The reception on November 14 for the presentation of the Social Justice Award to Alan Lerner and Adelaide Ferguson honored a wide range of vibrant and successful activity in support of tikkun olam, the repair of the world.

Mark Heywood, the keynote speaker and a freedom fighter against the South African apartheid government, described the struggle leading to the fall of the apartheid government, and his work since then to bring relief from the awful toll of HIV, which causes one thousand deaths from AIDS each day in South Africa. He remarked that so many "good ideas don't get implemented" and concluded, "JSPAN is about marshalling the great ideas, that is what activism is about." The organization Mark oversees uses the courts of South Africa along with suasion and other tools of civil activism to bring treatment and education to those in need.

JSPAN President Jeff Pasek, in presenting the award, saluted Dean Ferguson of the Temple University Law School on the international programs she has developed to teach human rights and civil liberties around the world and here. Jeff noted Alan Lerner's good works from his days as a civil rights worker in Mississippi registering voters, to his litigation career as a partner at the Cohen Shapiro law firm, to his current interdisciplinary program for the advancement of child advocacy methods and training as a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Ferguson complimented JSPAN and all those present for their work in tikkun olam, the Judaic principle of "repairing the world." Lerner responded with an endorsement of social action, and the ability of the small actions of many people to achieve large dimension and to produce significant social change.

The award program was one of JSPAN's largest events to date, with over two hundred subscribers filling the Pyramid Club reception rooms to capacity.

To view more pictures of the reception, click here.

Following the reception, Ted Mann, a member of the JSPAN Board, wrote the following reflection (see article below) on Jewish activism in the battle against apartheid and the power such activism can wield today.

In December 1984, many Jewish organizations undertook various forms of anti-apartheid activities ranging from acts of civil disobedience by leaders of the American Jewish Congress before the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. (Theo Bikel, Henry Siegman and Ted Mann) leading to their arrest, to a variety of vigils engaged in by the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the New Jewish Agenda, and the Anti-Defamation League, to the issuance of new and important statements by the National Council of Jewish Women and, at the same time, similar actions were undertaken by Jewish Community Relations Councils in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and in California. The next month, January, 1985, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), now known as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), advised all of its 114 local and 11 national member agencies in detail about those activities. The result was an explosion of anti-apartheid activity, protests, educational programs, and political work by Jewish communities, large and small, all over America.

In June, 1985 the assembled NJCRAC delegates overwhelmingly voted to support the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1985 whose economic sanction provisions were rigorous - significantly more rigorous than those that would be imposed by President Reagan's Executive Order three months later. Until then the Administration had followed a policy that it called "constructive engagement", and the new Executive Order constituted an important change - a change brought about solely by enraged public opinion of which the Jewish community's efforts were a substantial part.

Then, starting with the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island in September 1985, Federations began to take divestment decisions in respect of their own investment portfolios. By year-end 1985, Federations in cities where 2 million of America's 5.8 million Jews lived had done so, and were in the process of implementing them. In May 1986 new legislation, imposing more stringent sanctions than those in the Executive Order, was introduced in both Houses of the United States Congress, and a growing number of American public and private institutions were turning to divestment as a form of pressure. 50 states, 50 American cities, and 70 colleges and universities began to restrict pension fund investments in companies doing business with South Africa and 16 American corporations closed their South African subsidiaries. In 1987 the State Department called on France, Israel, Italy, West Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland to immediately begin to disengage from military relations with South Africa. On February 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela walked out of prison, after 27 years, as a free man and immediately called for an even more determined effort against apartheid. By 1991, the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished in negotiations between the government and the African National Congress, and President Bush (the father) lifted all American economic sanctions against South Africa.

JSPAN takes great pride in presenting a talk by Professor Solomon, who will be available to autograph copies of his book. Joining him will be Ellery Schempp and Ted Mann, who will be reunited for the first time in 50 years as they discuss one of the most important rulings on religious freedom in our country’s history.

Date: December 6, 2007
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Temple Beth Am, 971 Old York Road Abington, PA

Click here to reserve your space now.

JSPAN RESOLUTION ON RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF LAW IN PAKISTAN

As an organization that believes in law as the foundation of a civilized society and as the protector of both the weak and the strong, JSPAN views with alarm the recent actions by General Pervez Musharraf to suspend the constitution and to detain eight members of the Pakistan Supreme Court. We deplore the Pakistani government's action in attacking and arresting more than 1,500 Pakistani lawyers.

A just society depends on the maintenance of the rule of law in an atmosphere protective of individual liberties. The continued operation of an independent judiciary in Pakistan is essential to the administration of justice and to the existence of any lawful and legitimate government.

JSPAN salutes and supports the brave efforts of those Pakistani lawyers and judges who are leading the resistance efforts in that country. We encourage the government of the United States to press General Musharraf for the immediate restoration of the rule of law in Pakistan and the release of lawyers, judges and members of the political opposition who have been detained.

I've just spent a week in New Orleans. I knew that coming back to this city for the first time after the Katrina disaster two-and-a-half years ago would evoke deep-seated emotions and memories in me. The images of the tragedy, particularly those of the Morial Convention Center under siege, were still fresh in my mind. I needed to see for myself how the recovery of this authentically American cultural icon was proceeding. What I witnessed left me saddened and, at the same time, hopeful.

As I was driven through the Lakeview and New Orleans East districts and eventually across the lower and upper Ninth Wards, a vast expanse of many square miles, I experienced an increasing sense of desolation and hopelessness. Empty lots with exposed foundations were everywhere, many covered in tall weeds and wild vegetation. Most of the buildings that were still standing were gutted on the inside and stripped of any reworkable materials. Windows and roofs were broken or missing and remains of personal possessions were scattered along the curbs.

Multiple water lines were etched on the outer walls of the surviving buildings, most of which were marked with a shorthand of letters and numbers placed on the structures by FEMA officials in the weeks after the water had begun to recede. Passing several boarded-up elementary schools with deserted playgrounds were perhaps the most gut-wrenching moments - the silence was too loud to bear. Neighborhood after neighborhood was decimated, whole communities across generations were gone.

I could not envision any possibility of a future here. And then I spent a day at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, a MAZON grantee. I wanted to understand, first-hand, how the issue of post-Katrina hunger relief, with its unique problems, was being addressed. I learned a lot about the efforts being made to get food to hungry New Orleanians, but, perhaps more significantly, I was helped to reconsider my thoughts about what the city's future should be.

Natalie Jayroe, the food bank's president and chief executive officer, believes, most strongly, that the rebirth of New Orleans is not only a possibility, but an imperative. Besides the fact that this port city on the Mississippi River serves as an invaluable economic engine for the entire region, it also represents a part of American cultural history that cannot be replicated. Ms. Jayroe places the main responsibility for the Katrina disaster on a lack of national leadership, which has resulted in neglect to the infrastructure of the city and indifference to the needs of its poorest citizens. In her estimation, post-Katrina recovery failure is also the result, to a great extent, of a corrupt and weak city government.

Amid the ongoing debate over whether the ecological issues raised by New Orleans' vulnerable location at the mouth of the Mississippi make reconstruction unrealistic, Ms. Jayroe refuses to accept that argument. She insists that if a sustained effort is made to appropriately rebuild the levee system, with the ongoing engagement of the federal government, the city will then be able to withstand other natural disasters. The Katrina tragedy was NOT the natural disaster that occurred, but rather the tragic consequence of the collapse of the levees, caused by human failure to maintain the system over many decades.

Natalie Jayroe moved with her family to New Orleans in November of 2006 to assume the leadership of the Second Harvest Food Bank, following almost a decade as head of a food bank in Savannah, Georgia. She felt compelled, after Katrina, to bring her remarkable skills, energy and passion to a community in crisis. She is committed to the future of New Orleans and is convinced that the city can be reclaimed in five to ten years, including a new water system, electricity grid, housing and schools. However, she states that this will only happen with the execution of a plan for redevelopment on the magnitude of "an American Marshall Plan or a New Deal".

Does Natalie Jayroe represent a new vision for New Orleans? Is anyone listening? Only time will tell.

According to another recent survey, this one by the Tami Steinmetz Center at Tel Aviv University, 57% of Israelis believe that resuming the peace process is as urgent or more urgent for Israel than it is for the Palestinians. This poll also reveals that Israelis are prepared to compromise over territory: 56% consider preserving a Jewish majority in Israel more important than holding on to all of "Greater Israel", and 54% prefer peace agreements to holding on to "Greater Israel".

Rosenberg lays much of the blame for the spread of extremist violence by Israelis on "the effort to preserve the settlements and keep the Palestinians under occupation. In a sense, it is not surprising that occupation produces this kind of ugliness. By definition, occupation coarsens the occupier."

The fanatics in Israel have as much interest as their Palestinian counterparts in seeing the Annapolis conference fail. "All this", insists Rosenberg, "adds urgency to Annapolis. .... If you support Israel, you have no choice but to support what Olmert, Abbas and Rice are trying to do. The alternative is supporting continuation of the occupation and the death of the Zionist dream."

To read this article in its entirety, click here.

Both Prime Minister of Israel Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Rice have delivered major addresses recently about their hopes and expectations for the upcoming Annapolis conference.

To read Prime Minister Olmert's remarks of November 7 at the 2007 Saban Forum, click here.

To read Secretary of State Rice's remarks of November 13 at the 2007 United Jewish Communities General Assembly, click here.

Become a member of JSPAN or renew your membership now. It's easy to do on our website by credit card, or you can mail in your donation. JSPAN is your progressive voice and action agency, and needs your help now!

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