Rabbis plan Social Justice Shabbat in Elul

Social Justice Institute Sept. 14

By Deborah Moon

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In addition to endorsing the Sept. 14 Social Justice Institute, Oregon Board of Rabbis members plan to speak about social justice issues from the pulpit one Shabbat during September, which coincides this year with the Jewish month Elul.

Community organizations and individuals alike are invited to the free Social Justice Institute, 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. The event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Community Relations Committee and the OBR and is made possible through a generous grant from the Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation.

“The Oregon Board of Rabbis is pleased to support the Social Justice Institute created by the CRC for the benefit of the Portland Jewish community,” said OBR President Rabbi Ariel Stone. “The institute offers multiple opportunities to learn more about the healing the world so desperately needs, and workshops to help us turn our desire to help into realistic plans and acts. It is a mitzvah to do what each of us can to work for justice, and it is also a mitzvah to help another Jew do a mitzvah—so the CRC is doing a great mitzvah for us all.”

The day will include two rounds of workshops—one set on skill-building and one on specific action topics such as hunger, climate change and the genocide in Darfur. Rabbi Lee Bycel of American Jewish World Service will deliver the keynote address on Darfur, where AJWS has taken an active role in aiding refugees and raising awareness of the genocide.

Stone, who serves as rabbi of Congregation Shir Tikvah, said th\at Elul, the month leading up to the High Holy Days, is a very appropriate time for the institute.

“The timing of the gathering couldn’t be more appropriate,” she said. “During Elul we are bidden to consider our acts, and realize anew that no act of ours is too small or insignificant to make a difference. During Elul we remember the ways in which we have failed to be our best selves, and we think of ways we can do better—acts of tzedakah we can undertake so as to start the New Year on a better standing before God.”

“The Oregon Board of Rabbis is pleased to dedicate a Shabbat during Elul—each shul will choose the best Shabbat for its own community—to prepare us for the Institute, so that we can hear more clearly the message it offers us: In the words of Isaiah we will hear during the Days of Awe, ‘to unlock the shackles of injustice, to loosen the ropes of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to tear every yoke apart,’” added Stone.

For more information on the Institute, contact JFGP Community Relations Director Bob Horenstein at 503-245-6496 or bob@jewishportland.org.