Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

For Passover, the JCPA along with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, is once again offering a phenomenal mobilizing event through which JRF communities, congregations from every Jewish stream and local JCRCs can engage community members in meaningful anti-poverty advocacy: The Child Nutrition Seder
.  read more »

AJWS Invites U.S. Jewish Communities to Observe Global Hunger Shabbat in March

JRF Hunger and Poverty Resources: http://jrf.org/hunger

New York, NY; February 9, 2010—AJWS an international development and human rights organization, has invited Jewish communities and individuals nationwide to observe a “Global Hunger Shabbat”—a day of solidarity, education, reflection and advocacy to raise awareness about global hunger on March 19-20, 2010.

Global Hunger Shabbat is part of AJWS’s campaign, Fighting Hunger from the Ground Up. AJWS launched the campaign this past fall in order to build awareness in the American Jewish community about the political roots of hunger. As AJWS has done on many other issues, the organization is engaging the American Jewish community through tzedakah (charity), political advocacy, education and service, while simultaneously supporting 80 grassroots organizations that are working to reduce hunger in developing countries.

Scheduled to coincide with the Shabbat just prior to Passover, Global Hunger Shabbat will evoke the Passover message of “all who are hungry, let them come and eat,” on behalf of the more than a billion people suffering from hunger worldwide.

“Global Hunger Shabbat will be an opportunity for congregations of all denominations to join together for this common cause and to raise our collective voices against the injustice that is claiming lives around the world,” said AJWS vice president of programs, Aaron Dorfman. “As Jews, issues of social justice have always been in our prayers and our actions, and this day of solidarity is designed to bring about our deepest impulse for effecting change.”

To help individuals, congregations and communities organize and host their own Global Hunger Shabbat events on March 19th, AJWS has created an online toolkit (available at www.ajws.org/hungershabbat), which includes:

• Talking points about hunger and the food insecurity crisis
• An original prayer and sermon prompts designed for the synagogue or community setting
• A Jewish text study and family activity
• “Solidarity Plates” to designate an empty seat at the Shabbat table meant to represent the 1.1 billion people facing hunger worldwide
• Readings for use around the Shabbat table featuring stories about hunger and the solutions communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America are developing to fight it
• Suggestions for ways that American Jews and their communities can take action
• A poster and a community newsletter ad to help publicize Global Hunger Shabbat

AJWS and its grantess in Africa, Asia and the Americas believe that a local approach to realizing the human right to food will most effectively halt food insecurity worldwide. AJWS implements this approach by supporting grassroots change by and for local people in myriad ways—teaching farmers to grow food using sustainable farming methods; endowing communities with seed banks and harvest storage facilities; founding agricultural cooperatives and jumpstarting profitable local markets; and empowering indigenous communities to advocate for their land and water rights. Global Hunger Shabbat offers the American Jewish community an opportunity to join AJWS and its grassroots partners in supporting these critical solutions.

Global Hunger Shabbat toolkits and more information about the program are available at www.ajws.org/hungershabbat. These materials are part of an ongoing collection of educational resources that AJWS has created on global justice topics.

Join us in a training call to learn more about how to best use the materials and resources to create a meaningful Global Hunger Shabbat experience:

For Synagogues and Institutions:
Monday, March 1, 3:00-4:00 EST
Dial: 866.740.1260
Access Code: 7922901
Web Login

For “At Home” Hosts
Tuesday, March 2, 3:30-4:30 EST
Dial: 866.740.1260
Access Code: 7922901
Web Login

Beginning on the eve of the second day of Pesach, we are instructed by our tradition to count the days of the “Omer” until the fiftieth day, which is when the first barley crop would be harvested. It is also the Jewish holiday of Shavuot when, according to our tradition, the Jewish People received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The counting of the Omer is a bridge between Pesach and Shavuot – between a moment of liberation and a moment of self-definition and direction at the beginning of our evolution as a religious civilization. It is an opportunity to deepen our study and close the gap between ideas and action for the tikkun (rebalancing, repair) of the challenges we face in our world.

Beginning in 2005 through the Departments of Tikkun Olam/Social Justice and Congregational Relations' PEARL initiative, hundreds of participants and commentators from JRF congregations, RRA rabbis and RRC faculty, and the larger Jewish world, have participated in the JRF On-Line Omer Study Initiative in 2008!

Each week during JRF's annual Omer Learning Initiative, we highlight resources, teachings, and wisdom gleaned from the Reconstructionist movement and our organizational partners, on topics that cover the major social justice and spiritual activism areas JRF and our member congregations have been working on. In this way we have produced and collected a wide array of resources and have encouraged the sharing of best practices and concrete action for the renewal and repair of the indivudal, community and world we are part of.

For additional information please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit (SZevit@jrf.org) at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.

2010 Omer Initiative: Tikkun Hanefesh V'Olam - Growing the Soul: Self, Community and World (http://jrf.org/omer/2010)

2009 Omer Initiative: From Study to Action (http://jrf.org/omer/2009)

2008 Omer Initiative: From the Values and Spirit of Tikkun to Community Building (http://jrf.org/omer/2008)

2007 Omer Initiative: Environmental sustainability (http://jrf.org/omer/2007)

2006 Omer Initiative: Hunger and povery (http://jrf.org/omer/2006/intro)

2005 Omer Initiative: Pirke Avot (The Wisdom of Our Sages) (http://63.115.67.94/pirke-avot/index.html)

Omer Initiative Home Page: (http://jrf.org/omer/home)

Social action based on Jewish ethics is a central part of Reconstructionist community activity. In Israel and North America, Reconstructionists actively support The Women at the Wall, who advocate equal worship rights for men and women in Israel.

RT article by Anna Bosewell- Levy- http://www4.jrf.org/resources/files/Building%20the%20Amuta%20-%20Autumn-Vol%208,1.pdf

We are quoted here thanks to R. Jarah Greenfield- http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/women_seek_equality_at_kotel/11802

R. Rebecca Alpert's article- http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/reconstructionist-judaism-in-united-states

Existing page of Israel resources and statements-http://www4.jrf.org/israel/statement-and-resources

---------------------------------------------------

General Links:

http://womenofthewall.blogspot.com/ (Reconstructionist movement featured)

http://urj.org//israel/wow/index.cfm? (URJ)

http://www.uscj.org/Outrage_at_the_Kotel8264.html (Joint statement by all branches of Conservative Movement)

http://www.globenewswire.com/news.html?d=180958 (CCAR response)

Click here for Reconstructionist movement and other general resources for living a sustainable, Jewish life!

http://jrf.org/Sustainable_Synagogue_Resources

http://jrf.org/Jewish-Climate-Change-Initiative

Faithful Reform- Interfaith Coalition for Healthcare“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” --Jeremiah 8:22

JRF and our member communities have been actively supporting the need for healthcare reform in the United States. We will continue to join other Jewish religious movements and organizations to this end. Please join with other faith communities in the Interfaith Virtual Vigil of Prayer, Hope, and Action, a daily prayer and advocacy initiative from now until heathcare reform is passed. Also see http://delicious.com/JRFtikkun/healthcare for additional resources.

As people of faith, we envision a society where each person is afforded health, wholeness, and human dignity.

That vision as collectively articulated by the interfaith coalition Faithful Reform for Healthcare and the former "We Believe" interfaith action, embraces a system of health care that is inclusive... accessible... affordable... and accountable.  read more »