Workshops

Advocate Engagement & Communications from #GoodtoGreater
Facilitators: Emily P. Goodstein, Founder & CEO, Greater Good Strategy & Liz O’Meara-Goldberg, Senior Strategist, Greater Good Strategy
How do we capture the public’s interest to make people aware of, and to motivate them to engage with the amazing work of NCJW sections and advocates? Join experts from the Greater Good Strategy team for a communications workshop focused on expanding NCJW’s brand awareness. You’ll learn from real examples of people you might want to reach and leave with specific digital recommendations to reach each person and bring them into your community.

A Public Health Approach to Gun Violence Prevention
Facilitator: Logan Zinman Gerber, National Campaign Organizer, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Learn concrete organizing skills through the lens of gun violence prevention. Come to this session to gain knowledge about the scope of gun violence in America, learn solutions that address gun violence using a public health model, and practice creating an organizing strategy. Share your own knowledge and experience as we build a comprehensive plan for how to proactively reduce gun violence. You will also engage in a simulation where you act as an organizer tasked with building a campaign to pass the Extreme Risk Protection Order legislation. Everything you learn is applicable to your community and to ANY issue.

Collecting Stories for Social Change
Facilitator: Judith Rosenbaum, Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Women’s Archive
The stories of NCJW’s 125-year history need to be heard, honored and preserved. Story Aperture, a new story-collecting app from the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA), provides a fun, simple, and interactive way to capture and celebrate your stories and to add them to the larger narrative of Jewish women. In this workshop, JWA staff will offer an engaging, inter-generational experience that will honor the stories of veteran advocates, while inspiring and empowering young leaders to carry the organization into the next century.

Courts Matter! Organizing for Effective Advocacy Surrounding Our Federal Judiciary
Facilitator: Carole Levine, Honorary National Vice President and Co-Chair of BenchMark, NCJW’s Campaign on the Federal Judiciary, NCJW Chicago North Shore
Our federal courts make decisions that impact every aspect of our lives, from voting and reproductive rights to LGBTQ equality and religious freedom. However, many of us know very little about our judiciary and how to advocate for fair, equitable, and independent judges. This workshop will provide the tools necessary for you and your section to effectively convey why courts matter and to support the confirmation of those who will uphold our fundamental constitutional rights.

 From Tzedakah to Tzedek, Charity to Justice
Facilitator: Abby Cortrin, Chicago Program Director, Avodah
This workshop will put direct service within the larger context of systemic poverty. By exploring the root causes of poverty and large-scale systems related to poverty, you will understand the opportunities and limitations inherent in direct service. Further, you will develop plans to create or adapt current direct service projects in light of these learnings through an interactive component.

From Vision to Reality: Project Development
Facilitator: Renee Karp, President, NCJW Dallas Section
Looking to start new projects in your section? Learn how to use each stage of development to heighten your impact and effectiveness. This workshop will interactively lead you through the process of project visioning, research, design, and evaluation, providing detailed resources each step of the way. Using this approach, you will learn how to create a Research and Development team in your section, how to choose the best people to serve on this team, and what criteria to set for this assessment. You will also explore the methods for creating the implementation team that will make your project a reality, as well as how to design the criteria to evaluate your project. When you decide to launch a new project back home, you will have all the tools you need to implement this process.

How to Build a Pipeline of Young Leaders
Facilitators: Amanda Stein, Board Member, NCJW St. Louis Section and  Ellen Alper, Chief Executive Officer, NCJW St. Louis Section
Are you looking to engage new members? Would you like some of your members to deepen their involvement with NCJW? Do you need a pipeline for volunteers to become board members? Come learn how to model NCJW St. Louis’ leadership class in your community and hear how the section has used evaluation data to evolve its leadership program. You will walk away with essential resources and a plan for creating a leadership class in your own section.

Internalized White Superiority: Identifying Barriers to Working Effectively with People of Color
Facilitator: Abby Levine, Director, Jewish Social Justice Roundtable
Racism is based on the ideology of the superiority of whites and the inferiority of people of color. All of us receive messages from the dominant culture in the US that reinforce this belief system. This workshop will explore how white people internalize these messages and enact white superiority. Becoming more aware of your own thoughts and behaviors will enable you to act in ways that are aligned with our Jewish values of justice and to more effectively work in solidarity with people of color for racial and social justice.

Leading with Soul: Becoming Your Authentic Self
Facilitator: SooJi Min-Maranda, Executive Director, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
During this Shabbat workshop, come actively practice Jewish mindfulness meditation and embodied movement. Through this lens, learn how to build compassion for the self and others so that you can truly connect and lead authentically. Together, we will begin to awaken our hearts, slow down our minds, learn to move together, and increase our resilience to do difficult social justice work.

Raising Your Voice in 2020: Election Year Advocacy for 501(c)(3)s
Facilitator: Abby Levine, Director, Bolder Advocacy Program, Alliance for Justice
Election years provide a great opportunity for 501(c)(3) organizations to highlight issues and to advocate for their priorities. While NCJW sections cannot support or oppose candidates, you can still make a meaningful impact in the election. Through this comprehensive overview of 501(c)(3) advocacy in an election year, you will learn how to conduct issue advocacy and nonpartisan civic engagement, respond to candidate statements, and support or oppose ballot measures.

Stories of Inspiration: Bringing Israel to Your Community
Facilitators: Chen Arieli, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv & Liron Peleg Hadomi, NCJW’s representative in Israel
Bring NCJW’s Israel work to your section! Liron Peleg Hadomi, NCJW Representative in Israel, and Chen Arieli, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv, will lead this workshop presenting NCJW’s unique role in strengthening the Israeli NGOs and activists working on empowering women, advancing gender equality, and strengthening civil liberties, democracy, and peace efforts. You will hear about how NCJW is helping build the feminist movement in Israel and discuss the challenges and successes women face in Israel through a gender-based lens. Leaders who have successfully brought this work to their sections will also share their stories, leaving you with the knowledge and ideas necessary to support this important work in your section.

Taking Action for Asylum Seekers: Ideas and Strategies for your Community
Facilitators: Merrill Zack, Vice President for Community Engagement, HIAS, Bettie Forman, NCJW Austin Section, and Elyse Rosenberg, Texas State Policy Advocate, NCJW Austin Section
At a time when our asylum system is under attack and the US is failing to meet a basic obligation to victims of war, terror, torture, and persecution, how can we – as US citizens and as Jews – take action for asylum seekers? In this workshop, you will be briefed on the impact of US policy at the US/Mexico border, learn about national advocacy and service approaches, and hear from NCJW Austin about their efforts. Through a social justice lens, you will have the opportunity to learn from each other and brainstorm ideas for local action in support of asylum seekers and preserving the Jewish and American values of welcoming immigrants in our country.

Taking White Nationalism to Court: Charlottesville
Facilitator: Amy Spitalnick, Executive Director, Integrity First for America
With anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry on the rise, Integrity First for America’s Charlottesville lawsuit uniquely takes on the leadership of the extremist white nationalist movement –– making clear that violence and hate have no place here. In August 2017, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists descended on Charlottesville, VA –– orchestrating a weekend of violence that resulted in Heather Heyer’s death and extensive injuries. Integrity First for America’s landmark lawsuit was filed on behalf of a diverse coalition of students and community members injured, taking on the extremists and hate groups responsible and holding them accountable for their violent conspiracy. In this workshop, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the rise of white nationalism and violent extremism and learn concrete tools to fight back through advocacy, partnership, and more.

The Feminization of Poverty: Lessons from the Anti-Hunger Movement
Facilitators: Abby Leibman, President, and CEO, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger & Liza Lieberman, Director of Public Policy, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
Single mothers head over half of all low-income households with children and one-third struggle to feed their families. Join MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger to explore the unique obstacles women face through the prism of the anti-hunger movement and to learn about the latest policy changes that threaten women and their children’s food security. You will hone your personal advocacy skills so you can approach these issues with clarity and through nuanced frameworks like reproductive justice.

Trans Inclusion in Jewish Organizations
Facilitator: Essie Shachar-Hill, Chicago Education and Training Manager, Keshet
Join Keshet, the national organization working for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, to learn about transgender inclusion. While most organizations value inclusion, it takes a concerted effort and investment to put that vision into practice. This workshop will help you understand the basics of trans identities and trans inclusion and will provide you with the tools to effect change in your organization. This session will explore core concepts of sex and gender, allowing you to acquire tangible tools for including transgender people and to understand the importance of trans inclusion through a Jewish lens.

 With Our Powers Combined: Using Direct Service and Organizing to Build Movements
Facilitators: Hannah Forman, Program Manager, Repair the World Detroit  and Emilia Diamant, JOIN for Justice
(Re)explore how to build strategic movements that intentionally integrate meeting immediate needs and creating system-wide change. Learn about the distinctive and overlapping demographics that direct service and organizing attract, and how we can leverage this to broaden our bases without diluting our messages. Dive into examples of how Feminist movements that incorporate organizing and volunteering can increase sustainability and engage a more diverse and cross-sectional base. Then, imagine how to implement these strategies in your own work.

Women, Peace, and Security: A Case Study on Challenges & Best Practices
Facilitators: Netta Loevy, Director of Policy Advocacy, Itach-Maaki Women Lawyers for Social Justice & Liron Peleg Hadomi, NCJW’s representative in Israel
Working in coalitions is a rewarding experience, but this important work is not without challenges. In this interactive session, you’ll learn from Netta Loevy, a lawyer and specialist on security and peace, and her experience working alongside 30 Israeli women’s organizations to implement an action plan to include women in all phases of peace negotiations. Leave with strategies for coalition building and best practices to implement in your sections.

When Religious Freedom Hurts: Exploring the Intersection of Religion and Access to Reproductive Health Care
Facilitator: Glenn Northern, Domestic Program Director, Catholics for Choice, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg & Civia Tamarkin, NCJW Arizona Section President
Religious freedom is a cherished American value and people of faith have a special responsibility to ensure that our values are not manipulated to justify discrimination. Unfortunately, extremist Christian conservatives seek at every turn to distort religious liberty and who can exercise their rights by imposing their beliefs on everyone else. This interactive multimedia session will explore the assault on true religious freedom, its impact on the provision of reproductive health care, and what individuals and communities can do to protect religious freedom.