By Morris Malakoff, JTNews Correspondent
The history of progressive social and political movements in America is heavily populated by Jews. Leaders in labor, civil rights, education and social reform have been Jews in numbers that far exceed their presence in the general population. But those instances have been cases of progressives who happened to be Jewish.
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.
At an event on June 1 in Tacoma, Sound Alliance formally went public at a “Founding Assembly” attended by over 1,000 people representing 44 founding entities. A number of state-level political leaders, including Governor Christine Gregoire, Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown attended as well.
The groundwork to make Sound Alliance a reality had been steadily put into place for more than a year prior to the Tacoma meeting.
Among the 44 founders of the organization are a number of Seattle-area synagogues, including Temple Beth Am, Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Temple Beth El and Kol HaNeshamah. A delegation from Temple B’nai Torah was also on hand, observing the proceedings with an eye to becoming a part of the alliance.
According to Adam Halpern, chair of the Tikkun Olam committee at Kol HaNeshamah, having his congregation become an active part of a broader-based social action organization was not a decision taken lightly.
“We held discussions among members of the congregation to find out what their particular concerns [were] in terms of community issues, and to see if this was something that we, as a congregation, wanted to be a part of,” he said. He added that he believed a similar process was instituted at other area congregations as well.
Halpern said that his congregation’s members’ list of issues closely matched the Sound Alliance agenda of health care, education, housing, and environmental and immigration rights reforms.
“Our members, living in Seattle, did have one additional issue that does not appear on the Sound Alliance agenda,” he said. “We are concerned about transportation, but the Alliance is covering much of the region and that issue is more important in Seattle than some of the other issues are in other communities.”
In terms of practical participation, Halpern said that there is a time commitment and a small financial commitment by the congregation to support the ongoing operations of Sound Alliance.
“That really is no different than the current situation for our members,” he said. “We, as a community, are committed to giving time and energy to being a beneficial part of making our world and community better.”
Sound Alliance members work in committees purposed toward specific reforms that are broadly outlined in its action agenda, and are charged with further defining those reforms. They then begin negotiations with elected leaders, policy makers and other stakeholders that may lead to eventual solutions.
As for the financial commitment, Halpern pointed to organizations like the Jewish Fund for Justice, which makes grants available to congregations to cover such costs. A grant application from Kol HaNeshamah is in process.
The keynote address of the Founding Assembly, delivered by Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Temple BethAm, spoke to the concept of community service and of working toward the stated goal of achieving the “common good” as a tenet of Judaism.
Rabbi Singer told JTNews that the alliance was an opportunity for progressive synagogues to build bridges with groups that they may not have had contact with otherwise.
“To me, Sound Alliance represents an opportunity for the progressive Jewish community to join with like-minded organizations in attempting to have an impact on some of the larger problems that we wouldn’t be able to impact ourselves,” he said.
A similar coalition of faith groups in Massachusetts was key in bringing universal health care to that state, Singer noted.
“The idea that we could, in joining voices together, say that we may disagree about many, many things, but here’s one thing [we all] agree on: we want to let our leaders know that there’s large communal support [for] whatever we’re going to come up with in our discussions,” he said.
Temple Beth Am’s involvement with Sound Alliance is being used as a way to be connected to the Union for Reform Judaism’s new program, Just Congregations.
Paraphrasing Martin Buber, Rabbi David Fine, director of the Pacific Northwest region of the URJ, said, “It’s not ‘what’ is God, but ‘when’ is God? When are those moments of true meaning? And Just Congregations/Sound Alliance not only allows for this, but facilitates and encourages these relationships within the congregation, and within our extended community.”
Fine said he believes that Sound Alliance will create stronger Jews and stronger synagogues.
“This is not a one-time project. This is not a social action committee idea. This is truly having Jews involved in acting in the world, which I think is part of what it means to be a Jew,” he said.