The Department of Theology and Religious
Studies, which I happen to be close with,
for co-sponsoring with us
on this exciting event.
Founded in 2008,
this great program on Jewish Studies and
Social Justice is the first and
only program,
formally linking Jewish studies
with social justice in the world.
In addition to offering numerous courses
related to this interdisciplinary field,
courses such as Social Justice,
Activism, and Jews,
the Jewish American Experience
Through Graphic novels,
Forgiving the Unforgivable.
That was a shout out to you guys.
Jews, Judaisms, and Jewish identities.
As well as three new courses
being launched this fall.
Refugees and Justice,
Funny Jews and Queering Religion.
Our program offers a minor in JSSJ,
the only minor of its kind.
We also offer a number of annual events.
Each fall semester, we have a speaker
series related to Jewish identities,
highlighting the rich diversity of
Jews in terms of ethnicity, gender,
national sensibilities, sex.
During this three part lecture series,
we will hear from nationally renowned
scholars about the history of
Jewish Christian relations
in three distinct periods.
The ancient period, lecture called,
The Embarrassing Bible.
Ancient Jews and Christians on
the Disappointment of Scripture by Dr.
Eva Mrocek from UC Davis.
Medieval Period,
The Importance of Households for
Understanding Medieval Jewish Christian
Relations by Dr. Deena Aranoff from GTU,
UC Berkeley and The Contemporary
Lecture: A Gift for the Jewish People.
The Yiddish New Testament and
the 20th-century Mission to the Jews,
delivered by Dr. Naomi Seidman,
also from UCB and GTU.
Last but not least,
on Thursday, April, 13th,
the 8th Annual Social Justice Passover
Seder will be led in partnership with
Bend the Arc, the social justice
organization that our lecturer
tonight Stosh Cotler is the CEO of and
we'll learn more about.
As well as acclaimed writer and
poet, Andrew Ramer.
Who will together lead us in a standard
journey focused on the imperative
to treat all of those living in the United
States regardless of their documentation
with justice.
Now let us begin tonight's
program officially.
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis,
the human species is described as starting
off with what we might very generously
call, on starting off on the wrong foot.
Adam and Eve's two children,
Qayin vi Hevel, Cain and Abel have some
sorta problem which results in the older
brother murdering the younger one.
There are many interesting pieces of this
scenario but I'd like to touch on one.
After Cain carries out this heinous act,
God asks Cain about his
brother's whereabouts.
Cain impudently replies,
am I my brother's keeper?
Now from a modern day vantage point,
the character in the story named God,
Adonai Elohim, created the universe.
Including the planet earth just
a few short chapters prior.
Given God's ability to create existence
as we know it, it seems highly plausible
that God already knew Abel's whereabouts
before asking Cain where he was.
As God's question,
where's your brother, was rhetorical.
And Cain's response,
am I my brother's keeper,
was also rhetorical and
we answer with a resounding yes.
The question of whether or not each one of
us is responsible to our fellow human is
not a mere theoretical question.
It plays out in each of our
lives everyday of the year.
The person living on the San Francisco
street asking for assistance.
We all too often pretend not to notice.
The stories we read in the daily paper or
see on Facebook and other forms of social
media about unjust things happening in
our city, our state, our country, or
somewhere else entirely, all these
instances of injustice are interconnected.
All these daily occurrences
are underherded by the idea of
intersectionality.
The notion that all forms of oppression,
all forms of destruction
are interconnected.
Judging a sister by
the color of her skin is
akin to judging a brother
by its sexual orientation.
Mistreating a woman because
of her ethnicity is akin
of mistreating a brother
because of his nationality.
Yet, intersectionality is not just
about how all forms of justice and
injustice are interrelated.
How the structures of oppression of
one group are linked to the oppression
of another group.
It's also about how the only way to
move things forward is to consider one
another as integral pieces of a puzzle.
Whether a student or professor,
activist or organizer, 20 something or
80 something, all of us have the role
to play in taking responsibility for
improving our world.
For working to transform
the what-it-is into what-can-be.
An unrepentant modern day prophet,
Bella Abzug, said the following.
Women's struggle for
equality worldwide is about more
than equality between men and women.
Our struggle is about reversing
the trends of social, economic,
political and ecological crisis.
A global nervous breakdown.
Our struggle is about creating
sustainable lives and
obtainable dreams, and never forget,
we women are half the human race.
With this in mind, it's my pleasure to
introduce to you tonight Stosh Cotler,
who will be delivering our
Seventh Annual Social Justice Lecture,
our previous lectures have been
delivered by Peter Geffen, Ronit Avni,
Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Rabbi Anat Hoffman,
Rabbi Andrew Sachs, and Dr. Chen Alon.
Stosh Cotler is one of the most important
voices in the Jewish community today.
As CEO of Bend the Arc, the leading
progressive Jewish organization,
working to make this nation one which
honors the dignity of all communities.
She's currently at the forefront
of advancing civil and
human rights in the United States.
More than 25 years of leadership
experience as an educator, trainer, and
organizer within social and
economic justice movements.
Cotler has worked in such issues
as domestic worker's rights,
gender-based violence prevention,
immigration reform,
marriage equality,
voting rights, and on and on.
Both expanding social awareness of the
inequity of those living on the margins,
and implementing social change to
transform communities into their
potential.
It's my pleasure to introduce
you to Stosh Cotler and
at the request of Rabbi Sydney Mintz, an
important member of the board of directors
of Bend the Arc, let me also introduce
you to the shoes of the new revolution.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Good evening.
>> Good evening.
>> Good evening.
>> It is an incredible honor to be here.
Thank you so much, Aaron,
for that introduction, and
first, I just wanna reiterate
Bend the Arc is a national Jewish
organization focusing on the most
consequential basic civil and
human rights issues happening
in our country, racial justice,
economic inequality,
LGBT rights, immigration reform.
We are truly working to save the
progressive soul of the American-Jewish
community, and we're gonna be able to tell
you more about that after the lecture.
And it is just an incredible
gift to be with you tonight.
I wanna say, first, I came up as an
organizer, and so, I've done one to ones.
I've facilitated group meetings,
I've spoken publicly many times,
I've spoken at synagogues.
I have never, before tonight,
given a lecture.
So tonight will be the first,
a little Shekhiyanu might be
>> [LAUGH]
>> In order.
And I'm pleased that tonight the topic and
the title of this lecture is
a practice of every day revolution,
reclaiming Jewish communal
purpose in the age of Trump.
There's a story from Vilna Ghetto about
the hidden power of our tradition.
The story takes place in World War II
as the Nazis assumed power over all
of Europe.
Vilna had been a cultural capital and
was home to a famous printing press that
printed important editions of holy and
ancient Jewish texts.
Now, like many of the ghettos,
it was also home to Jewish resistance.
The story goes that resistance
fighters had to resort to melting
down the lead Hebrew letters
of the printing press to make
the bullets they needed to fight
the Nazis, and to survive.
It's an apocryphal story,
it most likely never took place.
But it's immortalized in
a poem by Abraham Sutzkever.
I hope I have pronounced
that name correctly.
And the poem is as follows.
Letter by melting letter the lead
liquefied bullets, gleamed with thoughts:
a verse from Babylon, a verse from Poland,
seething, flowing into the one mold.
Now must Jewish grit,
long concealed in words,
detonate the world in a shot.
Like may stories from this time
in our history, the tales and
myths are starkly terrifying and deeply
inspiring, and it teaches us something.
It teaches us that even in
the bleakest of times, our words and
our wisdom can serve as
the substance of our survival.
That they can be tools of the resistance.
And we can even melt this story,
itself, down.
Repurpose it,
like the lead from the printing press,
take its embedded insight, and
form it into something new.
Something new to face our current reality,
and rebuild our future.
This is what I wanna
talk about this evening.
The many, many ways in which our
tradition is, and can be, revolutionary.
The ways that we, as Jews,
can, and truly must,
draw on our prophetic inheritance and
put it to work right now.
The interpretation of our texts,
traditions, practices, codes, cultures,
and identity are widely debated.
For every rabbi who holds a verse from
Torah to elevate notions of social
justice, there is another rabbi who can
counterpoint with a different verse,
amplifying the world view,
that is anything but just.
I would contend, however, surprise,
surprise, Stosh Cotler been here,
that Jewishness and
the Jewish identity, Jewish practice,
Jewish wisdom, has a subversive,
even radical orientation,
that lives within the fabric
of our holiest teachings, and
consequently lives in our
peoples' spiritual DNA.
I believe that the very experience
of being Jewish, and doing Jewish,
in 2017, is at its heart,
a practice of everyday revolution.
We are living an unprecedented and
historic moment in America.
A moment when minority communities are
under attack from the most powerful voices
in the land, and the same powerful
voices that are sworn to protect them.
At a moment when antisemitism has moved
aggressively out of the shadows, and
Jewish reporters and
activists had been threatened
with insults, injury, and death.
A moment when the progress, many of
you in this audience fought to win,
and others of us have benefited
from our entire lives,
such as women's reproductive health
an autonomy, that progress is now at risk.
These rollbacks are egregious and
they deserve our full and
unabiding attention.
Yet, what makes this moment unprecedented
isn't the conservative nature of these
attacks on the civil rights
of communities of color,
immigrant communities, Muslim communities,
Jewish communities, communities of
people with disabilities, women.
We've always lived in a country whose
origins are inextricably linked to our
current moment, to violence that has never
been acknowledged, let alone healed.
Whether we consider the founding
violence to Indigenous nations and
Native Americans, or the devastation
of slavery and unending Jim Crow.
Those histories, and so many others,
continue to shape our national identity,
our collective American story,
and all notions of freedom,
prosperity, and human dignity.
What is altogether different are the
serious challenges to our democracy
itself.
We just went through the first
presidential election since
the Civil Rights era without the full
protections of the Voting Rights Act.
Which resulted in 868 polling
places closed in states that were
previously subject to federal oversight,
a crystal clear case of voter suppression.
We now have our elected officials
promoting alternative facts and
outright lying on a daily basis.
We are seeing the vilification
of our free press.
There are government servants who
attended conferences related to
climate change who have been put on lists.
There was an attempt to unlawfully
use the executive branch to
ban Muslims from entering
the United States.
And of course, this goes on and
on, hour by hour, day by day.
We have an administration that is quickly
consolidating power into a very small and
quite unorthodox configuration,
while creating confusion and
conflict between branches of government,
between citizens and
the government, and between our
government and the wider world.
It is my opinion that these are all tests.
We are all being tested.
We're being tested to see if we notice
how quickly our rights are being eroded.
We're being tested to see
how strongly we will resist.
We're being tested to see how long
it will take to wear us down.
They're testing to see how much and
how quickly they can shift
the ground under our feet and
remove the features of our democracy that
we rely on for due process, checks and
balances, and the retention of our basic
civil liberties and constitutional rights.
This is not normal, and
this is not partisan.
Democrats, Republicans,
Independents, Greens,
Libertarians, all of us
should be concerned.
We cannot afford to
respond in ordinary ways.
We cannot live with the cost and
the consequences of silence.
In this historic moment in America, we
need to access and embrace the values and
practices of our Jewish tradition that
I believe are designed for survival.
Are designed to speak truth to power.
Are designed to be a moral
light in the wilderness.
This is the time for Jews to unleash
our revolutionary tradition.
I'm gonna explore this idea
from four perspectives tonight.
First, let's look at where these concepts
are embedded in our tradition, and
what we can learn by excavating them.
Then, let's consider how well our
community is doing at embodying
these values, or perhaps,
how not well we're doing.
Third, I wanna dig in more deeply on why
this idea of countercultural Judaism is so
badly needed right now and
what's truly at stake.
And last I want to discuss
what this could look like
by looking at ten ways our community and
institutions can put our prophetic
values to work in this critical time.
So let's start with our tradition.
This evening,
I'd like us to explore the possibility
that many authentic expressions of our
tradition are inherently counter-cultural,
and therefore relatively radical.
And in ways we don't often consider,
and also in
ways that will help us overcome the
dangers of our political reality today.
Let's take three examples,
I'll start with Shabbat.
Shabbat is the weekly practice
of sanctifying time and
creating the conditions that allow us to
experience a taste of heaven, as they say.
When observed regularly, and of course
there are many, many ways to observe
Shabbat, Shabbat can bring about
a shift in every day consciousness.
It can be a powerful sustainability
practice for individuals and for
the community, and Shabbat helps us
balance the dual needs of work and rest.
This is a brilliant concept in general.
But think about how game changing it
must have been to assert years and
years ago, that slaves and animals,
in addition to the wealthy and
owning class,
had a sacred right to a day of rest.
In today's terms,
that would be as extreme as extending a
guaranteed day off to all service workers.
No operating bus or subway access,
no police available for
non life threatening situations,
no domestic workers to care for
our children or elderly family members.
It would present many of us with
a new set of inconveniences.
And more incredible,
is that it would assert the equal value of
the people doing those
absolutely incredible jobs.
While I personally have often thought
about Shabbat as a restorative practice,
it is also a great equalizing practice.
And that is a radical idea.
I'll use the Talmud as my second
example of revolutionary Judaism.
The Talmud, a central text of
Rabbinic Judaism, is written
such that multiple arguments or points of
view are given alongside one another and
codified together on the same exact page.
What does this show us and tell us.
It implores us actually to
recognize the value and
the necessity of the minority opinion.
And it allows the future leader to
remember the minority view when grappling
with current challenges.
If we were to extend this
philosophy to social norms,
we can imagine then a society that values
inclusivity and diversity of opinion,
at every single level.
Picture our communal institutions,
our private enterprises,
and our government embodying the true
diversity of the American population.
And that too is
an absolutely radical idea.
And third, for my example, I'd like
to talk about the Biblical concept
of Shmitah, which literally is
a word that means release and
is the extension of the concept of
the Sabbath into the broader economy.
Every seven years,
a range of agricultural and
economic correctives are made
in order to recalibrate society.
Debts are forgiven,
land ownership Is relinquished, and
society experiences a collective reset.
What is the effect of that
communal recalibration?
Well, it inoculates against
runaway inequality, and
makes an agricultural
society more sustainable.
Today, in our modern economy,
Americans are drowning in debt.
Poor people and middle class people are
living in cycles of debt dependence and
paying exorbitant interest
rates to get basic needs met.
Whether those include putting food
on the table, visiting a doctor, or
getting a college education, which we know
is the single most significant indicator
of entering into the middle class.
Think about those who
resort to taking payday or
car title loans often at
triple digit interest rates.
Or your children or some of us who carry
student loan debt that will follow you,
us, me for decades.
Shmitah would literally change
the course of our lives.
And I haven't even begun to talk
about what it could look like for
private property redistribution, which
would truly be all together game changing.
So I think it's fascinating and
it's notable that I haven't even
mentioned the ancient Prophets.
And while I do, do truly feel passionately
moved by the agitations of Isaiah,
and Miriam, and Amos, and
Jeremiah, it's interesting to
note that no one need to seek out the
Prophets themselves to find the prophetic
wisdom embedded in the mainstream,
the actual mainstream of our tradition.
Similarly I haven't begun to talk about
the more recent prophetic leaders,
who we as American Jews often call on for
their moral clarity,
in the face of the biggest
injustices of our modern world.
I'm talking about the words and
actions of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Rabbi Joachim Prinz, and
other rabbis of the civil rights era.
And I'm talking about the innovative
labor leaders, like Rose Schneiderman,
Betty Friedan, and
the groundbreaking Bella Abzug.
Women who should be celebrated
in American-Jewish culture, but
are sadly often forgotten.
Our tradition is just so very rich, and
we have inherited such a precious gift.
So there's so much more we could
actually dig into and discuss, but
now I want to turn to the next question,
which is how are we doing
at being spiritual revolutionaries and
prophetic rabble rousers?
And this slide says, how well is our
community embodying these values?
Are we as a community actually embodying
this subversive tradition we've inherited?
Do our institutions and Jewish
organizations provide a new generation
of American Jews with an empathetic,
morally courageous community,
that lives out the radical teachings
of our tradition in service
to transforming this very shattered world?
I would argue that our
communal institutions are not
succeeding in transmitting
the most compelling and
often the most agitational
teachings of our ancestors.
Our community is not providing
enough opportunities for
Jews to experience this
underdog wisdom and world view.
And I believe that this is,
in part, actually,
I believe it's much of the reason
that too many younger Jews, and
even some older Jews, are staying
away from Jewish institutional life.
We know that American Jews
continue to hold solidly
progressive views on the most
pressing social issues of our nation.
From the systemic erosion of our
democracy, to economic inequality,
to mass incarceration to the full
LGBTQ rights and on and on.
I don't believe we see the set of issues
reflected enough in our communal agenda.
For example, when an elected official is
taking meetings with the Jewish community,
I put that in quotes for
those of you listening on radio, taking
meetings with the quote Jewish community.
And asked what the Jewish community
cares about and wants to talk about,
how often is that elected official met
by their Jewish constituents who respond
fighting for racial justice is
a top priority for our community?
I'd like to hear your platform on racial
equality for our city, what is it?
We know that 81% of American Jews favor
higher tax rates for the top income
earners, because we know this will help
preserve our precious safety net program.
While several communal institutions do an
absolutely incredible job providing social
safety services and even advocating for
social safety net services in DC.
They end up being silent on
actual issues of taxation,
the very revenue source that
supports these programs.
We know that a majority, 56%,
of American Jews says that working for
justice and equality is the essence
of what it means to be Jewish.
I would challenge us to look through
the budgets, the programming, and
advocacy of our communal institutions
to see if 56% of their efforts
contribute toward working for
justice and equality.
They don't, and I would ask us, why not?
We know that a majority of American Jews,
individual Jews,
76% of us who voted, voted against
President Trump in the 2016 election.
Because we heard in his rhetoric
echoes of the most painful chapters
of the Jewish experience.
Some Jewish organizations,
Bend the Arc, Jewish Action included,
responded with everything we had.
The Anti-Defamation League made
powerful and brave statements,
to call it antisemitism and
anti-Muslim bigotry.
Yet at key moments when foundational
American principles of religious
liberty and
non-discrimination were under attack,
many of our largest communal institutions,
and our umbrella organizations,
were mostly silenced just when their
voices and power were needed most.
That contributes to a very dangerous
public narrative in our country
about what Jews care about and how you
leverage what political power we have.
I want to emphasize that I said
many institutions, not all, and
I wanna specifically recognize
the commitment of the local JCRC of
San Francisco, the Peninsula,
Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, and
Contra Costa Counties, to speaking out
against the rhetoric, and the bigotry, and
racial injustice underlying our
nation's politics and policy.
So yasher koach, Amen, way to go,
thank you so much, and let's keep going.
But my overall point stands
which is as a larger community,
our institutions,
the institutions that claim to speak for
all of us in this room, have backed away
from our authentic and radical roots.
And I, and I hope we,
have to ask ourselves why.
As large majorities of the American Jewish
population have grown more affluent,
more integrated in the American power
structure, taking up formal positions of
leadership in finance, culture,
business, and government.
Have our Jewish institutions become out
of sync with individual American Jews?
In an effort to preserve this
relatively newfound power,
even if it doesn't represent the views and
values of the majority of Jews,
including many of those individual Jews
who hold those positions of power.
Again, we know from
the data I just shared,
individuals Jews have remained
a staunchly liberal constituency.
It's the organizations that claim to
represent us that have gone silent or
moved vocally and
publicly to the political right.
Is this act of being of an agitator or
a prophet or a rabble rouser,
is that only possible for
people who are structurally disempowered?
Does success and prosperity
automatically defang the underdog?
Or are we as a people as brave and
as willing to fight
injustice as we ever were?
And it's time we demand that our
Jewish communal institutions
reflect the world view and
the will of our community.
We are facing a crisis not
just in our nation's politics,
but within our own community.
We are facing what I consider to be
a crisis of Jewish communal purpose.
I say communal purpose because despite how
well-organized our community is, despite
the influence we are able to wield,
institutionally, we have lost our way.
In the dangerous days ahead,
the distance between the views of a
majority of American Jews and the communal
institutions that claim to represent
us only threatens to grow larger.
If we're not leveraging our collective
resources for good, and let's be clear
that the resources that are often bound up
in those Jewish institutions, who are we?
What do we stand for?
What has our history taught us?
And why be Jewish in America today?
And here I wanna transition
to my third point,
which is why this is the time for
Jews to unleash our underdog tradition.
As I alluded to earlier, we are contending
with a tsunami of conservatism,
coupled with an impending slide
towards authoritarianism.
We are also living in a moment
where our country is grappling with
some existential questions of
national identity and power.
Who is an American?
Whose America is this?
Whose life matters?
And whose lives matter much, much less?
These national challenges and
questions of our national identity
require a response from our community.
They require a response from us.
This is a moment to sound the alarm and
take action with everything we've
got as individuals and as a community
represented by public Jewish institutions.
To be Jewish in America's today is to be
living in a moment that calls out for
a practice of everyday revolution,
plain and simple.
To be Jewish in America today means
embracing an authentic Jewish identity.
That process, in fact, demands as
to resist demagoguery and journey.
To be Jewish in America today, we must
fortify ourselves for the long haul,
through word and deed that reflects
our tradition's deepest ideals, and
paints an irresistibly beautiful picture
of the future we are working towards.
These are some of the pictures of
the future I wanna be part of.
When Jews are back, back acting on
the front lines within multiracial,
multi-faith, multi-class coalitions,
making real tangible changes that
improve the every day lives of
people living in this country.
When we create sacred community that
feeds our souls and helps us live
into our greatest aspirations as ethical
people building a more ethical world.
When we understand ourselves to be a
multiracial and multi-ethnic community and
support the league and what it has stood
for and whose stories of survival and
resilience are absolutely
necessary in these times.
This is what it means to
be Jewish in America today.
We Jews have been at the forefront of
every significant social justice struggle
in the United States for
the last few centuries,
from labor organizing to suffrage
to civil rights to women's rights.
Why back down now?
A generation from tonight,
a generation from tonight,
when our grandchildren ask us what
happened in this chapter of history,
when they ask us how Jews responded,
we must be able to say we used every
tool every, avenue every ounce
of Jewish communal resources to
resist these unacceptable times.
We will not silently
inherit this nightmare.
We will fight for
justice because that is what it
means to be Jewish in America today.
>> [APPLAUSE]
[APPLAUSE]
>> I wanna move into the final part of my
talk this evening and
I wanna share with you what my vision for
our Jewish community is in this moment and
into the 21st century.
I have a vision that we as a Jewish people
will boldly face this new reality and
mount the all hands on deck
response that is called for.
That we will mobilize in the streets and
speak truth in the halls of power.
That we will give our time,
our money, our hearts,
to resisting the journey that [inaudible].
To accomplish this, at Bend the Arc
we've proposed the following framework.
I'll read these out loud for those of
you that are listening on a radio.
All Jews, first, so there's 10 options.
We like to have options,
on your way in, okay?
So we have 10 of them.
One, that all Jews and all Jewish
organization have roles to play.
That's an assertion that we have.
Number two, that we need to amplify
the voices of prophetic vision and
moral courage.
Number three, speak truth about
what we're seeing, by calling out
the dangers of undiscerning nationalism
and the rise of a new kind of fascism.
Number four, deepen relationships and
joint broad coalitions with
the most vulnerable members of
society currently facing the most
frontline consequences beyond
the frontlines of hatred and bigotry.
Number five, expose and
dismantle white supremacy.
Number six, use inside and outside power.
Number seven, be prepared and
willing to escalate.
Number eight, find new ways to work
together across our communal divides.
Number nine,
help Jews take action as Jews.
And number ten,
put Jewish financial resources to work
towards building the future we want.
So let me explain what I mean
by a bunch of this steps.
The first all Jews and all Jewish
organizations have roles to play.
We must each determine what
our greatest contribution
can be towards achieving
the vision of our country and
our world that uphold the Jewish values
of equity, justice, and human dignity.
Jewish organizations that tend to avoid
what I'm gonna put again in quotes,
for fear of alienating members or
donors, which is most often,
if we're being truthful, the case.
Must consider the cost and
the consequences of silence.
Concerns and edema to advocacy on policy
issues to in our homes and schools,
teaching our children about empathy,
diversity, and inclusion.
To ensuring our Jewish communal
organizations continue to fight for
programs like SNAP and
Medicare to synagogues joining other
houses of worship, providing sanctuary.
There is a role for every Jew and
every type of Jewish organization.
Number two, amplify the voices of
prophetic vision and moral courage.
This happens to be Rabbi Sydney Mintz
with the shofar phone.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Calling out for justice, as she does.
So this is a big one, now.
Jewish teaching and
Jewish spiritual guidance can fortify us.
They can nourish us,
sustain us for the long haul.
Rabbis, Jewish practitioners,
spiritual practitioners of all forms.
Historians, healers,
can offer emotional and
intellectual sustenance through teachings,
gatherings, ritual, and
wide at reaching mediums,
like things like webinars.
Taking these steps will
build up individual and
communal spiritual resilience practices.
Additionally, when we
emphasize values-based
solutions rooted in moral courage, we can
open hearts and minds and build bridges.
Number three, speak truth about what
we're seeing, by calling out the dangers
of undiscerning nationalism and
the rise of new kind of fascism.
>> [APPLAUSE] Yeah.
>> When venting our Jewish actions,
again, globalizing our community to these
dangers, we called our campaign
we've seen this before.
Because as Jews, the truth about what
we're seeing is all too familiar with
the most painful chapters of our history.
The scapegoating of immigrants,
the demonization of religious minorities,
the intimidation of the media, the threats
of mob violence and state violence, and
the flagrant disregard for the truth.
We know these signs point to the possible
aversion of our fundamental civil
liberties and democratic society.
For the safety and
well-being over our neighbors and
our own community, we will add our voices
and take action at the earliest signs
which is now of the curtailing
of civil liberties and
freedoms like Bend the Arc did in our
multi big petition to get President Obama
to dismantle the Muslim Registry
before leaving office.
We will call on activists, lawyers, and
other investigative parties to join
large scale national and local efforts.
To prevent the erosion of
Constitutional and civil liberties.
And this is so, so important,
we implore our Jewish community
to resist any attempts to pit
again with Jewish interest against
the rights and liberties of others or
trade the rights and
civil liberties of others for
the promise of Jewish securities.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Fourth,
deepened relationships and
joined broad coalitions with the most
vulnerable members of society currently
on the frontlines of hatred and bigotry.
Hate crimes are rising.
Communities of color, immigrant
communities, Muslim communities, and
other religious minorities who have
already been living in fear, and danger,
and violence are likely to experience
increased violence in the Trump era.
It's happening already; we know this.
The Jewish community must honestly
assess the depth of relationship,
or the lack thereof, with non-Jewish
people of color, immigrants,
and Muslim communities.
Only then can we establish and cultivate
relationships with these frontline
communities to learn more about one
another and to demonstrate mutual support.
By joining local and national efforts
to build authentic relationships with
multi-racial, multi-class, and
multi-faith communities and coalitions,
we will demonstrate that fear cannot and
will not divide us.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Number five,
expose and dismantle white supremacy.
White supremacy is the super structure.
I know that is like if we had a grogger.
>> [LAUGH]
>> By the way I'm gonna trademark that
a Bend the Arc grogger
to be on the streets.
I don't know if that is happening.
I'm just saying that, but
lets just say it is gonna happen.
White supremacy is the super structure
that upholds and reinforces the other
systems of institutional and
other personal oppression such as racism,
anti-Muslim bigotry, sexism, homophobia,
and antisemitism among others.
Building a shared understanding
around this framework is crucial,
because it allows more and more of us to
perceive a systems of oppression among us.
>> [COUGH]
>> They are invisible
to society-
>> [COUGH]
>> But profoundly visible to others.
In this moment when many Jews feel
a visceral and profound fear,
we must not retreat into our parochial
enclaves and hope that Jewish figures
like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's
proximity to power will prevent
acts of antisemitism by actors inside
the administration and its supporters.
Instead, we must understand how
white Jews have inadvertently
benefited from white supremacy.
How participation-
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> How participation in white supremacy is
actually dangerous for
everyone, including all Jews.
And how we must renew our commitment to
dismantle White supremacy both inside and
outside the Jewish community.
Number 6 is using inside and
outside power.
In partnership with our non-Jewish
progressive allies, we should encourage
artists, musicians, writers to create
culture that provides a compelling message
of what we want, of what an equitable and
inclusive democracy looks like really,
what it feels like, what it tastes like,
what it smells like.
Make it so visceral that we want it so
bad, that we're gonna do
everything to get it.
Jewish organizations and
leaders who have access to decision makers
in the private sector, at the municipal,
state, and federal levels, and
to progressive organizations and
grassroots activists, must apply
pressure on all of these domains.
Strategic campaigns that
mobilize the grassroots and
push moderate Republicans to peel off from
their colleagues that unconditionally
support growing authoritarianism
should be utilized whenever possible.
Number 7, [COUGH], be prepared and
willing to escalate.
Many Jews have experienced relative
safety from antisemitism for decades.
Now, however,
Jews are once again experiencing fear,
with Jews of inter-sexual identities
facing particularly increased danger due
to racism, homophobia, transphobia and or
other compounded issues of oppression.
By taking steps to educate people now and
sharing the costs of mass trainings and
skills building,
we can prepare our community for
acts of civil disobedience and
public resistance.
And I would say those of us myself
included who have enough resource,
feel safe enough, pass enough,
are not gonna be fired,
should put ourselves on the line first.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Number 8,
find ways to work together
across our communal divides.
In working to protect the civil rights and
liberties of vulnerable communities,
including our own, we must put aside the
litmus tests that have previously divided
our Jewish community, and act with unity
and conviction in areas of alignment.
We must understand this is an urgent
moment that requires all of us to
participate fully.
Communities, non-Jewish
communities who are currently
in danger cannot afford our
internal infighting and
do not benefit from our
internal divisions.
Number 9, help Jews take action as Jews.
Like many organizations that have been
active in the Jewish social justice space,
Bend the Arc is seeing a significant
influx of Jews across the country who want
to take meaningful action in cooperation
with others, and other Jews in particular.
It's imperative that we maximize this
opportunity to demonstrate to the next
generation of Jews coming up that engaging
in social justice work and political
advocacy can and should be a fundamental
feature of their Jewish identity.
We must demonstrate the liberal values
we uphold are also Jewish values.
And that acting in the public square
as a Jew is meaningful, and so
critically important at this time.
And finally, number 10,
put Jewish financial resources to work
towards building the future we want.
We are a philanthropically generous
community with a history of funding
people, organizations and
movements that have dramatically
improved the lives of others.
Jewish philanthropists can leverage their
relationships and make the case for
investing in a new vision for
our country with directly impacted
communities leading the way.
Jewish business owners and
private sector entrepreneurs can promote
radical values based economic approaches
such as a triple bottom line that measures
not just financial impact, but positive
social and environmental impact as well.
These are not new ideas by any means,
but they are so necessary.
So, just imagine if we embraced this call.
Imagine if every Jew and every Jewish
organization did something from this list.
Imagine if this were our expression
of Jewish communal purpose.
Wouldn't that be truly galvanizing and
be something you'd wanna be part of?
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I
have the incredible privilege of leading
a set of organizations, Bend the Arc,
the Jewish Partnership for Justice,
which is our 501C3 organization.
And Bend the Arc Jewish Action,
which is our 501C4 organization,
our political organization, which also
includes Bend the Arc Jewish Action Pact.
A year before the election
when a long shot candidate for
president said we should
register all Muslims to the list
we felt compelled to speak out, and
we launched a year-long grassroots
mobilization of the Jewish community
against the threats of this election.
And we have seen a response
from our community,
the likes of which we
have never seen before.
In the last year, 75,000 people have
taken action with us to respond
to the gravity of this moment.
Since November,
we have grown our base exponentially.
I was just telling Rabbi Sydney that
we've actually grown from having a list
of under 20,000, to now having
a list of people who are connected
to us almost at 90,000, and 85,000 plus.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Just last week we had a conference call
where 500 people from around the country
joined in to learn about and talk together
about how they can take action in Kansas
City, in Pittsburgh, in Atlanta, as well
as the more obvious places like New York,
Los Angeles, and here in the Bay area.
We are growing so rapidly and connecting
with Jews across the country because
the same righteousness and
justice that has flowed through
the veins of our ancestors,
we now feel is flowing through ours.
This is the moment for us, as a community,
to reignite our commitment to
communal risk, to communal courage,
to communal solidarity, this is the
response that this moment requires of us.
This is the response that 21st
century America needs from us.
There are 1,435
days left until the next
presidential inauguration.
Let's make each day one
of sacred revolution.
Our tradition demands it.
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> You have any questions?
Comments?
>> Thank you very very much for
those words.
Really inspiring.
So I have a question for
ordinary apathetic [LAUGH] A lot
of the ideas you had are phenomenal and
they require a couple things.
One is actually,
meet potentially people we don't know.
And also requires standing up,
which is not something,
or speaking which is not
what many people and
I put myself in that list,
are inclined to do all the time.
So the question I would have is if
you could give us one spark, for
not all the people in this room, but
other people who aren't in this room,
what would you give us to use,
to inspire, getting up and reaching out?
When it's not necessarily comfortable,
or expected, or consumed?
>> That's a great question.
And part of me actually just wants
to ask you that question back.
So what would it take for you?
To feel that spark, and to feel that.
Whatever would help take that step?
What would you do?
>> Well, I think this is the same
reason as why we're all here.
Yeah, anymore than anything
else I think other people.
And I can take the action myself,
but I have to tell you,
having my husband putting this on my text
and on my email saying, are we going?
We're going.
Aren't we going?
We're going, right?
[LAUGH]
>> [LAUGH]
>> Made a difference to being here.
And I think the act of standing up and
seeing other people stand
too makes a huge difference.
>> Yeah, thank you.
>> I'm so glad that you answered that,
and I'm so
glad that you asked that question because
I think that, well, first of all one of
the things that I think is happening right
now is that we're in this moment where for
Jews, there is a new sense of urgency and
a different feeling
about how active and participatory we can
and should be in the split of the moment.
And I know for myself and for others
that one of the things that's helpful
in tapping into that deep motivation for
action, is different for every person.
But I think we can just ask ourselves the
question too of what truly is at stake.
And get really,
really clear about what's at stake.
And then the other piece that I just
wanna offer, because this is for
people I think who are perhaps wondering
about how to take that for a step and for
those of us that have actually
been in this for a long time.
And wanna know how can we
sustain ourselves in this work.
And I would very much love for
us as a community to create
more opportunities,
to be in relationship as we described,
to be in community, and
have action, have doing Jewish.
Be a practice that we cultivate every
single day, that we form the bonds a and
kinds of conversations with one
another and make it such that we think
about this as a spiritual that's
helpful few language practice.
As just like an exercise practice,
as anything that we do that
we repeat over and over and
over again to ingrain it into us so
much that it becomes our default mode.
And that I think is something that
we can continue to think about new
ways as a community to develop that
community of practice, around resistance.
>> Question down here on the right.
>> Hi.
>> Hi, it's Alley Cannon, I know you from.
>> Hi.
>> Another amazing
program of Bend the Arc.
So I'm trying to just pause and I wanna
ask this question in a mindful way so
I don't come off,
that maybe could sound blaming.
But I'm someone who has had
a career in education and
come from a family of educators.
My wife's an Oakland Unified principle and
I guess I'm kind of referencing
what you said about our retreat
into our parochial enclaves.
I'm really challenged by some of my peers
who send their kids to private schools.
And I feel like to the extent that
those of us who are middle class
have that option, I'm sort of curious
to hear what your position and
Bend the Arc's position on what it means
to value our public education system.
Because when have Betsy DeVos just
got approved, we're going to see
our educational system crumble in
significant ways in the years ahead.
Our most disenfranchised students who are,
many of whom, for those of you that don't
know, kids are already not just in other
states in the South, but they're afraid to
come to school here in the Bay Area,
Muslim kids aren't going to school.
Undocumented immigrant kids
aren't going to school already.
My brother and sister-in-law teach
in Watsonville where literally
over winter break, kids did not return to
school because they're undocumented and
because they're afraid that their
family is going to get deported.
So that is what is happening in the public
schools, so for me, I think one idea is,
for example, how can I support
my friends who spend $25,000 or
more to send their kids to private school,
give an equivalent amount of
money to the public system of
education that supports so
many disenfranchised kids at all of
the margins that are under attack?
So I just really wanna hear
you speak more of that.
Cuz I feel like sometimes the lens and the
focus on education that affects everyone
isn't necessarily always part of
the political conversation and thr action.
And I feel like kids
need more caring adults.
If you're not volunteering in a school,
kids desperately need caring adults.
That's something I can testify
to happy to have a conversation.
So just anything that you have to
say about the education system and
how to show up in that collaborative
work on equity and inclusion.
>> Yeah, thank you.
So Bend the Arc at this point does not
have a history of working on issues of
public education or
education as an issue area.
That said, we know that so many of us and
so many of our family members came into
greater economic prosperity
because they had the benefit
of great public education, and
they had good schools,
safe schools, quality content.
And so, I think the thing that I wanna
say is that I believe our country
depends on having a strong and
effective public school system, and
that that school system needs to
be accessible to all students.
So that some students aren't feeling
uncomfortable to attend and that it's also
a place where people can actually
expect to get an excellent education.
I thought your idea that you put out,
about talking with your friends who
send their kids to private school.
And saying, hey, why don't you support,
you're making this personal choice,
which is absolutely a personal choice
that they're entitled to make.
And wouldn't it be so awesome,
too, to see if you wanna make
a donation towards a public school,
so that a child who doesn't have
the same access to a private education
also gets a quality education?
I think the piece that feels,
I think the thing that I wanna
say about the public and
private school piece is, especially in
this moment, is I think in this time,
we just so much need one another,
we so need one another.
That the extent to which we do
have real differences between us,
like that difference
that you just described.
And I'm saying this to myself as well,
so this is like medicine I need.
Going to be taking too, for
me, is to just remember,
those are not the kinds of differences
that I want to be distracted by right now.
They are so important, making sure that we
have a quality public education system in
our country is critical, so
don't say I'm not saying that.
But I know for
myself that there are people in my life
making different choices than I do.
And they're actually much closer to my own
views of the future I want to see than
a lot of other people.
And having some of these differences that
could prevent us from actually coming
together in this moment is something that
I think could be not the best use of our
collective time.
So I don't know if that was
a satisfying answer to you.
Those are my off-the-cuff responses,
happy to think about it more.
>> Next question here in the middle?
>> Hi, so I'm a student at USF, and
I see that with a lot of young people,
especially with the rise in all these
oppressive politics coming out into light.
There's what seems to be a lot of split
meeting this antagonism with antagonism,
or meeting it with peaceful resistance.
But how might you respond to those who
argue that these antagonistic responses
are more appropriate than the peaceful
resistance you might suggest.
>> Yeah, well, it's so interesting just
listening to the language that you used.
I am a strong supporter of non-violent
civil disobedience, when needed, and
I consider that to be quite strong and
quite peaceful.
And I, when I see people taking
part in acts of public resistance,
non-violent acts of public resistance.
I think one of the things that we
know is that people who are trying
to preserve power and preserve,
again, more conservative and
in this case more
authoritarian styles of power.
Are always going to,
use language to describe that kind
of resistance as being aggressive,
as being violent, as being dangerous,
as being counterproductive, etc.
So my personal opinion is that
the stakes right now in this moment
are truly unprecedented for this country.
I think that we have a myth that
this country is a democracy, and
that it will be a democracy.
And I think what we're seeing right
now is that is changing so quickly.
So to me my feeling is we actually
do need to mount a very strong, and
I will use the word very aggressive,
nonviolent, peaceful resistance
that stops this momentum
that is happening.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Question down here in the center.
>> Hi, I just wanted to thank you so
much for your remarks,
I thought they were incredible.
And I wanted to ask you to
expand a bit on the piece
you were talking about how we can both
sort of create a role for every Jew, and
tap the resources of our institution and
Jewish community.
As well as form new alliances and
new structures.
And I just want to say personally from
my own context, I'm a millennial Jew.
I'm not connected to many parts
of institutional Judaism,
I am part of Bend the Arc.
But, you know, more than that I've just
never been a member of the synagogue, but
I'm very ready to be
an activist with Jewish and
non-Jewish friends in other sort of
ways and structures that I'm part of.
Contrast that with my mother,
who is a very active member of
her synagogue on the East Coast.
And reached out very early to
the clergy at her synagogue,
asking them to organize a bus.
Volunteering her help to organize a social
action contingent to the Women's March,
and was shut down very quickly.
It's a Shabbat, I'm not sure,
let me see what the rabbi does,
we'll see what the Rerform movement says.
Just that sort of cautious response,
that was really alienating to her.
And she was sort of forced
to then go outside, and
organize with her friends, and
find another way to participate.
So how do we, again, create a role for
every kind of Jew, myself, my mom,
everyone in between,
and different than us.
So that we're not alienating
our own community,
we're encouraging other people to act in
the ways they're comfortable with, but
also pushing beyond their comfort zone.
Because as you point out, if not now,
when, it has to be right now.
Yeah, I mean I don't know if
I have anything more to say.
>> [LAUGH]
>> I think that you said it really.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I hope that the people who are either
in positions of institutional
Jewish Leadership or
know people who are,
are able to hear what you just described.
As someone listening more deeply and
embracing more fully the leadership and
the vision of young
people who are coming up.
And you actually have a very clear
beautiful idea of what they want this
country to look like and
what they want the Jewish community to be.
So my greatest hope is that your
description of yourself in that
story just gets kind of told and
told and told.
And my feeling is that there, my feeling
is that we have a Jewish communal
infrastructure that was created at a time
in Jewish history in this country,
when Jews had a radically different
experience than many of us have
right now or
have had over several decades.
And so it makes sense that these
institutions were formed in the way that
they were.
They served the purpose that they did,
and that they have,
in my opinion they're large,
they're bureaucratic.
And they are just struggling I think in
this moment to find how they are going
to maintain relevance in 21st
Century United States life.
My greatest hope is actually that
they'd listen to young people.
And that they take the lead
of young people, and
determine that those incredible
resources that they have and
actually turned and use towards
the things that you see as the future.
And my hope is that there
are organizations that are in
the Jewish Social Justice space.
There's now an entire Jewish Social
Justice Roundtable, which is relatively
new, just ten years ago we didn't have
a field of Jewish Social Justice.
It was only in the last
seven years that we have a
Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, we tried
two other iterations in decades past.
And not only were there not enough Jewish
social justice organizations that existed,
but the ones that existed were tiny and
the people who were running them couldn't
figure out how to get along,
and so it failed twice.
I mean, we know the story, right, or
I don't know if you know that story, but
you know, stories like it.
And it's actually pretty tremendous that
right now
the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable has
over 50 different organizations
that are part of this network.
So we are growing as a movement,
this is the future of Judaism.
The question is, are Jewish institutions
going to transition with us,
or are we just gonna
continue to go forward?
And I hope that they transition with us.
>> Next question?
>> On a slightly lighter note,
your great idea about the grogger,
it's actually already been
developed just recently, but
it's called the Donald noise maker,
and you can download it for free.
>> My God.
>> [LAUGH]
>> It has all different quotes in it.
You can take your choice.
>> Wait, is it a grogger?
>> It's a grogger.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Really?
>> Just in time for Purim.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Download it for free.
>> Awesome.
>> Yeah, there's where [INAUDIBLE]
>> Excellent.
>> Next question is here in the center.
>> Hi, so thank you for sharing your
thoughtful and thought provoking vision.
You mentioned several times large Jewish
institutions that are not speaking for us.
And I have to say, I'm lucky enough
to be a member of a small Jewish
progressive synagogue but I am not, I have
not been in mainstream Judaism very much.
So I've been sitting here
wondering if you're comfortable,
if you could name those kind of large
stream Jewish institutions because
that feels like that should be an
achievable goal that we're pushing on so
many fronts right now,
if we can't push our own institutions,
it just feels like that's
something we should be able to.
>> Yeah.
>> We can achieve it tonight.
>> [LAUGH]
>> So
I wanna say that I'm gonna say this with
love, because I love the Jewish people.
And I love our community.
And I want us to be part of
making our world different.
But the Jewish Federations
of North America
sent out a statement,
congratulating President Trump.
>> Ooh.
>> There are lists but,
there are a number of federations
that have actually made positive
comments about the administration.
There are organizations that are inviting
people like Jared Kushner to speak,
like the JPCA is inviting Jared Kushner
to speak at their event in two weeks.
I don't know if he's going to say yes or
not.
The reason I am actually saying who
these organizations are is because
they need to hear from our community
that this is unacceptable.
They need to know that
this is actually again,
this is not about politics,
everyday politics.
It's not about Democrats,
it's not about Republicans.
This is about fascism.
And this is about our survival.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> There
are ways that you can get this information
to find out if you like Google,
what Jewish organizations in Stevenson,
there's actually a list.
Susan, do you happen to
know there is a link and
a list of the roundup of
Jewish organizations.
I don't know what it is.
But if anyone is interested,
if you contact Ben the Arc we can
get you the link to the roundup.
But let's just say that it is not pretty.
Let's just say that I feel very
sad about how our community has
responded institutionally to this moment.
But I also want to say that thank God
we still have time to catch up and
actually turn it around.
That's what we can do.
>> Hi.
>> How's it going?
Mike Rothman.
>> Hi.
The light is coming down I can,
like, only see part of your face.
>> I know, it's why you said my name.
So I want to come to you from the other
direction of what you just said.
>> Yeah, yeah!
>> And thank God for you and for
Bend the Arc for calling people out
the way they need to be called out.
So you know,
just went through a job search, and
I had to be really clear with congregation
where I interviewing about who I was.
And I decided that, in this moment,
inspired probably by you
I was gonna do that.
I was told really clearly by
one congregation, we're not
gonna keep you as our rabbi because
we don't like your political agenda.
I was like, great,
thank God you're clear about it.
The position I'm moving into,
they feel differently, for the most part.
There's a couple of voices
who don't feel that way and
I'm starting to feel that little
gnawing fear, and that, my goodness,
these people pay my salary and
should I rein it in a little bit?
My good friends at Bend the Arc,
how are you helping the people who want to
come from the other side and
say, I'm gonna take this risk.
Are there resources, are there things we
can give out to congregational boards?
Are there networks of people
that can meet secretly and
talk about-
>> [LAUGH]
>> How we're secretly plotting
the overthrow of
the organized Jewish world?
[LAUGH] Are you going to comment on,
are we working together?
Are you helping us?
Are you standing with the Rabbis and
the Executive Directors and
the people who are trying to do this?
What you're saying we should do.
>> That's a great question.
A great question.
Thank you.
Well, you know,
we do actually have resources and
we are continuing to generate more and
more resources because we have lots
of people who wanna get active.
And they wanna have tools that
they can use to be informed, and
to talk to their family members and
their friends, and their colleagues, etc.
So yes, I would encourage everyone to
visit the nearest website and to be
getting on our list, and you hear about
calls, and all of that kind of work.
I also do very much want to say and
part of the reason why we created
that ten different ways that Jews in
Jewish organizations can get involved
is because I hope it was clear.
Even though the title of my talk is
pretty bold, Revolutionary Judaism.
But the fact of the matter is not every
single person either identifies or
feels comfortable with that language or
that point of view.
And there are still many things that we
can each be doing in our organizations
that can be doing that,
are still part of solving this very,
very dire problem even if we have
different styles of doing it.
And I do think it is important that we
look at the full ecosystem of the Jewish
community and we understand that we are
not trying to create 10,000 Bend the Arcs.
