Take Action Now!
Want to make a difference but not sure how? These one-time actions are a great place to start.
Now-April: RAC-TX Legislative Advocacy: Democracy Protection + Racial Justice- For Teens (and allies): Join the RAC-TX 2021 Racial Justice Campaign. Sign up to attend one of two issue briefing/lobby prep sessions. (The same session, offered two different times.) We will be organizing teen specific lobby and advocacy meetings supporting criminal justice reform in the state. Sign up to receive RAC-TX updates and be notified when issue briefings are scheduled.
Now-4/5: HIAS Welcome to Congress Advocacy Campaign- Welcome the new Congress to Washington, D.C. and tell them their constituents want them to prioritize the rights, dignity and safety of refugees and asylum seekers. To communicate this, congregations and communities will collect signatures for their online welcome cards. Please go to this link, find Temple Beth Shalom (TX) in the dropdown menu
(even if you're at CBI!), sign at the bottom of the letter, and hit send. We need these signatures asap in order to send to our Congressional reps in Washington. Thank you!!
- If you are interested in participating in virtual meetings with your Congressional members, Save the following dates and contact Nancy Wolf at 512-917-3731 or nwolf1000@gmail.com
o April 5, 1:00 p.m. - HIAS Training for Talking Points during Congressional Meetings. Register here.
o Month of April - Meetings will be scheduled
4/5, 7-9 PM: NCJW Advocacy Experts
- Presentations by speakers on NCJW's three advocacy issues:
1. Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights – Dyana Limon-Mercado, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes;
2. Criminal Justice Reform – State Senator Royce West of Dallas; and 3. Voting Rights – James Slattery, Senior Staff Attorney at Texas Civil Rights Project.4/6 & 12, 7-8:30 PM: Interfaith Civic Academies- 4/6: Rental Assistance, Housing, and Addressing Homelessness
- 4/12: Community Policing co-hosted by Huston-Tillotson University
4/22, 7-8:30 PM: Be'Chol Lashon Community Conversation 3 of 3
• Conversations on diversity, equity, + inclusion as individuals + community
• Register here! 
Refugee Actions Now
• Food Deliveries for Refugees: Anyone interested in providing food to a family on a weekly basis (directly or through a donation) can contact Cathy Campbell.
• Donations to Refugee Fund: Anyone who can contribute (from either congregation) can give to the Temple Beth Shalom Refugee Task Force Fund on the Temple Beth Shalom website or contact Russ Apfel.
Join a Movement!
Change happens person by person. Our community social justice leaders would love to talk to you about how we can make it happen, together.
Religious Action Center - Texas (RAC-TX)
• Email Rabbi David Segal, Liz Mitlak (CBI), or Sandy Dochen (TBS) to get involved, or learn more about our main issue, Democracy Protection, here.
• Advocate for our Jewish values at a statewide level with other Reform congregations.
HIAS Jews for Refugees
• Check with Russ Apfel and Cathy Campbell for updates on the Temple Beth Shalom Refugee Task Force, Austin Sanctuary Network, and refugee activities at CBI. They work closely with Ahmed Abbas, the asylum caseworker at Refugee Services Texas. For more info about HIAS contact Nancy Wolf or click here.
• Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing from progroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, HIAS has touched the life of nearly every Jewish family in America. These Jewish refugees were facing barriers of language, customs, discrimination, and even worse. Today HIAS continues to help refugees, no matter their religion, ethnicity, or nationality, to escape persecution and resettle in safety, reunite families who have been separated, and help them build new lives all around the world.
Refugee Services of Texas (RST) partners with Temple Beth Shalom and Congregation Beth Israel
• RST is the largest refuge resettlement agency in Texas and has worked with TBS and CBI for several years on a number of projects including Welcome Teams, apartment set-ups, the Asylum Seekers Assistance Program (ASAP), the Shalom Supper, a winter clothing drive, and support for survivors of trafficking. There are many volunteer opportunities through RST which can be found at their monthly newsletter: What's happening at RST (mailchi.mp).
Advocates for Social Justice Reform
• Email Bob Batlan at asjraustin@gmail.com to join or learn more here.
• ASJR is a local advocacy group focusing on issues surrounding criminal justice reform, especially indigent defense, or representation of the poorest defendants. We focus on developing positive relationships with government officials, community leaders, diverse fellow advocates, and people impacted by the criminal legal system. This approach helped lead to the creation of the Travis County Public Defender's Office.
• Current main projects: Implementing funding for legal representation at or before first court appearance (magistration), and supporting County Attorney and District Attorney actions to evaluate cases for dismissal prior to magistration. This can minimize the disruption to people's lives at the earliest possible moment.
Texas Anti-Poverty Project
• Email Larkin Tackett at larkin.tackett@gmail.com to join or learn more here.
• Next Meeting: 4/21, 10:30 AM
• Advocate for living wages in Austin by focusing on access to high-paying jobs at the new Telsa giga-factory, for our neighbors experiencing poverty.
MLK Continued Conversations--Third of Three on 4/22. Register.
• Conversations on diversity, equity, + inclusion as individuals + community
• If you are interested in watching the videos from the first two session on implicit bias, they are available to view below:
o Session 2 full video
o Implicit Bias
o Why We're Awkward
o Four i's of Oppression video
o MLK Discussion Guide
o Identity Mining Worksheet
o Bias Recognition Worksheet
Winter Storm Resources are all still accessible here.
A Word from Your Social Justice Coordinator“Standing on the parted shores, we still believe what we were taught before ever we stood at Sinai’s foot; that wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt; that there is a better place, a promised land; that the winding way to that promise passes through the wilderness. That there is no way to get from here to there except by joining hands, marching together.”
Chag Pesach Sameach to everyone. I hope everyone’s Seder was as festive as Zoom allows, and that the feasts were as good as any other year. For my family’s part, we had a two-webcam setup at the dining room table, and a good helping of “no, seriously, NEXT year in person,” and it felt like home.
Passover might be my favorite Jewish holiday. Not because I love taking a week off from Home Slice, but because of the uniqueness of it. It’s a holiday of liberation and freedom.
We Jews celebrate freedom in a way that’s not individualized. Too often when we hear about freedom from political talking heads, it’s a very limited kind, a cowboy’s rugged individualism. When we talk about freedom at Seder, it’s community-wide. Moses fleeing to the desert alone would not have been true freedom, even if it would make him the star of a good Western. He saw that unless every oppressed Israelite slave were free from the systems that inflicted pain, he would not be free. True liberation means universal freedom from fear of starvation and violence, not just freedom to ride west alone.
When we celebrate Passover, we remind ourselves of the bitterness of slavery. Remembering this imparts us with the empathy we need to live in community. We’re commanded to act like we personally crossed the Red Sea, and help those in need. No matter how much of the American Dream we’re living, it is eternally Egypt, there is still struggle around us.
We even remind ourselves what it takes to achieve freedom. We regret that it took ten horrific plagues, and the suffering of innocent Egyptian commoners, to soften Pharaoh's heart. But the fight against oppression is always a struggle, and a collective one. As a community, we marched to freedom then. We continue to “pray with our feet” today.
Maybe that’s why Judaism has such a strong culture of social justice. We celebrate that we were oppressed and then liberated, not some empire oppressing others. We identify with the little guy. So is it any surprise that we still fight against modern-day Pharaohs who perpetuate systems of disguised, polite slavery?
Passover is for welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, uplifting the downtrodden, and amplifying the silenced. Because until we defeat inequality, we will still be eternally in Egypt. Until all of us are free, none of us is.
Next year in a better world, one we shape together!
As always, regardless of shul affiliation, the point of contact for every initiative listed would be happy to have your help. And if you simply want to ask how best to be an ally, or how we got here, please reply to this email, fill out the form above, or call me. My email is jason.austinsocialjustice@gmail.com, and my number is 469-834-9987.
Thank you!
L'shalom,
Jason Taper, Social Justice Coordinator |
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