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Reform Vision

Religious Action Center's new leader sees
a "more socially just America."

Shari S. Cohen I

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12

February 19 • 2015

Pa

Special to the Jewish News

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The Reform movement's RAC has
been a leading religious advocacy orga-
nization for more than 50 years. While
not a registered lobbying organization,
RAC devotes some of its organizational
resources to influencing legislation.
During the 1960s, RAC and other
religious organizations helped draft
and support the Civil Rights and Voting
Rights acts. Pesner's predecessor, Rabbi
David Saperstein, who was RAC's well-
known director for 40 years, recently
was appointed U.S. Ambassador for
International Religious Freedom.
Pesner, 46, will continue to serve as
senior vice president of the Union for
Reform Judaism (URJ), a position he
has held since 2011. He was ordained
at Hebrew Union College in 1997 and
served as a congregational rabbi at
Temple Israel in Boston and at Temple
Israel in Westport, Conn. He and his
wife, Dana Gershon, a lawyer, have four
children.

Just Congregations
In 2006, he founded the Just
Congregations initiative that has mobi-
lized Reform congregations in 180
communities located in 30 states to
advocate for social justice issues, often
in coalition with other religious as well
as civic organizations. These congrega-
tions and coalitions have campaigned
on a nonpartisan basis for local and
national issues including economic
and racial disparities, marriage equal-
ity, human rights and other causes.
Pesner was a key leader in the success-
ful campaign for health care access in
Massachusetts.
Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township
has been part of the
national core team of
Just Congregations
since its inception.
"Just Congregations
represents the Reform
movement's most
cutting-edge approach
Rabbi Mark
to
our ancient impera-
Miller
tive to strive for social
justice. It is based on the call of the
prophets, and utilizes the community
organizing approach that a small num-
ber of us have pioneered at Reform
congregations for the last 8-10 years,"
Miller said. "Although Rabbi Pesner

will be based in Washington, D.C., he
intends to build a broad base of active,
committed, knowledgeable Reform
Jews across the country who will share
their stories, pool their passions and
leverage their power in order to effect
positive change in our society."
With 900 congregations, the Reform
movement has the capacity to reach a
large portion of the American Jewish
population. At the national level,
choosing specific issues for advocacy
is based on consideration of what is
in line with the deepest core values of
Reform Judaism, what is actionable
and the potential for impact, Pesner
explained.
One current initiative is gun control.
RAC is working with law enforcement
agencies to convince gun manufactur-
ers to incorporate "smart gun" tech-
nology in their weapons. According
to Pesner, this technology would help
prevent gun use by unregistered gun
owners. Sensors or radio-frequency
technology would identify gun owners
and prohibit others from using the gun.

Grassroots Efforts
One of Pesner's goals is to enhance
the Reform movement's capacity to
advocate effectively through grassroots
involvement by individual congrega-
tions.
"We teach and preach and then ask

members how they think the Reform
movement or temple should live
out 5,000 years of Jewish values!' he
explained.
Detroit is one of several cities where
Pesner is traveling to meet local leaders
and discuss RAC plans.
"The reason I wanted to bring Rabbi
Pesner to Detroit was that he can help
local congregations access the best
practices, resources and inspiring
trends that are shaping our national
conversation about the future of
American Jewry," Miller said. "I know
that many other rabbis have expressed
interest, and I am confident that we
can create a stronger base for Just
Congregations and the work Rabbi
Pesner will champion at the RAC, right
here in Detroit!'
Rabbi Paul Yedwab of Temple Israel
in West Bloomfield, a good friend of
Pesner, attended one of the local meet-
ings and spoke enthusiastically about
his "bottom-up" approach to advocacy.
Yedwab said that a
congregation would
go through a pro-
cess of small group
meetings to discuss
what social problems
they would like to
address and choose
a few areas in which
Rabbi Paul
they want to make an
Yedwab
impact. He noted that
mass transportation is
an issue that has mobilized some mem-
bers of the Detroit-area Jewish commu-
nity as well as churches and mosques.
In addition to his focus on advocacy
for social justice and strengthening the
capacity of congregations to be "agents
of change Pesner is the founder of the
Campaign for Youth Engagement. Its goal
is to reduce the number of Jewish young
people who "drop out" of Jewish educa-
tion and involvement after their bar and
bat mitzvahs.
One initiative is the development
of special interest camps and trips for
Jewish teens. He is pleased that NFTY,
the Reform movement's youth division,
now has a full-time professional staffer in
the Detroit area.
"Rabbi Pesner is laying out the plan
for the future, and I think it's very excit-
ing with a high possibility of success!'
Yedwab said. "He is an inspirational
leader of the Reform movement:' ❑