Summer's Here and We Need YOU!
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Summer is here, and we're welcoming Rabbi Soffer and his family this week and into the coming months! See the welcome events HERE. In the meantime, Social Action is ongoing at Judea Reform. In fact, with many folks in and out of town, the headlines reporting horrors on our borders and within, the needs are great. Please check in each of the areas in which we work to see if there's a mitzvah you can do. Summer is a great time to connect with fellow congregants and community members through social action and social justice work.
Refugee Resettlement & Immigrant Justice Initiative (multiple events)
Dignified Affordable Housing
- Build with Habitat
- Advocate for Affordable Housing with Durham CAN
- Provide child care at Families Moving Forward so parents can attend classes
Feed the Hungry
- Contribute to our monthly dinner at Urban Ministries of Durham
- Serve dinner with people from Durham's Jewish Community
- Provide and serve dinner with JRC at Families Moving Forward
Tzedakah Box Report
Civic Engagement
Younger members - find ways to become more engaged with social action at JRC
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Welcome the stranger, for you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt
Our Refugee Resettlement and Immigrant Justice Team is working in various ways to end child and family separation, support families affected by detention, and welcome refugees. We welcome your support.
Consider attending community protests/vigils
Be on the lookout for our upcoming back-to-school refugee backpack drive (later this month)
Subscribe to the Refugee Resettlement & Immigrant Justice eMail list HERE
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Benefit Concert for Vulnerable Families Fund
Thursday, July 11, 7:30 pm at Judea Reform
Join members of the Triangle community in a night of art and music about Justice, Peace, and Hope, with all proceeds going to local nonprofit Church World Service - Durham which supports vulnerable families in our community. Doors open at 7pm; at 7:30pm, the concert featuring choral, vocal, and instrumental music in a variety of styles will begin. Free admission with donations accepted and directed to CWS-Durham’s vulnerable families fund. Can't make it? Donate to the fund HERE.
>> More Info
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Bearing Witness: a Jewish Perspective on
Stewart Detention Center (all faiths welcome)
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Sunday, July 14, 4-6pm, Judea Reform Congregation
When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
- Leviticus 19:33-34
Recently, eight congregants and community members from Carolina Jews for Justice traveled more than 1,000 miles in less than 48 hours to Lumpkin, GA, home to the infamous Stewart Detention Center and Immigration Court. Stewart is the largest such facility east of the Mississippi River and the location to which most immigrants in North Carolina who are picked up by ICE are sent before being deported.
Join us as we share what we saw, heard, felt, and learned from our observations in courtrooms, and meetings with immigrants imprisoned at Stewart. We will begin with a screening of PBS’s 25 minute Reel South, Lumpkin, GA for context and background, and then share our personal reflections and findings from the trip. Through brief discussions in small groups we’ll also examine what this present day reality means for us as Jews and ways we can take action, individually and collectively.
>> More Info and register (to help us plan for the right number of seats, helpful but not required)
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Our June crew built with future Habitat Home-owners, recent grads from Durham Public Schools and other community members. We installed Hurricane ties, laid joists for front porch, and cleaned up ahead of a big thunderstorm and got drenched just after we took this team photo!
Join Team Judea for our regular monthly Habitat Build on the third Thursday of the Month in Durham (July 18, 12:30-3:30pm) - and occasional interfaith builds on a Sunday in Orange County. Register HERE for an upcoming build (enter code <JR> or contact lay leader Lloyd Comstock for more info. |
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Join our delegation to Durham CAN (Congregations Associations and Neighborhoods)
One way in which Judea Reform pursues Tzedek, social justice, is through advocacy projects which address root causes of injustice, inequality and environmental distress, is through our involvement with Durham CAN (Congregations Associations and Neighborhoods)**, where a core commitment continues to be affordable housing in Durham.
Last week we participated in a community gathering and press event to continue to advocate that the Durham City and County governments meet their commitment to affordable housing in two specific areas:
1) A year ago, the Durham City Council promised to make affordable housing at the site a priority by ensuring developers would plan for at least 80 units at a property at 505 W. Chapel Hill Street (the former Durham Police Department Headquarters building). Citywide surveys/community events showed the majority of Durham residents want Affordable Housing as a significant priority for the re-development of the site.
2) Durham County is in the process of identifying a qualified development partner or partners to redevelop the 300 and 500 blocks of East Main Street into a mix of affordable and market-rate housing, ground floor commercial space and structure parking. The County is interviewing three excellent candidate developers. CAN wants to make sure the County Commissioners & the City Council select developers who:
- Demonstrate the ability to work with local partners
- Preserve the long term affordability of the site
- Partner with the DHA to ensure the use of vouchers
- Provide the most support for the community and the area institutions
- Hire local residents, pay at least $15 (including contractors) and Ban the Box
Contact lay leader Sonia Laurie to learn more and join our CAN Delegation.
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Families Moving Forward: Family Shelter in Durham
Once per quarter, Judea members team up with people from two other congregations to provide dinner and childcare so adults can participate in educational programming at Durham's family shelter. Please join us in this mitzvah. We need volunteers to provide dinner, serve and help with kids on August 12 and 14. Learn more and sign up HERE, or contact Lay Leader Tina Prinstein.
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It's not JUST the Tuna Casserole - we need your help!
Each month Judea, along with folks from Beth El and Kol Haskalah donate ingredients, prepare and serve dinner at Urban Ministries of Durham. We recently adjusted the way we've been doing things for years, and now, community members can participate in each and all of the activities.
- Make our Tuna Casserole at home and deliver to JRC's Freezer ahead of time (Please use this recipe)
- Donate ingredients or help make casseroles at Social Action Sundays - see what's needed and sign up at http://bit.ly/UMDMonthlyMitzvah
- Help prep or serve dinner to about 200 people the fourth Sunday of each month. This is a great project for a a Mitzvah Project, for a chavurah or to do with friends from Beth El or Kol Haskalah. Tweens and teens can serve with parents. Sign up at http://bit.ly/UMDMonthlyMitzvah
DONATE OR SERVE DINNER AT THE FAMILY SHELTER
Once per quarter, Judea members team up with people from two other congregations to provide dinner and childcare so adults can participate in educational programming at Durham's family shelter. Please join us in this mitzvah. We really need volunteers to provide dinner, serve and help with kids on August 12 and 14. Learn more and sign up HERE, or contact Lay Leader Tina Prinstein.
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