Jeffrey I. Pasek
President
Kenneth L. Fox
Vice President
Kenneth Myers
Vice President
Joel D. Beaver
Treasurer
Stewart Weintraub
Secretary &
General Counsel
Directors:
Susan Myers, Chair
Irwin Aronson, Esq.
Deanne Comer
Hon. Ruth Damsker
Marshall Dayan, Esq.
William Epstein
Helen Fox
Brian Gralnick
Jerome Kaplan, Esq.
Lazar Kleit
Judah Labovitz, Esq.
Ruth Laibson
Rabbi Robert Layman
Spencer Lempert, Esq.
Herb Levine
Theodore Mann, Esq.
Rosalie Matzkin, Ed.D.
Norm Newberg, Ph.D.
Ruth Perry
Adena Potok
Ruth Schultz, Ph.D.
Randy Schulz
Daniel Segal, Esq.
Burt Siegel
Jared Solomon
Rabbi David Straus
Alex Urevick Acklesberg
Rabbi Avi Winokur
|
Jewish Social Policy Action Network
Progressive voices for a healthy democracy
November 28, 2007
JSPAN has had an eventful year serving as a progressive voice within the Jewish community, and we are looking forward to accomplishing even more with your help. Among the highlights:
- Our members participated in a special screening of Freedom Writers followed by a discussion on the ability of teachers to use The Diary of Anne Frank as a way of reaching at-risk youth.
- Congressman Barney Frank from Massachusetts addressed our annual meeting and laid out elements of a progressive legislative agenda.
- We organized “Redistricting: Limiting your right to vote,” our first ever continuing legal education program, which featured Prof. Bruce Cain of the University of California - Berkeley and Montgomery County Legislator Daylin Leach.
- Alan Lerner and Adelaide Ferguson received our Social Justice Award for their extraordinary advocacy on behalf of children and their efforts internationally to promote the rule of law and foster cross-cultural understanding.
- Coming up in December we will be presenting Prof. Stephen Solomon, author of the acclaimed new book Ellery’s Protest – How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer. At that event we will reunite for the first time in 50 years Ellery Schempp and Ted Mann, the brilliant young lawyer who drafted the original complaint that resulted in a Supreme Court ruling outlawing organized prayer and Bible reading in the public schools – a pivotal decision that is still a flash point in the current culture wars.
- Continuing our cutting edge work on Church-State issues, JSPAN filed amicus curiae briefs in two important cases:
- Combs v. Homer Center School District, which involves the extent to which government can regulate the activities of parents who seek to home school their children for religious reasons.
- Busch v. Marple-Newtown School District, a test case by the religious right in which a parent is trying to force a public school to let her read from the Bible to her son’s kindergarten class.
In addition to all of these programs, JSPAN was active in many other areas including:
- The expansion of Food Stamp benefits and availability
- Immigration Reform
- Opposing the Death Penalty
- Darfur
- Mobilization against the Iraq war
- Working to end gun violence
Our proposed refugee amendment was included in the Immigration Reform bill introduced by Senator Specter. Although legislative action on the subject of immigration ground to a halt, we are pleased that a key protection for refugees has now been added for future Congressional action.
JSPAN’s push of two key committee chairs resulted in the release from their committees of a bill guaranteeing that interpreter services will be provided in court and administrative hearings throughout Pennsylvania. Although it had been stuck in committee for more than a year, once the bill reached the floor it was passed overwhelmingly and signed into law by the Governor.
Our web-site: www.jspan.org continues to bring our members, supporters, and friends a wealth of information on topics of vital interest. Our newsletter provides periodic alerts on matters of immediate interest.
For the coming year we are planning additional initiatives in the area of health care reform, ethnic intimidation and a host of additional amicus briefs. We need your support. Our ability to perform vital work on behalf of the Jewish community depends on your financial contribution. We may be a small organization, but our reach is broad, our voice is loud and growing louder. Our impact can be even stronger with your support.
We appreciate your help and encourage you to become actively involved with our work.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Pasek
President
PS. Please return your end-of-year contribution in the enclosed envelope. If you prefer, you can donate at: www.jspan.org. Please do it today.
|