As California’s legislative session comes a close, here’s where we are
California's legislative session, which began back in January when Governor Gavin Newsom took office, comes to a close this Friday, September 13. As we look back on our legislative agenda for 2019, several bills JCJ worked on have actually been signed into law. Others...
UPDATE: Two Major Israeli Parties Seeking Knesset Control in Unprecedented Election
**This post is an update to our June 20 blog about the upcoming September 17 snap elections in Israel. Israel will hold a historically unprecedented election for Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on September 17. Whichever party manages to secure the plurality of seats...
What Brings Me Here
This August I began my fifth (and final) year of rabbinical training at Hebrew Union College Institute of Religion here in Los Angeles. However, unlike in years past, this one is particularly significant for me as I begin my work as Jewish Center for Justice’s new...
Regardless of political party, we must all agree that free and fair elections should come first
A lack of affordable health care, a divisive media climate, and gun violence are just a sampling of the dozens of issues of paramount importance currently facing America. Some issues have a short-term impact while some will impact us for generations to come, but all...
I’m a Jewish teen who’s invested in acting on climate change. Who’s joining me?
My dad has been discussing environmental and climate issues with me since I was old enough to say the words “climate change.” For years, he has been warning me and my siblings about how political and social inaction could lead to catastrophic, irreversible climate...
When it comes to gun violence, where did the outrage go?
On February 14, 2018, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. walked on campus and shot and killed 17 people, injuring 17 more. The devastating and tragic event ignited a teen-led movement — spearheaded by March for Our Lives — to...
How a Seattle rabbi campaigned to protect undocumented immigrants in his community
On Wednesday, July 17, former JCJ seminary fellow and current Assistant Rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle joined immigrant rights advocates, elected officials, and members of different faith networks to march from Riverton Park United Methodist Church in...
What I discovered about my advocacy after meeting with Mayor Garcetti’s office
For as long as I can recall, our nation has been stuck in a cyclical, destructive pattern wherein rapidly changing news cycles whip us from one story to the next by the hour, and sometimes even by the minute. Caught in this cycle, we become easily distracted from our...
What happened when I attended a rally to close detention centers, at a detention center
Last Wednesday, July 3, fellow JCJ intern Lindsay Morgenstein and I drove to the Theo Lacy Immigration Detention Center in Orange, California, a facility which serves as a maximum-security jail for immigrant detainees. While I did not go inside, it was clear from what...
“Dean of Rabbinic Social Justice in this Country”: Honoring Rabbi Richard Levy (1937 – 2019)
This past Friday, June the 21st, the Jewish world lost a social justice giant in Rabbi Richard Levy. Rabbi Levy was a passionate advocate for civil rights, social justice, and peace. At the invitation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was part of a delegation of 16...