoy this brief PSA of rabbis, imans, pastors and people of many religions affirming their commitment to social justice. 

Social Justice and the World's Religions

Immigration Reform Debate, Myths and Truths

A good resource from the Washington Post.  Click here. 

Social Action Updates

• Wednesday, April 28th: The first meeting of the Tzedakah Council.  This is where it will all happen!  For the first time, we've created a council for all the members of Stephen S. Wise Temple (and our schools) who are involved in special projects working for the good of our community.  We'll create strategies for getting more and more members of our community involved in long term social action projects and work as the clearing house for projects that become priorities for advocacy throughout our community.  Interested?  Email Rabbi Stern, click here.

• Sunday, May 2nd.  Ten volunteers (8 medical professionals and 2 others) will head to RAM LA to volunteer our time helping the uninsured in our community.  Others from the Temple have made it their priority to volunteer at RAM LA during other days of service.  We can be proud of our folks who've given up their own time to serve those desperately in need.  Did you go?  Tell your story be responding to the blog below.