This past Sunday we gathered as a synagogue family with children as young as 12 years old to raise our voices, share our feelings, and learn what meaningful action we can take to reduce gun violence in our community. This was a hard, heart-wrenching conversation. The feelings of fear, anger, and sadness expressed by our middle school and high school students cut to the very core our being. We reinforced the need to voice these feelings, and that as their rabbis and cantor, we will always be “safe adults” to whom they can turn. We know our Temple Emanu-El family does not stand alone in the need to give voice to these feelings or take action. The Atlanta Rabbinical Association (ARA) has organized around the cause of gun violence prevention, and Temple Emanu-El is working collaboratively with each synagogue in the Atlanta area on this issue. Just over four weeks since the shooting in Parkland, Florida and a movement of citizens fed up with unmitigated gun violence is beginning to … [Read more...]
Gun Violence Forum
Join us for a forum on gun violence prevention led by leaders in the community who specialize in gun violence prevention and mental health. Learn Ways to make the biggest impact in the community How to talk to your kids about gun violence RSVP below. … [Read more...]
Hunger Walk/Run
Register at http://engage.acfb.org/site/TR?fr_id=1858&pg=entry … [Read more...]
The Jewish Response to Hopelessness
For millennia Jews have been witness to acts of senseless violence, hatred, and inhumanity. In some cases, it was the Jewish community which suffered directly. In all cases the holiness of the human spirit was diminished. Even two thousand years ago our Torah recognized that the plight of the needy is as eternal as our covenant with God, “since there will never cease to be needy ones from amongst your land, therefore I [Adonai] command you to open your hands to your brethren, to the poor and indigent in your land.”1 Even though poverty and suffering are not something that we can permanently solve, our Torah compels us to act in the face of the seemingly impossible. To be a Jew means that we must look at the enormity of the task and take action. One of the ugliest ways poverty manifests itself is in hunger. Hunger is such a pernicious and existential threat that our great teacher Maimonides tells us that if a stranger asks us for food or water, we must provide it without question.2 … [Read more...]
Social Action, Local Action-Learn about the Georgia Hate Crime Bill
Please join us on Sunday, February 4th at 11:45am in our Temple Emanu-El sanctuary as two members of our congregation, Allison Padilla-Goodman, Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Robert Wittenstein, co-chair of the ADL’s Civil Rights Committee, provide a 30-minute introduction to the current effort to pass Hate Crimes legislation in Georgia. To be clear: A Hate Crime is any crime that is committed against a member of a group specifically because of their inclusion in that group. Everyone is part of a protected group under Hate Crime legislation - it protects those who are targeted because of their race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, mental disability and physical disability. Forty-five states and Washington, DC, have anti-Hate Crime statutes on their books. Georgia, to date, does not. However, we are now at an exciting crossroads where the passage of Hate Crime legislation appears possible as Georgians … [Read more...]