16 Elul 5765 September 19, 2005
Preface - A Note
from JALSA Director Sheila Decter
1. Legislative Victories
2
Preliminary Elections - Remember to Vote
3. JALSA and Coalition Meeting
Calendars
4. Hurricane Relief Agencies
5. Articles of Interest and
Concern
6. Join the Jewish Alliance!
Hurricane Katrina Relief II
Dear Friends:
Many of you sent JALSA additional names to consider
for charitable relief.
The new suggestions are listed below, with some of our
earlier suggestions.
We hope all of you will continue to help these many
hurricane relief efforts.
We follow with links to thoughtful articles on the
hurricane response, poverty,
race and class, refugees vs. internally
relocated persons; who to be involved
in rebuilding decisions; and where will
the revenue for rebuilding come from.
First, however, we begin with important dates for your
JALSA calendars:
meetings of the JALSA Executive Committee, JALSA Board, our
educational
coalitions, and city elections throughout the
Commonwealth.
Sheila Decter
1. LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES
We wish to congratulate all of you who worked on the
issue of equal
marriage. The Massachusetts legislature rejected the efforts
to put
discriminatory language in the Massachusetts Constitution by a vote of
157
to 39. The wide margin of defeat is a tribute to those of you who made
phone
calls, sent e-mails, came out to vigils, and did a multitude of other
things
to ensure that your legislators knew that marriage rights are civil
rights.
The fight for equitable marriage rights reached to the
very core of JALSA's
mission to fight discrimination and to protect civil
liberties. Early on,
JALSA was asked to became a member of the Steering
Committee of
MassEquality, the broad-based coalition working to preserve the
Supreme
Judicial Court decision guaranteeing equal marriage rights. Over the
last
few months, JALSA took a leadership role in putting together a
coalition
within the Jewish community to work through synagogues and
Jewish
organizations to help contact state representatives and
senators.
Congratulations to the members of this coalition, including Temple
Israel's
Ohel Tzedek social action leadership, Keshet, Boston JCRC, the
Religious
Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, ADL, Clark University Hillel
and
rabbis and others throughout the state who answered the call
when they
were needed.
Congratulations also to all JALSA members who encouraged
passage of the
Emergency Contraception Bill. Both the Senate and House voted
to
override the Governor's Veto. The bill will require hospital emergency
rooms
to make emergency contraception available to rape survivors.
Emergency
contraception is "the morning after" medication. It is not RU-486
(the abortion pill).
If a woman takes EC during pregnancy, it will not harm
the developing fetus
or cause an abortion. The bill will also allow trained
pharmacists
to dispense EC without a prescription, through a voluntary
collaborative
agreement with a physician. Thank you to our JALSA Task Force
on Health
Care Policy for their efforts. And a special thank you to NARAL
Prochoice Massachusetts,
ACLU, and Planned Parenthood for their leadership on
this issue..
2. PRELIMINARY ELECTION REMINDERS
As a service to our members, knowing how important it is
for all of us to vote,
JALSA has gathered information on Massachusetts cities
to remind
members of local preliminary elections tomorrow and over the next
two weeks..
Primary Election in City of Newton this week, Tuesday,
September 20
Only two candidates in each of
these races may go onto the final election
Candidates for
Mayor:
Thomas Sheff
David B. Cohen
Mike Striar
Candidates for School Committee, Ward 6
.
Andrew Gottlief
Lucia S. Dolan
Claire Sokoloff
Preliminary Election in City of Salem this week,
Tuesday, September 20
Candidates for Mayor:
Stanley
Usovicz
Kevin Harvey
Kim Driscoll
Several other Massachusetts cities have preliminary
elections this week,
Tuesday, October 20. See: http://jewishalliance.org/info/000000a5.htm.
Preliminary Election in City of Boston next week,
Tuesday, September 27
At-large Candidates: 15 candidates are
running for the City Council.
For full list, see www.cityofboston.gov/elections/pdfs/CandidateList9_27_05.pdf.
Only
8 candidates may go on to the final election.
District Candidates:
Only Ward 9 has a 3
candidate race (Allston-Brighton).
Only 2 candidates may go onto the final
election.
see bottom of page: www.cityofboston.gov/elections/pdfs/CandidateList9_27_05.pdf.
All final city elections are on Nov. 8 except
for
Marlborough which is November 1.
Note: October 19 (20 days before the
election)
Last day for registration of voters
for all November 8 city elections.
Who may register to vote
in Massachusetts?
Any resident of Massachusetts who is a US citizen and will
be 18 years old
by the date of the next election may register to
vote.
For additional information about city
elections, see
http://jewishalliance.org/info/000000a5.htm.
3. JALSA and COALITION MEETING CALENDARS
JALSA
Executive Committee
Meetings
Jalsa Office, 18 Tremont Street,
Suite 320 Boston
All 12 noon
Tuesday, October 11
Tuesday, November 1
Tuesday, December 6
Tuesday, January 10
Tuesday, February 7
Tuesday, March 7
Tuesday,
April 4
Tuesday, May 9
Tuesday, June 6
JALSA
Board Meetings
September
29 7:00 pm
1443 Beacon Street, Brookline
First
Floor Lounge
October 20 12:00 noon
JALSA Office
18 Tremont
Street, Boston
November 10 7:00 pm
JALSA Office
18 Tremont
Street, Boston
December 22 12:00 noon
1443 Beacon Street,
Brookline
First Floor Lounge
January 19 7:00 pm
JALSA Office
18 Tremont Street,
Boston
February 16 7:00 pm
Location tba
March 23 12:00 noon
JALSA Office
18 Tremont Street,
Boston
April 27 7:00 pm
Location tba
May 25 12:00 noon
JALSA Office
18 Tremont Street,
Boston
June 15 Board Retreat 6:00 pm
Location tba
Citizens for Public Schools
Annual Meeting Date - November 1
Boston Bar Association
CPS brown bag lunch meetings will be on the first
Thursday of the month
from noon -1:30 PM, unless that is a
holiday.
18 Tremont Street, Boston
October 6
November
3
December 1
January 5
February 2
March 2
April 6
May
4
June 1
Alliance for the Education of the Whole Child
(formerly: Alliance for High Standards NOT High Stakes)
2nd Monday of
the month at 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
18 Tremont Street, Suite
320, Boston
October 10
November 14
December 12
January
9
February 13
March 13
April 10
May 8
June 12
4. HURRICANE RELIEF AGENCIES
A very significant number of the Jews of Greater New Orleans have been
provided refuge
by the Houston Jewish community.
Jewish Federation of
Greater Houston, www.houstonjewish.org.
https://www.houstonjewish.org/onlinegiving.asp.
on-line donations
or send checks to Jewish Federation of Greater Houston
Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund
5603 South Braeswood, Houston,
TX 77096.
Jewish federations around the country are providing millions of dollars to
general relief to
all peoples affected by the disaster.
United Jewish
Communities, Inc.
111 Eighth Ave Ste 11E
New York, NY
10011
https://secure.ujcfederations.org/ft2/form.html?__id=7500.
also:
PO Box 30
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY
10113
212-284-6500
(If you are using a credit card for your donations, note the
following:
American Express has indicated that it will waive it's
normal charges for accepting donations to
a long list of hurricane relief
charities, including the two agencies listed above. In addition,
American
Express will add $1. per transaction for the relief effort through October 31,
2005.
Visa has announced it will waive fees for donations to the American
Red Cross made on
Visa cards.
American Red Cross
www.redcross.org. or calling (800)
HELP-NOW
Locally, both Sovereign Bank and Citizens Bank have indicated a
willingness
to accept donations for the American Red Cross.
ACORN
In Boston, JALSA works closely with ACORN, an
effective urban non-profit that works to organize
low and moderate income
persons to be advocates for improving their neighborhoods and
schools.
Acorn's national headquarters was located in New Orleans, It was
devastated and they are now
setting up a temporary headquarters in Baton
Rouge where they are working to relocate 9000
New Orleans area families. http://acorn.org/index.php?id=9675.
Donations
may be made to https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=36.
Tax-deductible
checks can be sent to: ACORN Institute - Hurricane Recovery and Rebuilding
Fund
739 8th Street SE, Washington, DC 20003
National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting teamed with Wynton Marsalis
this weekend with a concert of
Jazz notables "Live From Lincoln Center."
The Higher Ground Hurricane
Relief Fund was established by Jazz at Lincoln Center
and administered
through the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to benefit the musicians,
music
industry related enterprises and other individuals and entities from the areas
in Greater New Orleans
who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina and to provide
other general hurricane relief.
https://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/HigherGround/katrina_.asp.
or www.jalc.org.
ASPCA, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals
rescuing and rounding up animals, trying to reunite pets to
families:
www.aspca.org/site/PageServer.
Second Harvest of New Orleans and area
donations can be made to www.secondharvest.org/.
(national)
volunteers can email shfb@secondharvest.org.
www.secondharvestersfoodbank.org/.
(direct New Orleans, but still off line)
America's Second
Harvest
35 E Wacker Dr Ste 2000
Chicago, IL
60601
312-263-2303
Bundles from Boston
Boston Lends a Hand
NEW necessities such as
clothing, sneakers, diapers, toiletries,
children's books are needed. All
items donated must be NEW and
clothing must have tags on. Donate items
by Friday, September 23
May be dropped off at all Boston community
centers,
Boston City Hall, and Marine Industrial Park, (12 Channel Street
loading dock)
Jacobs' Ladder: A Relief Project of the Union for Reform
Judaism
Reform Jews across North America are collecting food and
supplies
and shipping them to the Union’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica,
MS.
http://urj.org/relief/jacobsladder/.
Working
in partnership with the town of Utica, the Union and Jacobs Camp
are
operating a staging and distribution center for relief supplies from a
warehouse
provided by the city. The center is collecting supplies (preferably
shrink wrapped
and palletized) and distributing them through a number of
local and regional ministries
and relief centers that serve the greater
Jackson community, the population
of which has doubled with displaced
families since the storm.
Volunteers needed for full one week periods at the
camp: http://urj.org/relief/jacobsladder/volunteer/.
Persons
able to do heavy-lifting needed.
on-line application form: www.urjyouth.org/jlvolunteer/.
Temple B'nai Israel in Baton Rouge opened
its doors and has been
helping hundreds of people who are homeless. They
asked for packages of
clothes - oversized tshirts, shorts,shoes - and baby
items- clothes,
diapers, wipes,formula, bottles, etc. They said if they
received too many
of any item, they would forward them to other
shelters.
You can send packages directly to:Rabbi Weinstein
B'nai
Israel
3354 Kleinert Ave.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Phone is
225-343-0111
Baton Rouge Food Bank
The Food Bank is in crucial need of monetary
and food assistance to help meet significantly
increased needs. In addition
to normal non-perishable food donations and to assist in supplementing
the
meals at the shelters, donate individually wrapped personal servings of chips,
cookies,
granola bars, candy bars, fruit cups and personal serving-sized
bottles of water fruit juices, etc.
Food Bank, 5546 Choctaw Drive,
contact number is 225-359-9940.
Monetary donations can also be made online at
www.brfoodbank.org.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) has established
The NAACP Disaster Relief Fund.
Checks, made payable to 'NAACP Disaster Relief Fund,'
may be mailed to NAACP
Disaster Relief Fund, 4805 Mount Hope Drive Baltimore, Md. 21215.
Call
(410) 580.5125 or (866) 996-2227. Also, visit www.naacp.org.
The Enterprise Corporation of the Delta and the Hope Community
Credit Union will use donated funds
for immediate relief, and then help
people rebuild their homes and businesses in the distressed communities
in
Louisiana and Mississippi where these not-for-profit organizations have been
operating for a dozen years.
Enterprise Corporation of the
Delta
222 North President Street/Suite 200
Jackson, MS
39201
Phone: 601-944-1100; Toll-free: 1-866-THE-DELTA (1-866-843-3358);
FAX: 601-944-0808
Email: info@ecd.org.
.
American Jewish
World Service
45 West 36th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY
10018
800-889-7146
Familiar to us for their outstanding work in Darfur
and other third world locations,
AJWS is providing their knowledge and skills
to this effort
http://www.AJWS.org.
A relief and reconstruction fund
Shefa Fund in conjunction with the
Jewish Fund for Justice
http://www.shefafund.org/.
See a
pdf describing work that will be done with poverty stricken communities
to
contribute: www.shefafund.org/contribute.asp.
for
information:
www.shefafund.org/JFJ%20%20Shefa%20Fund%20Katrina%20PR%209%206%2005.pdf.
United Way of America
701 N. Fairfax Street
Alexandria, VA
22314
703-836-7100
http://national.unitedway.org/katrina/index.cfm.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is estimating that as many as half a
million displaced people
may be in Baton Rouge for up to six months. The
foundation's Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund
is seeking funds to
assist with housing, food and basic necessities for these hurricane refugees. A
second fund,
Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Recovery Fund, will help those who
return to the Greater New Orleans area
get back on their feet. The Baton
Rouge Area Foundation is a non-profit community foundation
comprised of over
300 charitable funds.
Baton Rouge Area Foundation
402 N. Fourth
Street
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802
Phone (225) 387-6126
Toll-free
1(877) 387-6126
Habitat for Humanity
121 Habitat Street
Americus, GA
31709
229-924-6935
www.habitat.org.
Housing offers. MoveOn has the largest housing network operation
running so far,
and the Louisiana state government has endorsed it on their
site (note that all housing shelters
listed for the state of Louisiana are
listed as full). From Noah T. Winer: "In the face of the
enormous tragedy
unfolding in the Southeast, the response from MoveOn members and the
general
public to our volunteer housing efforts has been amazing and
heartwarming.
Since last Thursday, offers of over 150,000 beds have been
posted at www.hurricanehousing.org.
with
over 50,000 of those spots in the Southeast. www.moveon.org.
Tides Foundation: "In the past, Tides has established Rapid
Response Funds for emergencies
(Hurricane Mitch, 9/11, and the recent
tsunami). In each case, we have used the funds to fill in the gaps
where
progressive organizations, community groups or underserved populations are left
marginalized
by the larger relief programs. That is our intent here. We
expect that the bulk of the funds will be used
to support the recovery of
nonprofits that have served the Gulf States for years. Once on their feet,
these
groups will be one of the best ways to aid displaced people in dire
straights. Second, we will be looking
for ways to help undocumented
immigrants and others often left outside government and
Red Cross sponsored
programs. Tides Rapid Response Fund for Hurricane Katrina Relief and
Rebuilding
has been established. www.tidesfoundation.org/RR_0905.cfm.
"
Supporting the AFL-CIO Union Community Fund's special Hurricane Relief
Fund.
Donations will be targeted to meet the most critical needs among
working families.
From the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center: Those of
us fortunate to be outside the
hurricane's path must help and we must help
now. The AFL-CIO's Union Community Fund
has established a special Hurricane
Relief Fund that will target help where it's needed most
by working families.
We are working with the labor federations in affected states and
with relief
organizations to make sure your contributions help brother and sister union
members
whose lives have been turned upside down.
https://secure.ga3.org/08/UCF_Katrina_Relief.
Supporting the local progressive union community coalition.
From
Van Jones, executive director, Ella Baker Center for Human
Rights:
"Community Labor United (CLU), a coalition of the progressive
organizations throughout New Orleans,
has brought community members together
for eight years to discuss socio-economic issues.
We have set up a
People's Hurricane Fund that will be directed and administered by New
Orleans' evacuees.
The Young People's Project, a 501(c)3 organization
formed by graduates of the Algebra Project,
has agreed to accept donations on
behalf of this fund. Donations can be mailed to:
The People's Hurricane
Fund c/o The Young People's Project
99 Bishop Allen
Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
or
The People's Hurricane
Fund
c/o Vanguard Public Foundation (Danny Glover,
Co-chair)
383 Rhode Island St., Ste 301
San Francisco, CA
94103
donate online https://secure.truemajority.org/03/clu/.
5. ARTICLES of INTEREST and CONCERN
Katrina could, should be transformative
Leonard Fein
The Forward,
September, 2005
All the wellsprings of the great deep burst
And the
casements of the heavens were opened. (Gen: 7:11)
In New Orleans, the order was reversed: First it was the casements of the
heavens
that were opened, and only then did the wellsprings of the great deep
burst.
“A flood of Biblical proportions,” many people called the surging
waters of Lake Ponchertrain.
But the truth – even the poetic truth – is quite
different. This was very much
a flood of characteristic American proportions
and of American habits.
Which is to say that the destruction wrought by the flood was about
negligence
over many years and it was about race and it was about poverty.
These are not
the whole of the story, but they are its inescapable and most
miserable aspects.
more..... http://jewishalliance.org/info/000000a1.htm.
Copyright, Leonard Fein, 2005
The Post-Katrina Era
By George Lakoff, AlterNet. Posted September
6, 2005.
Katrina's tragic consequences were not just due to incompetence,
natural disaster,
or Bush policies (though he is accountable). This is a
failure of moral and political philosophy.
Author says we need to return to
our progressive-liberal values, values of empathy and
responsibility..
www.alternet.org/story/25099/ThePost-KatrinaEra.
Bush Administration Decision on Katrina Contracts Adds Insult to
Injury
OFCCP Issues Backhanded Maneuver to Undermine Affirmative
Action
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund/Americans for
a Fair Chance
today sharply criticized the Bush administration's Office of
Federal Contract
Compliance Programs' (OFCCP) decision to grant exemptions
from existing Affirmative Action
Program (AAP) requirements for new federal
contracts dealing with Hurricane Katrina relief.
http://www.civilrights.org/issues/affirmative/details.cfm?id=35648.
Coalition of African American Leaders Call for a Proactive and
Inclusive Agenda
to Address Problems Caused By Katrina. Hurricane relief
efforts should also address
poverty crisis in America. http://www.naacp.org/news/2005/2005-09-16.html.
Note the list of Emergency relief organizations
supplied by
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
during the week of the
Hurricane Katrina.
20 of the 22 organizations listed by this national
government relief agency were religious organizations.
You may note that the
second listing, after the American Red Cross, is for Pat Robertson’s
group,
the same Pat Robertson who called for the assassination of the
Venezuelan president a week earlier.
You may also note that the list does not
include any Jewish or Islamic groups.
http://jewishalliance.org/info/000000a2.htm.
How the Poor Got Trapped
Will Bunch, Attytood
Why was the issue
of getting the poor and the car-less out
of New Orleans treated like there
was no solution, when
there was so much that could have been
done?
Reporter Will Bunch who covers stories for the Philadelphia Daily News
says the subject of how
to get the poor transported out of the City of New
Orleans in the event of a disaster was the
subject of reports and news
coverage months before the hurricane. He states that all levels of
government
and the American Red Cross had said they couldn't take the responsibility for
such
transportation. The poor were on their own. see www.alternet.org/story/25068/.
A Hurricane of Consequences
Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus.
Posted September 4, 2005.
Reporter contends that the Bush administration
decision that most directly contributed to the
high numbers of unnecessary
deaths from Katrina was the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
http://www.alternet.org/story/25041/.
Katrina and the Wetlands
Iraq 100, Louisiana 8
Will Bunch,
Attytood. Posted September 7, 2005.
In April 2004, some of the best minds
who were supposed to be studying and improving
Lousiana's damaged wetlands
instead found themselves in the Persian Gulf -- restoring the Iraqi
marshes.
http://www.alternet.org/story/25107/.
HIAS Advocacy Update, September 16, 2005
In the wake of Hurricane
Katrina, approximately a million people are without permanent housing.
While
many will eventually return to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, many
thousands
will either choose or be forced to settle elsewhere. Given the
significant experience of HIAS
and the other refugee agencies in dealing with
displaced persons and resettlement, we are developing
an immediate as well as
long-term response to this tragedy. A recent New York Times article
included
below discusses the similarity in the needs of many Katrina evacuees
to refugees who, fleeing persecution,
find sanctuary and the opportunity to
rebuild their lives in communities across the United States.
Katrina
displaced both citizens and immigrants alike, creating a variety of
immigration-related problems
for many without permanent residency status in
the U.S. Legislation is currently being pursued to provide
assistance to many
of those whose immigration-proceedings were disrupted - including cases
where
the principal applicant was killed by the hurricane.
To find out how you can
make a difference, go to: http://www.hias.org/Join/join.html.
HIAS
directs us to the following article by James Dao:
NO FIXED ADDRESS
James Dao
New York Times
September 11,
2005
WASHINGTON — The images of starving, exhausted, flood-bedraggled
people
fleeing New Orleans and southern Mississippi over the last two weeks
have scandalized
many Americans long accustomed to seeing such scenes only in
faraway storm-tossed
or war-ravaged places like Kosovo, Sudan or Banda Aceh.
But Hurricane Katrina delivered America
its own refugee crisis, arguably the
worst since Sherman's army burned its way across the South.
And though the
word "refugee" is offensive to some, and not accurate according to international
law,
it conveys a fundamental truth: these are people who will be unable to
return home for months,
possibly years.
more.... http://annotatedtimes.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/5/9/386D97E000119759/.
Two Storms, Ample Warning
William Raspberry, Washington
Post,
Last week brought us one big story -- and one almost
incomprehensibly
huge one. The huge story, of course, is the still-unfolding
devastation of
Hurricane Katrina. The merely big one was a report out of the
Census Bureau
that the number of Americans falling into poverty has increased
again, for
the fourth straight year.
If the two stories have anything in
common it is the willingness of
Americans -- the political majority, the
politicians and the media -- to
ignore clear portents, right up to the point
when disaster strikes.
more..... http://jewishalliance.org/info/000000a3.htm.
Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch
Interview with Buzz
Flash
... the life trajectory of the middle class has changed drastically
in a generation.
Before, you could say, well, I’m going to be a good company
man or woman,
and then I will rise, at least a little bit, in the company,
and eventually retire with
a pension. That’s all over. Now you’re going to
bounce around. There’s going to be
turmoil, and wild fluctuations in your
income. And there’s probably no pension
at the end of the road.
... some coaches and advice books go so far as to say that you control the
universe
with your thoughts. You can have whatever you want if you just think
about it in a
focused enough way. Now, what that says really is that you –
and you alone – are
responsible for your fate. ... If you don’t get a job,
there must be something wrong
with you. So there is a very heavy
blame-the-victim ideology that job seekers encounter
as they reach out for
help.
Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich is a master at putting herself in another's
shoes.
She wrote in Nickel and Dimed of the life she discovered living as a
blue collar worker
cleaning motel rooms and working for Wal-Mart. Now, with
Bait and Switch: The (Futile)
Pursuit of the American Dream, she confronts
the demoralizing job hunting scene experienced
by unemployed, middle class,
middle aged Americans whose dreams and expectations were
founded on rugged
individualism and the bootstraps myth - but whose reality is that they
have
been chewed up and spit out by corporations no longer requiring their services.
It's a
cautionary tale of downsizing, outsourcing, acquisitions and mergers.
But there are alternatives,
if we Americans are ready to remember our other
traditions.
www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/09/int05039.html.
6. JOIN THE JEWISH ALLIANCE
The Jewish Alliance for Law and
Social Action----
dedicated to continuing a
strong, progressive, inter-generational voice
inspired by Jewish teachings
and values for social justice, civil rights, and civil
liberties.
Membership is open to all who wish to work for progressive goals in the development of public policy.
Join us!
Visit www.jewishalliance.org. and fill out the online donation form today!
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