Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists.

Media Matters has an interesting new study out today concerning media coverage of religion, and specifically, analyzing which specific religious leaders are the most quoted in the mainstream press.  Among the study's key findings:

• Combining newspapers and television, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed in news stories 2.8 times as often as were progressive religious leaders.
• On television news -- the three major television networks, the three major cable new channels, and PBS -- conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed almost 3.8 times as often as progressive leaders.
• In major newspapers, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed 2.7 times as often as progressive leaders.

The full report – available in both “on-line” and “PDF” flavors – is available here.

RAC Director Rabbi David Saperstein joined National Council of Churches President Bob Edgar, Rev. Dr. Jim Forbes and others at a press conference today to formally release the report. Watch your local papers for more…

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Marc Katz is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. He is a graduate of Tufts University.

Yet, one overall theme extended throughout in each speech: mental health treatment is extremely expensive. This is because many health plans unfairly treat coverage for mental health benefits by imposing co-payments, deductibles or limits on outpatient visits that are more restrictive than those placed on physical illness.  The message from the event is that we must provide equality in the way we treat those with mental illnesses.

It is no coincidence then, that Mental Health Month (the event that brought us Children’s Depression Awareness Day) was capped off this year by National Mental Health Parity Day which aimed to raise awareness around the issue of unequal care for the mentally ill and advocate for legislation that will bring equality to our health care system. 

Currently, Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstead (R-MN) have introduced the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (H.R.1424) into Congress which aims to do just this.  This bill is widely popular, garnering 266 cosponsors.  To show your support for this legislation, visit Mental Health America, one of the nation’s premier mental health advocacy groups, to learn more and become a citizen cosponsor.  To write a letter to your congressional representative about mental health parity visit the RAC’s legislative action center.

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Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists.

Yesterday, I just learned, was World Fair Trade Day. The day’s sponsor, TransFair USA, note that “World Fair Trade Day is a global celebration that happens all around the world every May. We invite you to connect with others in the Fair Trade movement who are working to build a more equitable economy that benefits people and the planet! “

You can find TransFair USA’s resources here and those from the RAC here.

Radical Torah (which very often has something interesting to say) has this post, putting Fair Trade in the context of this week’s Torah portion (Behar-Bechukotai (Leviticus 25-27)).

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Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists.

This week our friends over at the Jewish Funds for Justice have launched an interesting new campaign – A Domestic Jewish Agenda for 2008 – asking the question “If you could talk to the presidential candidates, what would you tell them?”  They have created something which is part poll, part petition, and part advocacy campaign.  It invites you to rank the issues you think are most important.  JFJ will then compile the results, and send them to the various presidential campaigns.

Part of what makes this effort particularly interesting is the dynamic that Jim Besser highlights in his excellent New York Jewish Week story on the project, “Edgy Effort To Redirect Jewish Political Debate.”  JFJ’s partners in this effort include some organizations whose focus is on the younger, and often unaffiliated, segment of the Jewish community (like JDUB Records and Jewcy.com).

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Gwen Litvak is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is a graduate of UCLA.

In 1994, Baltimore passed the first living wage in the U.S. and on Wednesday, Maryland demonstrated its continued commitment to the fight against low wages when Governor Martin O’ Malley signed the country’s first state wide living wage ordinance into law.

The living wage rate varies by area; the Washington Post reports that those who work in the Washington-Baltimore corridor will be paid $11.30 an hour and those who work in rural areas will be paid $8.50 an hour. This is still higher than the current state minimum wage of $6.15 an hour and federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. Baltimore’s living wage ordinance kicked off a nation wide movement that has led to hundreds of city wide living wages. Hopefully Maryland’s state wide living wage ordinance will prove to be a catalyst for a nation wide living wage movement.

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Cara Fisher is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is a graduate of University of Texas-Austin.

Throughout the past year, grassroots advocacy organizations, faith communities and immigrant rights groups have been among the most outspoken voices in support of comprehensive immigration reform. Now there is action in Congress to push forth legislation that addresses the most significant flaws in our broken immigration system, particularly those affecting family reunification.

This Sunday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m. in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition is sponsoring a candlelight prayer vigil in support of those immigrant families who have dealt with issues of separation, deportation and the like. For more information about this event, please contact me!

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Elissa Froman is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is a graduate of George Washington University.

In last Monday’s Jerusalem Post, David Harris wrote a blog post about the fundamental ironies, challenges and concerns surrounding the issue of Jewish infighting.

He cites some alarming recent examples of the progressive Jewish community in Israel facing challenges to their legitimacy from the Ultra-Orthodox community. Specifically he talks about the statement made by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a former chief rabbi of Israel, who said that the Holocaust occurred as a result of Germany’s Jews embracing Reform Judaism. Shortly there after, Rabbi Micky Boyden, a Reform rabbi who made Aliyah and lost a son serving in the IDF in Lebanon, was asked not to chant a prayer he had previously been invited to lead at the local commemoration for Yom HaZikaroan, Israel’s Memorial Day.

He offers a very astute analysis which addresses that fact that the infighting occurring between Jews in Israel is particularly ironic at the time of year it took place. When observing Yom Hashoah, the nation of Israel should take stock of the fact that every Jew, regardless of their observance level or affiliation, perished the same way, with a common enemy that decided their fate.

Rabbi David Ellenson, dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion wrote a piece for this week’s edition of the Forward about the incidents as well. 

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Marc Katz is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. He is a graduate of Tufts University.

Last week, the American Lung Association, released their annual State of the Air Report that ranked the cleanest and dirtiest cities and counties in the United States.  Some highlights of the report:

• Los Angeles, CA is once again the most polluted city in the country, followed by Pittsburg, PA at number two, and Fresco, CA, rounding out the top three. Additionally, Detroit achieved the ranking of 8^th, Cleveland, OH and Washington DC finished 10^th and  11^th respectively, and New York City tied for 16^th with Indianapolis, IN.
• The top five cleanest cities are Amarillo, TX; Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY; Colorado Springs, CO; and Corpus Christi-Kingsville, TX respectively.
• Nearly half (46 percent) of the U.S. population lives in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution
• While unhealthy ozone levels have decreased significantly since 2002, the amount of particulate mater has increased leading to higher rates of respiratory infection, and cardiovascular disease.

While this report has certainly gained a lot of press over its grim analysis, it also contains important information about advocating for clean air laws and actions individuals can take to protect local air quality.  I encourage you to look at the report and speak with your family about steps you can take to clean the air in your city or town.  For more information on ways you can help ensure clean the air in your city and town click here.

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Debra Eichenbaum is a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is a graduate of Brandeis University.

It’s not often that you meet someone who is truly inspirational and can challenge you both intellectually and spiritually.

Lucky for me, years ago, I met a man who filled that criteria – my math teacher when I studied abroad in Israel.  Affectionately known as “Doc Huerta” by his students, Huerta, a Sephardic Orthodox Jew, had made aliyah to Israel after retiring from service as a Chaplain in the US Army.  As a teacher he not only taught mathematics, but at the same time also taught us about life, love, and loss.  He left such an impact on me that I still today, from time to time, find myself thinking of Doc Huerta and the lessons he imparted on me during my time as his pupil.

This past week, 7 years after I took his class, Doc Huerta taught me yet another lesson on life and compassion.  Army Chaplain Carlos C. Huerta came out of retirement and is currently on his second tour of duty in Iraq, ministering to the Jewish soldiers in need on the front lines.  A Rabbi of 20 years, he made news this past week in an article entitle “One Flag, Many Faiths” by acting on the compassion and thoughtfulness which he has been preaching his entire lifetime.  Clenching the hand of a dying Iraqi boy in a hospital in Mosul, Huerta recited passages from the Qur’an acting as he thought an Imam would.  When an Iraqi child was wounded in a suicide bombing and was in desperate need of a B-positive blood transfusion Huerta rolled up his sleeve and donated his own blood.  Reflecting on these two instances, Huerta said, “we're priests, rabbis, imams, whatever…Our job is to comfort people."

Often we talk of the religious divides that keep us apart, but here is a man who is willing to cross that threshold and see the other as human.  Seven years later, this amazing man continues to inspire me.  And hopefully, can inspire a nation to learn to care for one another regardless of differences.

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Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists.

Lots of people writing lots of interesting things about Barack Obama this week.

In the New Yorker, Larissa MacFarquhar offers a wide-raging profile entitled “The Conciliator.”  MacFarquhar reviews Sen. Obama’s unusual personal background, and puts his political character in some personal context.  One key paragraph:

Obama’s drive to compromise goes beyond the call of political expediency—it’s instinctive, almost a tic. “Barack has an incredible ability to synthesize seemingly contradictory realities and make them coherent,” [law school classmate and friend] Cassandra Butts says. “It comes from going from a home where white people are nurturing you, and then you go out into the world and you’re seen as a black person. He had to figure out whether he was going to accept this contradiction and be just one of those things, or find a way to realize that these pieces make up the whole.” In the state senate, this skill served him well—he was unusually dexterous with opponents, and passed bills that at first were judged too liberal to have a chance, such as one that mandated the videotaping of police interviews with suspects arrested for capital crimes.

Jodi Kantor of the New York Times focuses in on Sen. Obama’s relationship to his faith, his church, and his pastor.  Her article, “A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith,” offers this observation:

His embrace of faith was a sharp change for a man whose family offered him something of a crash course in comparative religion but no belief to call his own. “He comes from a very secular, skeptical family,” said Jim Wallis, a Christian antipoverty activist and longtime friend of Mr. Obama. “His faith is really a personal and an adult choice. His is a conversion story.”

Finally, Perry Bacon, Jr. has a front page story (“Obama Reaches Out With Tough Love”)  in today’s Washington Post exploring how Obama is relating to the African American community as he campaigns.  Here’s the lead:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are "acting white."

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Barbara Weinstein is the Legislative Director for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Long before Neil Diamond sang “America,” a group of 23 Jews arrived on the shores of New Amsterdam. Historians say that their landing was a bit of an error, the result of being swept off course during their trip from South America to Europe.

Since that day in 1654, the contributions of Jews in what would become the United States has touched every facet of our society. From Fanny Brice to Natalie Portman, from Judah P. Benjamin to Joe Lieberman, from Hank Greenberg to Shawn Green, Jews have added to the rich fabric of American life.

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate all that Jewish life has brought to this nation. Events focusing on the Jewish experience in the United States are scheduled in communities around the country. A special website has been created about Jewish American Heritage Month, including a calendar of events, and educational resources.

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Ariel Sincoff-Yedid is an Intern at the Religious Action Center. She is currently at student at Union College.

On Tuesday April 17th, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) spoke to the Religious Action Center’s Consultation on Conscience, about the need, and his support, for hate crimes legislation. Rep. Kirk described his encounters in Kosovo in the 1990s, and of the hatred embodied in the ethnic cleansing there. His experiences with those who killed so hatefully are what have motivated him to support the passage of hate crimes legislation.

Last Thursday, April 12th, I attended a Senate press conference held by Senators Ted Kennedy and Gordon Smith on the introduction of S. 1145, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The companion legislation in the House of Representatives, H.R. 1592, was also introduced recently. Both senators spoke of their commitments to enacting this legislation, and of the many cosponsors and other supporters already committed to the bill. Sen. Smith also announced a proposal to rename the legislation the “Matthew Shepard Bill,” in honor of Matthew Shepard and in recognition of Dennis and Judy Shepard, Matthew’s parents, for their commitment to enacting hate crimes legislation in America.

Hate crimes legislation is a vital step in ending discriminatory violence in America. Intellectual hatred all too quickly turns to action when left unchecked, and those who are victims of this hatred have little categorical defense against this violence without such legislation. We, as Jews, are all too familiar with persecution, and for that alone we must fight such hatred, but we must also fight for the physically and mentally challenged, for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, for all those targeted for their country of origin and race, those targeted for gender, and for all those who suffer due to categorical hatred. Write to your local congresspeople to support hate crimes legislation, and help us fight categorical, hate-based violence.

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