Havurah and Green Empowerment in the News
March 25, 2010
Havurah’s Green Empowerment Project was featured in a story in the Jewish Review. Click here to read the story online or pick up a copy of the Jewish Review in the Havurah foyer (Magazine Exchange Box). Find out more about Havurah’s project here.
Passover Readings to Support Social Justice
March 19, 2010
From the Social Action Committee
For your Passover Seder this year, we encourage you to recognize that we are Jews in the World. We have a responsibility to work towards reducing inequality, recognize and work toward a reduction of global poverty in the global south and act to support the human rights of all people in this world.
Havurah supports local efforts to provide food for those in needs through our work with the Oregon Food Bank and the Northwest Portland Ministries. We provide a connection with the homeless by providing meals at the Transition Project. We advocate with our elected representatives for debt relief as an effective foreign aid strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through our membership in the Jubilee Oregon and Jubilee USA. We support sustainable development and the funding for a solar powered water system in El Jacote, Nicaragua through our partnership with Green Empowerment.
Please look at these two Passover resources from American Jewish World Service to include in your Seder.
Why is this year different from all other years? Readings to augment the Four Questions, click here.
Dayenu: Supporting the Long Journey from Disaster to Recovery, click here.
Advocacy Works: Haiti and Debt Cancellation
March 1, 2010
by Bob Brown
If you wonder if sending a message to your congressman matters, this story will demonstrate that it does matter.
The Jubilee USA Network organizations have been advocating for debt forgiveness for Haiti since 2007. The story of Haiti’s poverty and debt is complicated, having both political and economic aspects that have perpetuated the poverty of the Haitian people. Natural disasters have exacerbated the country’s poverty.
The earthquake on January 12, 2010 has caused unimaginable destruction. In response to the crisis, the International Monetary Fund responded by announcing its intent to give Haiti a $100 million loan. Loaning Haiti more money was completely inappropriate. This action by the IMF caused the advocacy community to act. Jubilee USA and other organizations organized a letter writing campaign to Members of Congress. This caused a bi-partisan letter to be written by two Representatives to Treasury Secretary Geithner, calling for “the complete cancellation of debts owed by Haiti to multilateral financial institutions…and the provision of assistance to Haiti in the form of grants so that the country does not accumulate additional debts.” 94 Members signed this letter as a direct result of phone calls and emails that were made by you and people like you.
Next, individuals were asked to sign a petition to Treasury Secretary Geithner urging him use his leadership to negotiate the cancellation of Haiti’s remaining debts to international institutions and ensure that all new aid comes in the form of grants, not loans.
The consequence of these advocacy actions;
On the eve of the G7 meeting in Canada, Geithner announced that the U.S. intends to seek a commitment with other donors for Haiti’s debt relief to the international financial institutions “in a manner that provides direct and immediate grant support to Haiti.”
At the G7 meeting in Canada, these countries have told Haiti that any debts it owes them needn’t be repaid and international lenders (such as the IMF and the World Bank) should do the same.
The story is not over. Jubilee and other organizations must hold these countries and the international financial institutions accountable to their stated intention.
Actions of advocates like you made this happen. If you wonder if sending a message to your congressman matters, this should demonstrate that it does matter.
Havurah co-sponsors Jewish Theatre Collaborative presentation of “Kindertransport”
February 24, 2010
Havurah Shalom is pleased to co-sponsor this event:
Jewish Theatre Collaborative partners with Oregon Holocaust Resource Center and the Oregon Area Jewish Committee to present Kindertransport 2010.
Performances February 25-March 21, Thursday-Saturday @ 7:30 PM, Sundays @ 2 pm
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 Southwest Morrison Street, Portland, OR 97205
Through the play, Kindertransport and planned satellite programming, we can bring community together to examine the historical implications of one girl’s story to reflect on the universals that are playing themselves out on contemporary battlefields.
Kindertransport, by Diane Samuels weaves story of 3 generations of women whose lives are intertwined when 9 year old Eva is sent from Germany to Manchester in 1938. Set in attic of middle aged Evelyn, looking for items for daughter’s apartment, boxes are unpacked, and traumatic memories penetrate her present. Her daughter discovers that her obsessive compulsive and occasionally seemingly PTSD British mother Evelyn was German girl Eva.
For JTC, producing this play is anchored in the moral imperative of the Holocaust Never Again; to draw lessons from the Holocaust and broaden the scope of the conversation from the historical to the present.
Nightly talk backs are planned and audiences will be invited to share their experiences of the play and the experiences they bring to the play. Special guests will participate to broaden the scope of the discussion. Among those on board to join us for talk backs are Holocaust Survivors from OHRC’s Speaker’s Bureau, social worker and academic SAMUEL GIORI, psychologist and academic DR. AART LOVENSTEIN, refugee from Chad and Director of IRCO’s Africa House, DJIMET DOGO and KAYSE JAMA, Somali refugee and Director of the Center for Intercultural Organizing. These conversations build bridges of understanding in the community.
To further its mission, JTC plans free to the public satellite programming. On March 1st, DR. NATAN MEIR will present a lecture on the Vibrant and Diverse Jewish Life of Pre War Europe and the remnants that remained after the war. March 8th, JTC will host The Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, who will present a reading of Honey Brown Eyes by Stefanie Zadravec about the ethnic violence in Bosnia. And finally, Base Roots , a local African American Theatre Company will present a staged reading of Winter Miller’s In Darfur on March 15th.
Throughout the run of the production, Friderike Heuer’s art exhibit Fugue: Exile, Emigration and Displacement will be showcased at the theatre.
Tickets available @ Jewish Theater Collaborative and 503-512-9582.