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Social Action Committee
Social Action Committee
"If justice and righteousness define what it means to be a Jew, then we must constantly search for ways to implement our values. If it’s the foundation of our covenant, we cannot say, 'I tried, I did my share.' Rather, every day we have to wake up and ask, 'Is there something that I can do? Is there something that I didn’t do? Is there something that I could try again?'”
--Rabbi Steven Rein, Kol Nidre Sermon, 2017
Special Focus 5783: Equity, Fairness, and Social Justice
- Advocacy: We actively promote non-partisan civic engagement and lobby for socially responsible legislative change. Topics include guaranteeing reproductive freedom, protecting democratic institutions, and reducing gun violence.
- Direct Action: We sponsor programs that make an impact on people's lives and the environment. Topics include assisting refugees, food security, and protecting the environment.
- Education: We partner with organizations that promote greater awareness of opportunities to right the world's wrongs and the importance of equality for all. Topics include fighting racism and understanding the basic commonalities amongst all people.
SOCIAL ACTION VOLUNTEER EVENTS
The SAC sponsors a range of advocacy, direction action, and education events during the year. Amongst this year's activities are:
- Fall: Voter Registration and Get Out the Vote for Virginia elections
- Kol Nidre: Operation Isaiah food collection
- November 14: PowerPack food collection
- November 21: Apple Gleaning
- January 16, 2023: MLK Day of Service Meal Packing
- March 2023: Purim food collection
- April 2023: Good Deeds Day
- June 19, 2023: Junteenth
Get involved! All are welcome to our monthly Zoom committee meetings that are typically scheduled on the second Thursday of each month. Contact Committee Chair Mark Kutner for the Zoom information.
Our Social Action Book and Movie Club is also held monthly; contact Deborah Rosen for the Zoom information.
Mission
Social Action Committee Activities
Sun, January 29 2023
7 Shevat 5783
Behind the Scenes with the SAC
Questions about the Social Action Committee? What to know what they're all about?
Check out this awesome presentation here.
Social Action Book & Movie Club
Monday, February 20 | 8 PM
The Social Action Book and Movie Club will resume in February with Once We Were Slaves by Laura Arnold Liebman.
Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress's (Moses) assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings' extraordinary journey through the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artefacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philidelphia, and finally New York to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives becoming free, wealthy, Jewish and at times, white.
Please contact Deborah Rosen for the Zoom information.
Books we've read:
Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas, by Robert Lovato
Maid, by Stephanie Land
Tangled Up in Blue, by Rosa Brooks
Passing, by Nella Larsen
Franchise, by Marcia Chatelain
Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America, by Zachary R. Wood
Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong
The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee
The Color of Love, by Marra Gad
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Family Properties, by Beryl Satter
The Velvet Rope Economy, by Nelson D. Schwartz
Sitting Pretty, by Rebekah Taussing
If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin
Podcast
We Share the Same Sky, by Rachael Cerrotti
Movies
Crip Camp
Shared Legacies: The African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance, directed by Shari Rogers
Social Action Ongoing Activities
For a list of ongoing projects and partners, click here.