Join us as we head into our most people-powered session yet!
Thank you to the 100+ JUFJers who joined us to kick off a new year of organizing and advocacy work in Maryland! We’re now gearing up for the upcoming legislative session, and hope you will join us!
Even if you were unable to attend, we want to know what issues you are excited to work on! Please review the materials below and share how you’d like to get involved in our statewide work. And see the list of resources at the bottom of the page so you can dive right into our advocacy this session.
We look forward to working with you to make Maryland a place where everyone has what they need to live and thrive. Here’s to our most people-powered session yet!
Maryland Community Kickoff: Schmooze in the Sukkah
We held our Community Kickoff on Hoshanah Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot. Anna Rubin, the co-chair of JUFJ’s Justice System Reform and Immigrant Rights team and a member of JUFJ’s Maryland Core Team, shared these remarks:
In some traditions, Hoshana Rabbah is regarded as a mini-Yom Kippur, signaling the culmination of the High Holidays. It is a time in which teshuvah, or turning towards embodying our best selves, is foremost. You could certainly call our ongoing work in JUFJ a form of community teshuvah, in which we hope to see our society embody its best self — its most just and compassionate self.
The sukkah we are in is a wonderful symbol of JUFJ. It’s a structure grounded in Jewish history and values. It is also open, and attests to JUFJ’s central mandate to partner with multiracial, multifaith, cross-class movements working for social, racial, and economic justice. Its fragility needs our constant attention to maintain that fine-edged balance between structure and flexibility — between an openness to our partners’ visions of justice and a grounding in tikkun olam, or Judaism’s core teaching of repairing the world.
Thank you, Anna, for these powerful words, and thank you, Cantor Rosalie Will, for leading us in song and reminding us of the valuable role music can play in changemaking work! Click below for links to learn and listen to the song that will be guiding us as we head into session.
Maryland Organizing Kickoff: Agenda for Action
This session, we will be focusing on six issue areas: Renters’ Rights, Labor Justice, Immigrant Rights, Transforming Public Safety, Court and Prison Reform, and Transparent and Accessible Government. We are finalizing our focus for each issue area in collaboration with our coalition partners. As part of that process, we want to know which of our key issues you’re most invested in working on.
Read below to access all of the resources shared during our Organizing Kickoff (including a recording and presentation slides). And then once you’re caught up, share your feedback on our MDGA 2023 agenda, register for pre-session trainings, and more!
Agenda Setting
Next Steps
Even if you were unable to attend the kickoff, please let us know which of our issue areas you’re most excited to work on and how you want to get involved.
Our “Annapolis Academy” trainings run from mid-November through the start of the legislative session. Join experienced JUFJers and staff to learn about your legislators, how to provide testimony, how the legislative session works, and more.
Want to keep warm in Annapolis this year with JUFJ hoodies and beanies? Fill out this interest form! We will follow up with a payment form and delivery information.
