Reparations in Action: How to Move from Resolving to Repairing
Sunday, February 2, 2025 | 1 - 3 p.m. EST on Zoom
In January 2023, the Reconstructionist Movement passed a reparations resolution, committing ourselves to work to repair the foundational harms our societies are built on. The Tikkun Olam Commission has been closely tracking many different interesting approaches our congregations have taken to putting these commitments into action. There is no one right answer or way to live into these commitments, but many exciting possibilities are emerging. This program presents four congregational projects we want to lift up, as replicable initiatives other synagogues and communities of faith might take on in their own local contexts and movements for reparations.
Moderator
Sarah Waisvisz
As a mixed-race and multilingual writer, theatre artist, and scholar, Sarah Waisvisz understands personal and professional liminality. She has created many works for the theatre, both for the stage and beyond, and loves making magic out of nothing with like-minded collaborators. Recent credits include Heartlines, a play published in 2023 in the Methuen Drama collection Global Jewish Plays, and the short film Witness Shift, produced for CBC Gem by Canada’s Obsidian Theatre. Sarah is a member of Or Haneshamah in Ottawa (Canada) and serves on the Tikkun Olam Commission of Reconstructing Judaism.
PANELISTs
Each of our panelist will speak from a difference approach to Reparations:
Individual Giving
Rabbi Rachel Weiss
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, Evanston, IL
Organizational Giving
Lucy Duncan
Green Street Friends, Philadelphia, PA
Symbolic Reparations
Rabbi Micah Weiss
Associate Director for Thriving Communities and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Reconstructing Judaism, Wyncote, PA
Political Advocacy
Rabbi Devorah Jacobson
Jewish Community of Amherst, Amherst, MA
Individual Giving – The Evanston Interfaith Clergy and Leaders group called for four actions from white majority congregations. JRC signed on, resulting in member and congregational engagement and contribution to the
Evanston Reparations Community Fund.
Organizational Giving – After internal reflection and inspired by connections to their neighbors, the Green Street Monthly Meeting of Friends allocated endowment funds for reparations – $50,000/year for 10 years. Their first project was a free legal clinic to secure Black housing wealth. Learn about that process and how it was the inspiration for a city-wide, faith-based congregational campaign for reparations coordinated by reparationWorks.
Political Advocacy – The Stolen Beam Series started as a congregational education tool to build support for reparations. It quickly moved beyond the walls of the synagogue and has been used to build deeper relationships and a shared analysis about the need for reparations in political coalitions all across the country.
Symbolic Reparations – The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College offered a week-long seminar titled 1299 Reckoning: Research and Reflection on RRC’s Move from the City to the Suburbs to catalyze our organization’s reckoning with the ways in which we have “participated in or benefitted from racial injustices in our communities.”
Background Readings
Learn more about reparations through these pieces below. We’ll add to this list so check back for more!
- Individual Giving (JRC):
- Organizational Giving (Green Street Friends):
- Political Advocacy (Stolen Beam Series):
- Symbolic Reparations (1299 Reckoning):
Reparations Resources
Reparations Resources
- Organizing Towards Action: Practical Skills and Tips for Congregations
- Discussion Guide for Congregational Working Groups Seeking to Identify Reparation Action Steps
- Tool for Transformative Reparations, from ReparationWorks
- Reparations Shabbat Resources
Reparations Education
- Reconstructing Judaism’s The Cost of Free Land Book Club.
- Kick-Off author talk Sunday, March 2nd.
- On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, Discussion Guide.
- The Stolen Beam Series
- Reparations Through a Reconstructionist Lens
Resource Guides
- Resource Guide: State and Local Reparations Work, by Liberation Ventures and First Repair
- Legislative Toolkit for State and Local Reparations Work, by First Repair and Osiris
- National Resource Center for State and Local Reparations
- Jews on Ohlone Land – Land Back Movement
- Movement for Black Lives Reparations Toolkit
- Reparations Toolkit – Religious Action Center (RAC) of Reform Judaism
- Redressing Historical Racial Injustices: A Toolkit for Policymakers and advocates, Northwestern University School of Law
- Slavery Disclosure and Redress Ordinance Toolkit
Reparations Platforms
