Fresh Updates from RAC

We’re still on a high from the whirlwind events during Consultation on Conscience and have more or less caught up on sleep. This week, we’ve begun getting back to our more usual work.

On Thursday, we sponsored a disability inclusion training at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, MD. We also continued our work with the Rabbis Organizing Rabbis efforts in Texas. RAC LA Sarah Krinsky and I joined a conference call with rabbis there who are preparing to lobby Senator John Cornyn on immigration reform. The Senate will begin marking up the bi-partisan Gang of Eight legislation next week, so if you haven’t yet sent your Senators an email about the bill, now is the time.

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To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, what a long strange week it’s been.  As you know, I grew up in Montreal and learned about the virtues of universal health care, Anne of Green Gables, and poutine (if you’re into that sort of thing). I also learned how to recognize a snowstorm. So when meteorologists predicted a storm that would bring 6-12 inches of snow to DC on Wednesday and the federal and local governments shut down, I and most of the RAC staff planned to work from home. By 9 am, big fluffy flakes were coming down.  By 9:45, it was raining. I can tell you from experience: a major snow storm this was not. So much for the “snowquester.”

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We made it! This weekend was our last L’Taken of the year. It’s a bittersweet moment: we’re happy to have a few more free weekends and sad that one of the most meaningful and fun parts of the program year is drawing to a close. And in case you missed it, here’s a story in the New York Jewish Week about L’Taken participant Jacob Weiner, written by his mother, Susan. It’s a truly moving piece that makes all of us even more proud of the way L’Taken touches and transforms the participants.

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As I mentioned last week, I was in LA for NFTY convention this past weekend – and I had a ball. The NFTY staff is phenomenal and put on what is one of the best events I’ve ever been part of.  What struck me most is that, as you’d expect in any gathering of 800 teens, there’s a lot of differences among the participants. Some are sporty, some introverted, some like the late night concerts, some are whizzes at Jewish text and liturgy.  Yet despite the range of interests and skills, there was space and opportunities for all. I was also impressed by the quality of the conversations I had with the NFTYites in the sessions I ran, talking about “light” topics like torture and mental health. The teens were engaged, thoughtful, and smart.  Best of all, about 20% of convention participants were alumni of L’Taken!

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The only way to begin this week’s note is by saying, “Thank you.” Last Monday’s Faiths Calling day to Congress generated over 10,000 calls in support of gun violence prevention. I know that you called and urged your friends to call, you “liked” the event on Facebook and Tweeted about it to others. We’ve heard from Senators’ staff members who were overwhelmed (in a good way) by the calls and rumor has it they were so numerous at a few points during the day that we even shut down the lines in a few offices. The call in day was by no means the end of this effort, but it was a clear statement that our Movement and others in the faith community take this issue seriously and are demanding our representatives in Congress do the same.

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Greetings from chilly Cincinnati!  I’m here for the weekend, joining WRJ’s Fried Leadership Conference to run a few programs and deliver a keynote. Somehow, in all my years working at the RAC, I’ve never before made it to this historic home of North American Reform Judaism. I’m looking forward to seeing HUC, the Jewish Archives and, of course, tasting the Graeter’s ice cream I’ve heard so much about.

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When the new RAC LAs arrive each year and see at the daunting schedule of L’Taken teen social justice seminars, they usually get a deer-in-the-headlights look. They have a glazed expression as they calculate the seven weekends they’ll spend at hotels in Crystal City, each in the company of 350 teenagers. And I know they wonder how they’ll find the energy and motivation to come back for a full work week after each L’Taken. So what Michael Namath reminds them early and often is that L’Taken will likely be the most fun thing they do all year.Yes, L’Taken is demanding – but it’s also uniquely invigorating because each time we see the students’ transformation between their Friday arrival and their Monday departure. The students come to us full of nervous energy and (usually) leave settled with the knowledge that they have a voice that has been heard in the halls of Congress.This past week’s L’Taken, even more than most, demonstrated how powerful an experience the weekend is. Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) was so struck by the speech given by the L’Taken participants from Oak Park Temple in his distrcit that later that day, he read their statement in its entirety on the House floor. You can watch the video of Rep. Davis’s remarks, skipping to the 1 hour and 4 minutes mark. One of our former RAC staffers who watched the video texted me to say, “I got teary watching Rep. Davis read the students’ speech. Wow.” Wow, indeed.

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