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Who We Are:Executive Director: Sheila Decter JALSA Officers
JALSA works with many coalitions, including:
Educational Coalitions
Learn more about these educational coalitions at www.citizensforpublicschools.org
Ruth B. Balser is a State Representative from Newton. She is currently serving her third term In the Legislature. Her priorities include education, health care and human services, the environment, women’s rights, and economic and social justice. Prior to serving in the State Legislature, Representative Baler served for four terms on the Newton Board of Aldermen, where she served as the Chair for the Public Safety and Transportation Committee and was a founding member of the Newton Child Care Commission. By profession, Rep. Baler is a clinical psychologist with a career that included community mental health, private practice, and managed care. In fact, she is the first psychologist to serve in the Massachusetts Legislature, and has made mental health policy a priority. Rep. Baler is active in the Jewish Community. In addition to serving on the JALSA board, she serves on the Board of the Jewish Community Relations Council. She has traveled to Israel several times in recent years and was involved in the CJP – JCRC Boston-Haifa exchange. Edward J. Barshak as been an attorney since 1949, representing at various times NAACP, CORE, the Commonwealth of Mass. and many individuals in both civil rights and civil liberties matters; former counsel to the New England Region of the American Jewish Congress and former President of the Boston Bar Association. Ruth R. Budd practiced law for over 30 years, almost all of which was in the area of family law. Ms. Budd was a partner in the law firm of Hemenway & Barnes and retired from the practice of law in 1999. She is a graduate of Smith College, Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Boston College Law School. Ms. Budd chaired both the Family law Section of the Boston Bar Association and the Family Law Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, served as President of the Massachusetts chapter from 1992-93 and has served on its National Board of Governors. For over 20 years Ms. Budd chaired the Divorce Law Basics program for Mass. Continuing Legal Education and wrote Budd on Divorce Law Basics, which was revised annually and served as the written material for this annual course. She is the co-editor of Mass. Divorce Law Practice Manual, a 4-volume treatise. She has lectured and authored material for numerous educational programs and was listed annually in The Best Lawyers in America Ms. Budd was member of the Commission of Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress, JALSA's predecessor, since 1968. Harriette L. Chandler (D-Worcester) was first elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in November of 2000 She serves as Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development, as Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee Transportation, and as a member of the Committee on Long Term Debt, the Joint Committees on Health Care, the Joint Committee on Public Safety, the Joint Committee on Energy and the Joint Committee on Counties. The first woman from Worcester ever to be elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, she served three terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1995-2001. In her last two terms in the House she served as House Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care. She also served on the Worcester School Committee from 1991-1994. Senator Chandler earned degrees from Wellesley College (B.A.), Clark University (Ph.D.) and the Simmons College Graduate School of Management (M.B.A.). She is married to Worcester attorney Burton Chandler and has three grown children. Senator Chandler is a member of the Central Massachusetts Caucus, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Tobacco Control Caucus, the Worcester Economic Development Council, the City Task Force on Crisis Management, and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on At-Risk Youth, the United Way of Central Massachusetts, the Worcester Women’s History Project, the Worcester Democratic City Committee and the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee. Joel Eigerman has been a civil litigator in Boston for 35 years. A graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he has served as a law clerk to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and as a disciplinary hearing officer for the Board of Bar Overseers for two terms. As a member of JALSA and, previously, of the American Jewish Congress, he has chaired both the Committee on Law and Social Action and JALSA’s weekly working group meeting. He has authored several briefs amicus curiae for both organizations, and has been active primarily on issues regarding education, the separation of church and state, and threats to civil liberties. In addition to his work with JALSA, Mr. Eigerman has for many years served as an alumni admissions interviewer for applicants to Harvard College, and for several years has chaired the interview group for Cambridge. Ellen Feingold, President of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, oversees one of the largest non-profit developers and managers of supportive housing for low-income elderly in the country. She recently served as President of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, and as Co-Chair of the U.S. Commission on Affordable Housing and Health Facility Needs for Seniors in the 21st Century. Formerly, she served at the Assistant Secretary level in the Carter Administration as Director of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Civil Rights. Ellen also served as the lobbyist for the Massachusetts’ Special Legislative Commission on Low Income Housing, which in 1965, produced the groundbreaking legislative package that put our state in the forefront of efforts to produce low-income housing. Ellen served as Chair of the New England American Jewish Congress Commission on Law and Social Action, and was one of the founding forces leading to the creation of JALSA. Andrew Fischer has been practicing civil rights law since 1983. He is the chair elect of the Civil Rights Litigation Section of the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) and is active in the National Police Accountability Project of the National Lawyers Guild. (NPAP) He has authored amicus curia briefs on civil liberties issues for NPAP, on first amendment religious issues for the American Jewish Congress and on property rights and public environmental issues for the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (Massbike) . Mr. Fischer is a past president and long time board member of Massbike. In addition to civil rights law, Mr. Fischer is also involved in bicycle advocacy and related environmental advocacy. Fischer chairs JALSA’s Judicial Appointments committee and his primary involvement with JALSA is in the areas of judicial nominations and protection of the integrity of the courts and the judicial system. Franklin M. Fisher is the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Economics at MIT, where he has taught for more than 40 years. He is a past president of the New England Region of the American Jewish Congress and a former national president and current board member of the New Israel Fund. For over a decade, Professor Fisher has been the Chair of an international project on the economics of water in the Middle East that is facilitated by the government of The Netherlands and involves Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, Dutch, and American experts. In 2001, Professor Fisher received an honorary doctorate from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barbara Gaffin has worked in the Jewish community since 1976, including 18 years at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and six years at the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in Washington, DC. As a veteran activist on behalf of Ethiopian Jews and Jews from the former Soviet Union, Barbara traveled to Ethiopia with a group of American Jews in 1981 as part of an historic visit to that country, and later led a mission with the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry. Barbara's work with Soviet Jews continued at the JCRC where she managed the highly successful Boston Jewish community sister city program - the Dnepropetrovsk Kehillah Project. Barbara is currently the Principal of Gaffin Consulting, which specializes in local, national, and international project management in the public interest. Mary Ann Hardenbergh has been an activist in public education since the late 60's . She participated as a volunteer in the Boston Public Schools for 34 years, as a member and chair of the Mass. State Board of Education for 10 years, co-chair and founding member of Citizens for Public Schools and chair of the Mass. Coalition for Equitable Education, two of our JALSA sponsored coalitions. She was one of the founders of the Great Boston Civil Rights Coalition and Council for Fair School Finance (group behind the McDuffy Mass. Supreme Court school finance equity decision and presently in court as the Hancock case). She is presently employed as the Elder Health Specialist at Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), with a focus on healthy eating and exercise, elder assertiveness and elimination of racial disparities in healthcare in collaboration with other advocacy organizations. She chairs the Boston Elder Commission's Health and Longterm Care Task Force and is a member of the Community Advisory Committee of the Boston Public Health Commission. Mary Ann has been a longtime Unitarian Universalist and is very involved in social action at Arlington Street Church and the Urban Ministry. Mary Ann was a strong supporter in the creation of JALSA and participates in a broad range of interfaith efforts to achieve social justice. Kay Khan is the State Representative for the 11th Middlesex District in Newton, Massachusetts. Kay has lived in Newton for 33 years and is a practicing psychiatric nurse clinical specialist. Throughout her career in the Legislature, she has been a leading voice on issues relating to mental health care, health care access, public education, expanding affordable housing and human services. Kay has also established a strong record of support for improvements in transportation, the environment and public safety, particularly through progressive policies affecting incarcerated women and their children and correctional mental health services. She is a member of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Human Services and Elderly Affairs and the Joint Committee on Local Affairs. Kay is a member of the Caucus of Women Legislators, a member of the Caucus Steering Committee and for many years, the Chair of its Task Force on Criminal Justice and Substance Abuse. Through the Task Force, Rep. Khan established a working group on women in the criminal justice system with legislators, advocates, academics and community leaders who share an interest in establishing policy to help the women who enter the corrections system. Jay Kaufman has served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since January 1995. His primary interests are education, health care, campaign reform, and social and economic justice. He chaired a special task force that developed landmark legislation on medical records privacy, a committee examining the social and ethical implications of emerging genetic technology, and a special commission that explored alternatives to property taxes to fund public schools. During his freshman term, he broke a six-year logjam to win passage of the Rivers Act, a major environmental protection bill. He has sponsored tax reform legislation and secured increased budgetary support for METCO, the state’s premier racial desegregation program. Jay led the legislative fight to pass and implement the state’s campaign finance reform law. Prior to entering the political arena, Jay founded and, for 14 years directed, the Massachusetts Bay Consortium, an association of eighteen colleges and universities developing interdisciplinary environmental courses and promoting sound environmental policies and practices. David P. Linsky is a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives representing Natick, Sherborn and Millis. A Democrat, Rep. Linsky is in his third term. A practicing attorney, he is a graduate of Colby College and Boston College Law School. He served as an Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County for fourteen years prior to his election to the Massachusetts House in 1999. He currently serves as a Member or the Joint Committees on Criminal Justice and the Judiciary. He is the co-chairman of the House MetroWest Caucus and is a co-founder of the House Democratic Council. He has been honored with awards from the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts School Counselors Association. Laurence Locke had been an active member of New England AJCongress from 1946:--on. With Gerald Berlin and Ed Barshak, they led AJC in pioneering Massachusetts civil rights legislation. They developed the CLSA (Committee on Law and Social Action) which has been the center of Congress activity in New England. Mr. Locke served as President of the region between 1964-1968. He has continued his activity with JALSA from the start. Mr. Locke is also a lawyer, having specialized in workers' compensation, focusing on medical care and financial support for workers disabled from occupational diseases, such as silicosis, asbestosis, He wrote the textbook on Massachusetts Compensation law. He has been a progressive activist on many issues and with many organizations in the Boston area. Currently in addition to his role in JALSA he serves on the Executive Committee of Haymarket Peoples Fund. Jim Marzilli is in his seventh term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, representing Arlington and West Medford. He led the successful fights that gave Massachusetts the highest minimum wage in the nation, restored the capital gains tax, expanded the earned income tax credit, and provided tax relief for low-income seniors paying high property taxes. He wrote the laws that led to the abolition of county government in Massachusetts. Jim was named “Legislator of the Year” by the Environmental League of Massachusetts in 2001 for his groundbreaking work in linking environmental concerns and tax policy. He coordinates a growing sister city relationship based on sustainable development between seven cities in the Boston area and four cities in Brazil, Thailand and South Africa. Jim is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center and the Forum on Democracy and Trade. Mark A. Michelson has recently retired as a senior partner in the Boston law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart, where he had practiced litigation since 1963 and was Chairman of the firm's Litigation Department. Mr.. Michelson had also been General Counsel and President of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and continues to be on its Board of Directors and a Trustee of its Foundation. He was also President of Citizens Housing and Planning Association, Chairman of the Commission on Law & Social Action of the New England Region of the American Jewish Congress, Chairman of the Committee on Town Organization and Structure of the Town of Brookline and Chairman of a number of Moderator's Committees of the Town. He is also on the Management Committee of the Supreme Judicial Court Law Clerks Association. One of the founders of JALSA, Mr.. Michelson is on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. Phillip Sego is a political marketing consultant specializing in electronic participation and activism. He is JALSA’s webmaster, as well as the webmaster of a number of prominent elected representatives and local organizations. He has also created internet strategies for congressional, state, and local races. Mr. Sego is one of the founders of JALSA and has served on its executive committee. He has served on the board of the American Jewish Congress (New England Region). He was one of the authors of Cambridge’s landmark “Growth Management Petition.” Mr. Sego is currently spearheading the effort to update the Massachusetts Bottle Bill. Jeff Stone has been Advocacy & Public Policy Coordinator for the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts since 2000. Jeff initiated and is currently leading a coalition of organizations that are organizing the City-Wide Dialogues on Boston's Ethnic & Racial Diversity which will entail four-session community dialogues in every Boston neighborhood between Fall 2003 and Spring 2004. His volunteer activities include chairing the Milton No Place for Hate program, serving as a Town Meeting Member and serving on the board of the Irish Immigration Center where he works closely with the Center’s Cross-Cultural Program. He also writes occasional health-care articles as a freelance. Jeff received a BA degree from Colby College, an MBA degree from Boston University and has worked in the fields of public health research and health care management. Bernard Wax is the Director Emeritus of the American Jewish Historical Society and currently serves as its Deputy Director (Massachusetts). A long time advocate of civil rights, stemming from his student days at the University of Chicago, he belongs to a number of such organizations. He has served as treasurer of the New England Region of the American Jewish Congress and was one of the founding members of JALSA. Alice Wolf is the State Representative from the 25th Middlesex District in Cambridge, Mass. having previously served Cambridge as Mayor, City Councilor, and member of the School Committee. Alice is an established advocate for children, working people and families in need. She is a member of the Joint Committee on Education, Arts & Humanities and the Committee on House Ways and Means. She has often led in the fight for civil and human rights issues, initiating both the Cambridge Human Rights and Domestic Partnership Ordinances. She also fought against the reinstatement of the death penalty and for support of legal immigrants when their federal funding was cut. Born in Austria, Rep. Alice Wolf came to America with her family, fleeing the Nazi regime. She earned a B.S. from Simmons College, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2001, Alice received an honorary Doctor of Education degree from Wheelock College. In 1997, she received a Flemming Fellowship from the Center for Policy Alternatives. She also served as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard in 1994. Alice Wolf has received many distinguished honors and awards as a result of her legislative record.
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