Civic Engagement

Our Work

Tzedek, tzedek tirdof Justice, justice you shall pursue! This commandment is the basis for our civic engagement work. And we take it quite seriously, engaging in many of the issues of our day. While we sometimes do this through individual Woodlands projects or with community or issue-based groups, much of it is done in collaboration with the Religious Action Center (RAC – the Reform movement’s vehicle for working to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Reform Jewish community to advocate for social justice) and RAC-New York (focused on NYS issues). We have successfully lobbied for parole reform and driver’s licenses for all. We are very proud of our contributions toward fighting voter suppression, the passage of New York’s Environmental Bond Act, and adding the Equal Rights amendment to the NYS constitution.

Climate Change
Woodlands has joined Religious Action Center-NY in its multi-year Climate Covenant. We have already achieved several of our legislative goals and, with RAC-NY, will continue to advocate for environmentally responsible legislation. We are so pleased that our efforts on behalf of the Climate Change Superfund Act resulted in its passage in the NYS legislature. The measure awaits Gov. Hochul’s signature. 
Note: This work is being done in partnership with our Environmental Taskforce

Post-Carding Campaign
For the past few years, Woodlands congregants have been participating in a campaign to fight voter suppression and encourage all Americans to vote, most particularly those whose voices have traditionally been silenced. Some folks wrote postcards individually, some in family groups, some with friends, and some on Zoom with other congregants. We felt proud and we felt powerful – and we had fun! 

The effort continued this year as we focused our postcarding on reproductive freedom as well as voter suppression; promoting abortion access in New York and Florida; encouraging voting by Black citizen in Georgia and Virginia; and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the NYS constitution (embedding in the NYS constitution guarantees of abortion access and protection against discrimination based on gender, age, national origin, disability, and ethnicity (in addition to the existing protections against discrimination based on race and religion)). The participants spanned generations. They wrote at home, at lunches/coffees, and other get-togethers at congregants' homes, at the temple while hearing from leaders in these movements, at Academy, and at onegs. In all, our congregants wrote more than 6,000 postcards in this election cycle. 

Note: This work is being done in partnership with our Racial Justice Taskforce and Reproductive Justice Taskforce.

Leader: Andrea Olstein, CETF@wct.org

CONTACTING OFFICIALS

A major way in which we advocate for a just society is by communicating our thoughts to leaders of government. Click HERE for contact information.