Be the Change

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.  – Barack Obama

The past two weeks have offered us the opportunity to hear some of the best speechmakers of our time. Regardless of your political persuasion, we were given an opportunity that only occurs every four years, where our patriotism was stirred, our values renewed, our determination to improve our lives through our legal and political system was restored, sometimes through anger and sometimes through a reflection of our own ideals.

This weekend we have the opportunity to be “the change that we seek.” We will learn about serious and life threatening flaws in our prison system, particularly their tortuous effect on juvenile offenders, and what we can do about it. This is a priority tikkun olam (social justice) program of the Religious Action Center (RAC) of Reform Judaism.

Please join us for a peaceful and inspiring setting to celebrate Shabbat together and learn from an activist on this topic. We will be reading Torah and following lunch, our children will be entertained while adults learn together. I look forward to seeing you again, as this Shabbat officially inaugurates our next programmatic year.

May you have a week of blessings and a Shabbat of peace.

Rabbi Debbie Israel