September 14, 2005
Honoring Burt Siegel
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Burt Siegel to Receive JSPAN
Social Justice Award 
On Wednesday September 21, 2005, JSPAN will present longtime community activist Burt Siegel with its Social Justice Award. Burt, Director of Community Relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, is a nationally recognized community relations and public policy expert. The award honors Burt for 35 years of dedicated service to the Jewish community and the community at-large where he has worked tirelessly to bridge differences among diverse ethnic and religious groups. The award presentation will take place at the Pyramid Club, 1735 Market Street, 52nd floor, in Philadelphia from 5:45 to 7:30 PM. Reservations may be made by calling JSPAN at (215) 635-2554 or by sending a check for $90 to JSPAN at 335 River Birch Circle, Elkins Park, PA 19027-1338.
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'Minimum Wage Hike Needed Now' 
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, Rabbi Michael Holzman and JSPAN President Jeffrey Pasek appeared at hearings before the Senate Labor and Industry Committee on a proposal to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage. As the only organization from the Jewish community to testify, JSPAN urged the Senate panel to boost the minimum wage on both economic grounds and out of a sense of moral urgency. Citing compelling economic data, Rabbi Holzman noted that the current $5.15 minimum wage does not enable an individual working full-time to live self-sufficiently anywhere in Pennsylvania. The situation is even bleaker for someone trying to raise an infant in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In Montgomery County, for example, an individual with an infant would have to earn $17.70 an hour to scrape by on a “no-frills” lifestyle -- one that includes no money for recreation, entertainment, or savings. Rabbi Holzman described to the Senate panel the notion that there are eight degrees of Tzedakah in Jewish tradition. Forcing people to rely on the public welfare system to get by is the lowest form because recipients are made to feel unworthy and aid is doled out grudgingly. By contrast, Rabbi Holzman explained “raising the minimum wage promotes the highest form of Tzedakah because it enables individuals to achieve human dignity by using the efforts of their own labor to provide for themselves and their families.”
Click here to read JSPAN’s complete testimony.
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JSPAN Member Chosen as New JCPA Executive Director Steve Gutow has been named Executive Director of JCPA, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. JCPA is the “common table” around which 122 community agencies (JCRCs and Federations) and 13 national organizations meet regularly in order identify issues, articulate consensus positions (as well as dissenting positions), and develop strategies, programs, and approaches designed to advance the public affairs goals and objectives of the organized Jewish community. JCPA’s overarching goals are to safeguard the rights of Jews here in America, in Israel, and around the world, and to protect, preserve, and promote a just and pluralistic American society wedded to the Bill of Rights and committed to the rule of law. The national organizations within JCPA include Hadassah, the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements, B’nai B’rith/Anti-Defamation League, A.J. Committee, A.J. Congress, National Council of Jewish Women, Women’s American ORT, Jewish Labor Committee and Jewish War Veterans. Steve was ordained a Rabbi and Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2003. Early in his career as a practicing lawyer in Dallas, he organized AIPAC’s pro-Israel lobbying efforts in six southwestern states. Then, in the 1990’s, he became the founding executive head of the National Jewish Democratic Council. In 2003 he was appointed Rabbi of the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis. In addition to his spiritual and pastoral activities, he created social justice and religious programming for the congregation and was a founder of All God’s Children – Christian, Jewish and Moslem clergy combating extremist teachings of the Religious Right. He organized a community-wide series on bigotry towards Muslims and Arabs, African-Americans and homosexuals, focusing on how to combat such prejudice, and worked to improve relations between African- Americans and local police.
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