| Take Action Now!
Want to make a difference but not sure how? These one-time actions are a great place to start.
6/16 7:30-8:30 PM: RAC Virtual Town Hall with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
• Join the RAC, Fair Elections NY, and many other nonpartisan organizations for a massive virtual town hall and musical celebration with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Congressman Mondaire Jones. We’ll hear the latest update on the status of HR1, get answers on how the bill impacts you, and talk about its connections to the civil rights movement. By joining this event, you are helping us combat mass voter suppression and strengthen our democracy!
Register here.
TBD: Reform Jewish Virtual Meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
• Sign up for RAC emails to be notified of an upcoming virtual meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss voting rights. Checking the RAC-NY box in addition to the RAC-TX box may help.
Ongoing: Refugee Donations and Volunteering Requested
With the news of refugees at the border and concern over their welfare, there are many opportunities to participate and make a difference. The charities are asking for monetary donations rather than goods which are difficult to sort and disperse.
- Austin FC Volunteer Opportunity:
RST is seeking volunteers to work concessions at the Austin FC games of your choice to qualify RST to receive 10% of the concession stand earnings! Come connect with like-minded people while lending a hand to displaced persons! All volunteers must be 18+ WITH a Food Handler's + TABC license that can be acquired for $15 HERE!
To get more details and learn more about this opportunity, email Elena Lopez at aelopez@rstx.org. *Please note, with set-up + game-time it is a 4-5 hour commitment*
Central Texas:- Donations to Refugee Fund: Anyone who can contribute (from either congregation) can give to the Refugee Task Force Fund on the Temple Beth Shalom website or contact Russ Apfel.
- Food Deliveries for Refugees: Anyone interested in providing food to an asylum-seeking family on a bi-weekly basis (directly or through a donation) can contact Cathy Campbell.
- Refugee Services of Texas reports that asylum seeker support services in Austin are overwhelmed. Because families are being treated humanely and released after a day or two of processing at the border, non-profits in Texas that are assisting asylum-seekers will need more resources. Contact Ahmed Abbas at RST by email at Aabbas@rstx.org to assist. Monetary donations and legal assistance are needed.
At the Border:- In El Paso, Annunciation House has been helping migrants for 43 years by providing shelter, basic necessities, and education. Annunciation House has a 100,000 square foot facility that provides housing and meals until transportation to their families can be made. Donations are needed and all funds go to housing these families. Donate at annunciationhouse.org.
- In McAllen, URJ Temple Emanuel is collecting monetary donations to support the work of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Respite Center which provides vital support to newly arrived immigrants and asylum seekers. Donate at https://temple-emanuel.com/community/donations-payments/. (Select donation type of General Fund and then specify in the Comment box that your donation is for Catholic Charities Respite Center.)
Resources to support Asian-American communities, in response to the wave of hate crimes, accessible here. Thanks to a community-wide effort for making this possible.
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)- RAC-TX advocates for our Jewish values at a statewide level with other Reform congregations. We have no set ideology, and our policy priorities are determined entirely by Reform Jewish congregations across Texas. We make our voice heard with our community.
- Thanks in part to our pressure, voter suppression bills HB6 and SB7 were put off to the last minute, which allowed a historic walk-out that killed the bills! We expect them to come back in a special session around August, before another special session to gerrymander our districts to an even more partisan extreme, but this is as big a win as voting rights advocates in Texas could've hoped for. We should be proud that we stood up for democracy, and will continue to fight after regrouping this summer.
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 or Rachel Gunner at rachelgunner@hotmail.com to join or learn more here.
• Next meeting: 6/14, at 10:00 a.m.
• 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:
- Gaining approval for and securing funding of legal representation at or before first court appearance (magistration).
- Supporting County Attorney and District Attorney actions to evaluate cases for dismissal prior to magistration, and joining with officials and the community to provide services that will prevent people from facing the legal system in the first place. These improvements can minimize the disruption to people's lives at the earliest possible moment. To this end, we have spoken before Commissioner’s Court requesting funding to meet that need.
- We have written a document called “if you are arrested” to help inform people of their rights, in particular with their lawyers. We are asking officials, in particular the Chief Public Defender and the Sheriff, for their input.
- We have met with Sheriff Hernandez and 3 of her staff to learn more about changes being proposed concerning a woman’s jail. We believe in using funds for preventive, supportive and treatment services to keep women from entering the system. We are submitting our views to Commissioner’s Court.
- We have a subgroup working on policing reform.
Texas Anti-Poverty Project
• Email Larkin Tackett at larkin.tackett@gmail.com to join or learn more here.
• Next Meeting: 6/16, 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: Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Austin Jewish Community
• If you'd like to continue our collective, community-wide organizing to help the Austin Jewish community grow more racially inclusive, including within our own temples, please contact Larkin Tackett (Temple Beth Shalom) at larkin.tackett@gmail.com and/or Mindy Lee (Congregation Beth Isral) at mindyem@gmail.com.
• 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
o Session 3 video
o Session 3 Building a Race Equity Culture handout
o Session 3 Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Institution handout
A Word from Your Social Justice Coordinator
This week, I have some bittersweet personal news: my rewarding tenure as your Social Justice Coordinator is coming to an end on July 1.
I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse, of admission to NYU School of Law in the fall. I’ll continue to fight for social justice, through legal advocacy. And to any lawyers in the congregations reading this, it is unfortunately too late for you to talk me out of it. But I’d welcome a chat anyway!
I want to dedicate this message to saying thank you to all of the wonderful community volunteers who’ve made my time here so special. I started in late 2019 with a flurry of coffee and lunch meetings to get to know y’all. It seemed that as soon as those were over, quarantine set in, and we were making good trouble over Zoom.
I’ve been so proud to see our community be so passionate about so many important issues, and in so many ways. We’ve played the inside game, developing relationships with local elected officials to advocate. We’ve played the outside game, demanding and protesting. We stood up for democracy, getting out the vote for multiple elections without a partisan slant. Y’all put in the effort to make sure those left out of our democratic process heard how important they are. And we held our elected officials accountable to those who most need their help.
On almost every issue, you’re pushing for justice. HIAS has successfully lobbied President Biden to increase the refugee admission cap, with our help. Locally, Refugee Services of Texas and the asylum seekers they serve benefit greatly from our donations. RAC-TX has grown massively this legislative session, making sure the whole Texas Capitol knows that many Reform Jews stand for voting rights. The Austin criminal legal system has been shaken up lately, with a new Travis County Judge, District Attorney, County Attorney, and first-ever Public Defender. Advocates for Social Justice Reform have been with them every step of the way, demanding they listen to those most impacted by incarceration, who can’t afford cash bail or private attorneys. And as Tesla has moved into town with its new factory, Texas Anti-Poverty Project has been right there to demand the jobs pay living wages and go to locals.
Social Justice hasn’t just been external--we’ve looked inward as well. From MLK Shabbat onwards, our partnership with Be’Chol Lashon has spurred us to examine every component of our congregations to ensure we’re fostering racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. We started conversations within the entire Austin Jewish community to hold each other accountable. I especially want to shout out CBI’s Chavruaction Circles for not only setting up important racial justice conversations, but ensuring conversations turn into action and congregational leadership.
I am so inspired by everything y’all do. It has been an honor to support the movements you have built. My work would have been nothing without your leadership, the crucial volunteer hours you have put in. As we go forward, I would love nothing more than to see the completion of what we are already moving towards: Social Justice as a priority for every part of both congregations. Social Justice always starts with a dedicated few, and it is always more powerful when it is an entire community speaking with one voice. CBI’s listening campaign proves that. We’ll never be unanimous, of course, but the path we are on towards integrating justice in every decision Temple Beth Shalom and Congregation Beth Israel make, is the right one. I wish you all happy trails along it.
I am deeply honored to spend an in-person Shabbat service with each shul as a send-off, tonight with Congregation Beth Israel and 6/25 with Temple Beth Shalom. Yet I would be even more honored to talk 1 on 1 with anyone who I haven’t talked to in a while. Maybe you haven’t felt that your passion is reflected in existing programming, or maybe the pandemic took your volunteer time and turned it into childcare time. No matter what, I’d love to collect as much knowledge and passion from y’all to pass on to my eventual successor (and our volunteer leaders, who aren’t going anywhere!).
My phone number is 469-834-9987. Please call, text, or reply to this email. Our community has built something powerful and sustainable, and it’s up to all of us to continue it. It has been such a pleasure to be your Social Justice Coordinator, and to learn the power of the Jewish Community working together. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Jason Taper, Social Justice Coordinator
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