Tue Jan 13, 2009 at 13:38:46 PM EST
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( - promoted by Mik Moore)
The New Year is a natural time to think about fresh starts and new beginnings. The Jewish Community is entering this year especially fraught with the need for something new, in the wake of the Madoff scandal (not to mention general financial upheaval). I want to honor a JFSJ Congregation Based Community Organizing grantee, Chapel Hill Kehillah, that started new organizing initiative in Chapel Hill, NC and is using its power to create social change and act responsibly on behalf of the community.
Chapel Hill Kehillah is a founding member of the Orange County Organizing Committee, an IAF affiliate, which launched a new platform last month. Drawing 300 leaders from 23 faith-based members, they laid out their new action agenda which addressed the need for change in North Carolina in affordable housing, living wages, environmental justice, education, healthcare, and quality of life for immigrant families. |
| Rachel Berger :: In response to Madoff |
This was not O.C.O.C.’s first major meeting. Started almost one year ago, O.C.O.C. got behind the residents of the Rogers and Eubanks Road neighborhood as they fought to prevent a waste-transfer station to be built in this rural, historically black community. Their community had already served as a site for a landfill for the last 30 years, and this new proposal reeked (pardon the pun) of environmental racism. Chapel Hill Kehillah, a JFSJ synagogue challenge grant recipient, was a part of the action and protest that ultimately persuaded the Orange County, NC commissioners to rethink their decision, and propose new locations in October 2008.
At a time when Jewish communities are collectively looking in the mirror and asking themselves “how could a Madoff come from us?,” I think it’s important to remember the Chapel Hill Kehillahs, the synagogues that are using their power to come together as sacred communities, and for us to celebrate the justice work that is happening within our congregations.
To learn more about the organizing happening with Orange County Organizing Committee you can click here:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4096391/
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/front/story/30332.html
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/front/story/30336.html |
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