Have you ever held a great social justice program and no one came?
Do you want your temple to respond effectively and powerfully to the systemic causes of injustice?
How would it feel if your congregation acted together?
Congregation-Based Community Organizing enables synagogues to address these questions through internal conversations and work in powerful coalitions across lines of race, class, and faith.
Across the country, congregations of all faiths have engaged in a transformative social justice model based on the principles of community organizing. They have expanded their social action programs, increased their memberships (both in size and commitment), and strengthened their leadership. By applying the congregation-based community organizing model, synagogue leaders are trained to think strategically about how to engage significant numbers of others by conducting intentional relationship building campaigns. Through house meetings and one-on-one conversations, issues of shared concern emerge, and leaders conduct significant actions that engage their members in addressing the systemic causes of social justice issues.
With the establishment of Sound Alliance, a coalition of labor, social action organizations, faith-based organizations, and religious communities pledged to working toward a common social agenda, a new role for Jews in such movements has come to the fore — the participation of Jews as Jews, through the formal association of congregations with Sound Alliance.
I. Am. A. Citizen.
Imagine this chanted like a mantra by 612 people.
I. Am. A. Citizen.
The words echoed in an overcrowded gymnasium. Rabbi Lavey Derby stood at the front of the room, conducting the audience in the refrain: I am a citizen.
Across the country, congregations of all faiths have engaged in a transformative social justice model based on the principles of community organizing. They have expanded their social action programs, increased their memberships (both in size and commitment), and strengthened their leadership. By applying the congregation-based community organizing model, synagogue leaders are trained to think strategically about how to engage significant numbers of others by conducting intentional relationship building campaigns. Through house meetings and one-on-one conversations, issues of shared concern emerge, and leaders conduct significant actions that engage their members in addressing the systemic causes of social justice issues.
