Along with providing opportunities for service and action, we engage in social justice education to better understand the issues we face and how to be effective in our advocacy.

SAJ’s SOJAC (Social Action Justice Committee) organizes educational forums and speakers on critical issues of our day. These conversations often help launch a new initiative or campaign, or support and deepen the work with which we are already engaged. Some examples of recent programs are “Restorative Justice and Alternatives to Mass Incarceration” and “Incarceration and Re-entry: Strategies to Support the Formerly Incarcerated.”

SAJ also participates in Human Rights Shabbat through T’ruah and Refugee Shabbat through HIAS, often with speakers or study sessions during Shabbat. Speakers have included Rabbi Jennie Rosen formerly of HIAS, Daniel Altschuler of Make the Road New York, Debbie Almontaser of Muslim Community Network, and Ravi Ragbir of New Sanctuary Coalition. Tamara Fish spoke to SAJ on “Confrontation and Avoidance: Race and the Jewish Community” and Miriam Yeung spoke about “Reproductive Justice and Intersectionality.”