Cheers and whoops greeted President Clinton as he made ready to sign the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in the White House Rose Garden on February 5, 1993. I was fortunate enough to be one of the exuberant on-lookers that day 20 years ago and believe me formal applause just wouldn’t do on that special day. This very first bill signing for President Clinton was the culmination of nine long years of hard work on the part of a diverse, national coalition led by what was then the Women’s Legal Defense Fund (now National Partnership for Women and Families).

Mixed into the crowd with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, senators and representatives, and administration officials were those of us who made the day possible – leaders from organizations like NCJW that educated and mobilized their constituents to speak out for a new labor standard that took into account the needs of working families.

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by Carole Levine, NCJW vice president

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her in dance with timbrels. And Miriam chanted for them…          

In the Torah portion for Shabbat Shira (January 26, 2013), we can not only visualize, but we can hear the voices of women, celebrating a victory over Pharaoh. While we don’t often hear the voice of women in the Torah, more and more writings and commentaries bring us a feminist perspective. The voices and impact of Jewish women have been a component of social justice throughout our history.

For me, elevating the voices of women is personal. Perhaps this is because I have been raising my own voice since the age of five when I expressed discomfort in having to recite the Lord’s Prayer every morning in my public school kindergarten. My habit of speaking out continued through middle and high school directed wherever I saw injustice and beyond. But I did not really understand the importance and value of women’s voices until I directed my activism to women’s issues and to broader social justice issues from a Jewish woman’s perspective.

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by Judi Wolf, Chair of the Play It Safe Campaign, NCJW Cleveland Section

Since last year’s horrific tragedies involving firearms, suggestions as to how to stop this problem have been coming forward in articles, editorials, and social media. So, too, have suggestions on where to put the blame: violence in movies, TV, and electronic games; the lack of sufficient mental health services; the proliferation of firearms with the ability for mass shooting; and the loose laws that easily allow for the purchase of illegal firearms.

Here in the NCJW Cleveland (OH) Section our advocacy committee works in coalitions, working together to ensure a safer environment by reducing illegal gun trafficking and ensuring the enforcement of laws concerning legal gun purchasing. We also spend a considerable amount of time advocating for sensible gun laws. These efforts, tied up with political wrangling, will take time to bear fruit.

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By Julie Lowenberg, NCJW Board Director

“Judges Needed for Federal Courts – President Obama and the Senate must make filling the judiciary a paramount priority,” said a New York Times editorial published on December 13, the day that NCJW (with co-sponsors: Alliance for Justice, Center for American Progress, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and People for the American Way Foundation) convened “Courts Matter”, a two-day training workshop on this timely topic. Held in Dallas, TX, the workshop included participants representing diverse organizations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, the states that make up the 5th Circuit of the Federal Judiciary. NCJW members attending with me were LA SPA Ina Davis and Jill Zimmerman from New Orleans Section, Marlene Cohen TX SPA, Joy Friedman (Houston Section).

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by Joni Cohan, NCJW Vice President

On December 13, 2012, I had the honor of representing NCJW at the White House Hanukkah party. My whirlwind day in Washington was not all celebration. It began at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that morning with a briefing organized by Jarrod Bernstein, Director of Jewish Outreach at the White House.

At that briefing we heard from administration officials who shared with us a variety of issues.  Jonathan Greenblatt, Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, spoke on how to engage people in civic life – something that leads to higher rates of voter registration. He shared ideas about how social media could affect economic recovery and job creation. He discussed FEMACorp, an AmeriCorp program with 2000 positions for young people who are prepared to aid in times of disaster.

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by Fran Levey, NCJW National Commissioner

We say that 2012 was the year of the “war on women,” but 2013 might well be the “Year of the Woman.” Ninety-eight women will be on their way to Washington this January. And again, I am so pleased to share with you another parallel example of NCJW’s progressive domestic agenda and our work in Israel. Over the last several years NCJW has collaborated with WePower — An Organization for the Advancement of Women’s Leadership in Israel, Changing the Face of Leadership in Israel. Established in 2000, WePower is a non-profit, non-partisan Israeli NGO, promoting women’s leadership, gender integration and equality at all levels of Israeli society. WePower proactively focuses on advancing women to top influential positions at the highest levels of decision-making and elected positions.

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Remember the scene in School Ties when the main character, David Greene (Brendan Fraser), takes off his Star of David necklace and hides it in his dresser before starting school? I saw that scene when I was in middle school, and in that moment I realized that I could hide my Jewish identity if I ever needed or wanted to. Then in the next moment, it hit me that most black people couldn’t do this if they wanted to avoid racism.

About a decade later, I participated in my first “privilege line” activity at a diversity training. During the debrief of this activity, a black college student shared his experience of feeling violated and unfairly treated when followed by a police officer as he shopped at a grocery store. Other people of color in the room nodded in understanding. I, on the other hand, was shocked, disturbed, and reminded of my privilege. I have never heard any of my white friends or neighbors recount a similar experience.

As I continued to learn more about US history and hear people’s experiences, I’ve learned that race matters. Race matters in every aspect of our life, such as housing, education, healthcare, jobs, voting, and law enforcement.

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by Nancy Ratzan, NCJW Immediate Past President, and
Robin Leeds, NCJW Board Director

On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, we saw the curtains pulled back on voting in South Florida, once again exposing a labyrinth of inter-tangled and ever-expanding voting challenges. Though Florida’s voting experience has been anemic since 2000, I don’t think any of us expected South Florida’s election experience to be the ‘perfect storm’ this year.

Our story actually began months ago. We wanted to engage in NCJW’s national Promote the Vote, Protect the Vote 2012 Initiative, and support NCJW’s collaboration with The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which coordinates the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection project. After excellent training, great resources, connecting with a network of trained legal and non-legal field volunteers and staff, we were excited to accept our assignment to staff the Broward County Command Center with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Election Protection Project on Election Day.

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It’s not very respectful but whenever Congress comes back into session after an election it’s commonly referred to as a lame-duck session. That’s because some of the members of Congress who will be deliberating on unfinished business won’t be coming back again, either by choice or the will of the voters back home.

This week, even as the “class” of newly elected freshmen members of the upcoming 113th Congress are here in town for orientation, the 112th Congress is returning for a lame-duck session. And their agenda couldn’t be more critical to the future of our country.

Congress has less than two months to reach an agreement on the budget in order to avert automatic cuts to domestic programs that are scheduled to take effect in January. Sequestration — the provision under the Budget Control Act that has become known as the “fiscal cliff” and that sets in motion budget cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit — threatens to push millions of low-income families deeper into poverty by cutting key safety net programs. Automatic tax increases that are part of this scenario threaten harm to a struggling middle class as well. The White House, strengthened by the overwhelming vote of confidence delivered on Election Day, is pushing hard for lawmakers to look to repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans rather than to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. Regardless of how you refer to this last gasp of the 112th Congress — the fate of millions of American families rests on their actions!

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By Anoush Bagdoyan, NCJW Senior Manager of Communications

On Sunday, October 28, when I evacuated from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in preparation for Hurricane Sandy, Election Day was still nine days away. There was some talk of what effect the storm would have on voting, but the possibility of any havoc seemed like a long shot at the time.

Yesterday morning at work, the day before the election, was a different story. We were discussing the final stages of NCJW’s Promote the Vote, Protect the Vote efforts and how we would be engaging the greater NCJW community, including staff, to share their voting experiences. I blurted out, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to vote.”

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