The Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), a dynamic and growing statewide organization dedicated to the Jewish traditions of pursuing peace, promoting equality and diversity and working for social and economic justice, seeks fall interns for its Los Angeles office.
PJA fall interns work with the PJA staff on a variety of campaigns and development projects, depending on interest and need. Possible areas of focus may include (but are not limited to):
Economic Justice and Community Organizing Muslim-Jewish Community-Building Young Professional Leadership Development and Engagement Development and Fundraising Membership Recruitment and Engagement Communications General Office Support
This unpaid internship is a great opportunity for anyone interested in social justice, Jewish tradition, and the nexus of the two. We seek creative, organized, and energetic self-starters with a passion for social justice. Writing and verbal communication skills highly desired. In exchange for your contribution of time and energy, we offer a unique and vibrant learning environment with a knowledgeable and friendly staff. Tasks may include organizing and attending community meetings, event planning and implementation, program research, marketing, and data-entry. And while some tasks can be administrative, we hope to create a balance of our current projects and your interests.
School credit may be available (depending on your school’s requirements).
For more information about our programs, please go to our website at www.pjalliance.org.
Our office is located in the Olympic and Fairfax area. As some work takes place outside of the office (meetings, events, etc.), access to a car is preferable.
Undergraduate and graduate students encouraged to apply. Application instructions: Please email your cover letter, resume, and availability to jfeldman@pjalliance.org or fax to: (323) 761-8355 attn: Josh Feldman.
Please include specific availability in cover letter.
The United States Social Forum (USSF) is a gathering bringing together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the US. The goal of the gathering is to build unity around common goals of social justice, to build ties between organizations present at the event, and to help build a broader social justice movement.
"This is a large scale and unique opportunity to learn from each other's experiences, shed light on social injustices, and build on community efforts to create real change," says William Copeland, a USSF staff organizer and member of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC).
An estimated 15,000 people attended USSF in 2007 for workshops, panels, plenaries, marches, parties and relationship building. This year the USSF is being hosted in Detroit from June 22-26th, 2010.
Detroit was choosen as the host city because of it's rich social justice history and because it could definitely benefit from the energy of thousands of people coming to town. Also, the spotlight has been shining on Detroit, as its decay has become symbolic with the worst fears for the future of the US and can be a symbol of amazing changes. (Watch this awesome Youtube about an amazing urban garden project in Detroit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH6sI7BqXLo&feature=player_embedded). Check out http://www.ussf2010.org/ for more info about USSF.
When a sports franchise makes it to the play-offs a strange thing happens, suddenly they have a ton of fans. Ticket prices go up and seats in the stadium are sold out. A similar phenomenon has happened in community organizing...
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.
Community organizing has been in the national spotlight ever since the comments of an erstwhile vice presidential candidate made waves this election season. The comments led many to ask: what is it, exactly, that community organizers do?
Well, over Thanksgiving weekend, a story from the Washington Post highlighted a great example of community organizing at work: PICO National, one of four national congregation-based community organizing (CBCO) networks, has organized its member congregations from local PICO affiliates around the country in a campaign to address the current mortgage crisis.
This effort is somewhat unusual in terms its scope; typically CBCO groups focus on local or state-wide issues, as opposed to national campaigns. However, PICO is drawing on its national heft, with 1000 member congregations across the country, to address this federal crisis. Now that's something to be thankful for.
[Tuesday, Nov 18th, St. Paul Community Baptist Church]
I was late. Arriving at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East New York on the first bitterly cold night of the season (in my opinion), I could already hear the noise pouring out of the hall. IAF actions are known to start on time and end on time (not the Iron rule, I might call it the Bronze rule), so my 7:10 arrival meant that I got there as Rev. David K. Brawley was describing what the members of East Brooklyn Congregations have been able to do in their community. “Yes, we did,” he shouted, as he described the Nehemiah houses, “Yes, we did,” the community replied when he spoke of improving local public schools.
If you spend enough time with community organizers, as I do, you'll be sure to hear what's known as the iron rule of organizing: 'never do for a leader what s/he can do for her/himself.' What's meant by this statement is that organizing is about helping others develop their own power and capacity to act, rather than doing it (whatever that it is) for them.
Given his roots in organizing, and the approach with which he ran his campaign, I've been wondering what it might look like for Obama to run his administration like an organizer. In particular, I wonder what an administration based on the iron rule of organizing would look like.
Though he didn't come straight out and quote the iron rule in his acceptance speech, Obama did, to my ears, lay the rhetorical groundwork for a presidency that will reflect the organizing ethos that demands responsibility and action on the part of each and every individual. I appreciated the speech and its focus on what comes next, its reminder that we cannot and should not reply on government to solve our problems and act for us--but that we all have a responsibility to take part in creating a greater good.
In this sense, Obama gave less of a victory speech and more of a call to action, asking for our active civic participation. I heard his words as a challenge for each of us to consider, quite seriously, what role we will each play in the coming years to create the change that was the mantra of his campaign:
how we will move, together, from 'yes we can' to 'yes we do,' from his articulation of possibility to our collective action.
PS: Not surprisingly, others in the field of community organizing are thinking about this question, too. Check out the recent post of Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director of URJ-Just Congregations, which engages Reform synagogues in community organizing: http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2008/1...
