Shabbat shalom! In this week's parashah, Metzora, we are instructed in the procedure for the
cleansing of a house whose physical structure has been afflicted with a kind of
plague. The Torah puts us directly to
work. It does not spend any time
wondering why the house might have warranted affliction: was the house facing
the wrong direction, or was it built on tainted soil? Did its residents do something wrong? The Torah doesn't ask; it doesn't
wonder. It tells us, this house is
broken: go fix it; get to work. This
year, our teens went to two houses: one on Beacon Hill, and one on Capitol
Hill, and where they saw brokenness, they went to work.
On February 7th, 17 Temple Israel
teens, accompanied by Rabbi Soffer, Jessie Weiser, and me, traveled to
Washington, D.C., to participate in what turned out to be the biggest L'Taken
Social Justice Seminar to date. L'Taken
is developed, administered, and staffed by the Religious Action Center of
Reform Judaism, often called "the RAC." In the 1950s, the Reform movement's Commission
on Social Action was working to stimulate social action committees in every
Reform congregation in America, and it increasingly felt the need for an office
in Washington, through which the voice of the movement could be heard on
Capitol Hill. The RAC is that
office. When it was founded, the RAC
resided at the corner of Massachusetts Ave NW and 21st St in Dupont
Circle. That was its address until 2003,
when that stretch of 21st street was formally renamed "Kivie Kaplan Way,"
in honor of the RAC's original funder. The
name Kivie Kaplan may be familiar to some of you - he lived in Chestnut Hill
and was a Temple Israel member and trustee.
Kivie was President of the NAACP, and was a great connector of the Black
and Jewish communities during the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was drafted at
the Religious Action Center.
The RAC's L’Taken seminar provides
teens with opportunities to learn about major public policy issues, to get
familiar with the lobbying process, and to explore the Jewish values that
underlie the Reform Movement's positions on social issues. L'Taken groups study
together, tour major sites in the nation's capital, and most importantly, they
spend a Monday morning on Capitol Hill, lobbying their own senators and
representatives. L'Taken inspires
interest in political advocacy, anchored in Jewish identity.
This Shabbat, we're honored to share
with you a taste of our experience at the L'Taken Seminar, including a
compilation of reflections written by several of our 5774 L'Taken participants:
freshman Nina Miller, sophomores Rebecca Wishnie, Ben Groustra, Ayden Mallory,
Michael Marget, Abby Rosovsky, Ada Levine, and Talia Putnoi, and juniors Marc
Davis, Mariel Ehrlich, and Juliana Kaplan.
For the 17 of us, L'taken was a rewarding
experience that encouraged us to step outside of our comfort zone and to try
very new things. It has become one of our
favorite Jewish experiences. We all
appreciated the opportunity to meet over 400 other high schoolers from across
the country, who are all in youth groups like RYFTI. We loved being around such a large number of teenagers who felt very
strongly about a variety of different issues, and it was especially interesting
to hear opinions different than our own.
We had a good
time exploring parts of Washington D.C.
Havdalah on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial was beautiful. It was
pretty cool to walk around Capitol Hill and to get a behind-the-scenes look at
the workings of our government.
Throughout the weekend, we worked to learn about the many interesting and compelling issues that the
RAC fights for. We learned how prepare to stand up
for our beliefs and for the rights of people throughout the nation by writing
detailed lobbying scripts and research pages.
Mariel reflected, "This was the first time I'd ever been able to
truly support myself with evidence and texts spanning from the Constitution to
the Torah, and as result I felt confident in my abilities to have strong points
that policy makers would listen to and respect."
As we started to focus on the issues we chose for our own
lobbying, Juliana, who had participated in TIKKUN a month earlier and had
lobbied on Beacon Hill, compared her state and federal-level lobbying
work. We had noted that joining these
national campaigns meant accepting less individual control of our
lobbying. Juliana said that in
Washington we were
working on a broader scale, which meant that we did lose the sense of a smaller
grassroots campaign, but instead gained the support and power of the Reform
Jewish community, as we prepared to act as their representatives to staffers in
the offices of Senators Warren and Markey and of Congressman Kennedy.
For some of us, as Michael reflected, the biggest impact of the
whole weekend was made on Sunday night, in our small lobby groups, as we worked
intensely to write a speech in just a few hours. We worked together and
helped each other out, and it was a great bonding experience.
For many of us, the biggest highlight of the trip was the
experience of giving a lobbying speech in the offices of our federal
legislators. Talia wrote, "I
never thought I would do anything like this in my life, or that I was capable
of reaching into the political world through the lens of Reform Judaism." Ben said, "I
felt that giving my speech was very empowering. I got to give voice to an issue
that I felt very passionate about, and I felt like the people who were
listening to my speech were taking me seriously, which was very exciting. It
was also a great experience to be involved in the democratic process." Rebecca recalled, "I had been unsure
about how the people we lobbied to would react to the references to Judaism in
our speeches, but one of the aides said that the religious aspects gave our
arguments depth, and made them more persuasive."
In
groups of three or four, we lobbied our legislators on immigration reform, gun
violence, reproductive rights, and comprehensive sexuality education. Here's one reflection on that experience from
Juliana: "In
Washington my team advocated against a bill that would put restrictions on
women's access to abortion and would essentially ban later-term abortions. We
looked to Jewish texts when discussing this issue; the health of the mother is
a distinctly Jewish issue, and we proudly helped bring this view to our
representatives."
Our
time at L'Taken impacted us in a number of ways. We gained a better understanding of several
current issues and learned about the bills involved in those issues. We learned
about the process of political advocacy. We learned how to work together as a group,
and we became closer as a group. We saw that
Reform Jews are motivated to stick up for what they believe in, and are ready
to act on those beliefs.
We developed a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship of
church and state. Ada's realization that
she can make a change in her government inspired her to join her school's
chapter of Amnesty International, which will take her back to Washington for
another round of lobbying. Abby said,
"The thing I will
take away most from L´Taken was the realization that my voice really matters,
that what I say and what I believe actually matter, and that if I feel strongly
about something I can speak up and make a difference." Nina said, "What I took away from L'Taken was
that there's always going to be people in the world who care about the
same things I do, and that I can count on others to help me out." Juliana reflected, "being able to participate in both of these events - TIKKUN and
L'Taken - was life-changing, and not only helped me feel as though I had the
power to influence these law-makers, but also to really work to address the
inequities that plague our society. I recently participated in a rally at the
State House to raise the minimum wage. I
hope to continue my work advocating on issues that affect everyone in our
community, and I hope others join me."
In the 1976 biography of Kivie
Kaplan, Albert Vorspan, vice president of the UAHC (later the URJ) and director
of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, wrote: "[Kivie's]
faith in the future rested with the young." To that, we can surely say, amen.
Shabbat shalom!
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