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Dear Cheryl,
This week, our JCRC staff stepped out of the office for a two-day retreat at the Delmar Divine. In between team building and learning more about one another, we reflected on the successes of the current year, the challenges we foresee, and the hopes that we have for the JCRC, for the Jewish community, and for our region. It was energizing to be together as this new team, dreaming of all that will be and that can be. And it is exhilarating to know that those dreams can be a reality because of the passion, drive, and support of every one of our partners.
While there, we were so inspired by the incredible work of the Delmar Divine. We are grateful to Lisa Greening (Turn the Page STL), and Maxine Clark (Clark-Fox Family Foundation) for hosting us and for sharing their vision of a stronger, more equitable, more vibrant St Louis. Seeing all of their work in action helped to drive our own work forward.
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JCRC Staff gather outside the Delmar Divine after a productive staff retreat.
We look forward to sharing with you more of what will be coming up, but in the meantime, please see below for all that is happening now!
Shabbat Shalom,
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Maharat Rori Picker Neiss
Executive Director
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Our yearly evaluation once again demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of our Jewish community believes JCRC provides opportunities to live out Jewish values, helps them recognize the priorities of ally communities, and is effective in helping create deeper understanding and positive perceptions of the Jewish community. | |
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Attending a JCRC zoom has provided me with talking points and has given me the confidence to speak up when I feel that misinformation is being spread.
-Jewish Community Member
| We're also thrilled to see the value we bring to our community partners (see chart below). Thank you for being a partner in this work! | |
Monkeypox Information for St. Louis | |
Anyone can get monkeypox if they come into close contact with an infected person. The community should take precautions and limit skin-to-skin contact or intimate contact with anybody who has monkeypox. | |
Free Mental Health Therapy for Young Adults | |
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New and Innovative Low-Cost Therapy Project for Young Adults
A partnership in mental health care centering the courage it takes to come to therapy.
We recognize the toll COVID has taken on our young adult community, and the uniqueness for those who have also experienced religious, identity-based, gender-based, and intergenerational traumas. For ANY reason you are choosing therapy, we invite you into trauma-informed therapy with open-minded, wholehearted, courageous therapists who value healing, wholeness, inclusion, and freedom.
Therapy is private with a matched practitioner based on your individual needs and preferences with the option to meet virtually, in-person at MaTovu, or in-person at B'nai Amoona.
5 sessions are covered by the grant, with options to continue care through insurance or a sliding scale determined by your practitioner.
This program is made possible by a grant from the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and is a collaboration between The Care Collective, MaTovu, and Congregation B'nai Amoona.
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Antisemitism 101: Educating and Empowering Emerging Leaders to Respond to the Antisemitism of Today
Sundays, September 11, October 23, November 30
3-8 pm | The J (directions)
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Open to all current high school students, this 3-part series will empower students to recognize and address antisemitism in their communities and on their high school and college campuses and provide them with resources to address these issues. Although attendance for all parts of the 3 sessions is strongly encouraged, we still welcome your participation even if you cannot commit to all sessions. | |
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A Delicious Bookend Event: Michael W. Twitty
Tuesday, September 13
7 pm | The J in Creve Coeur (directions)
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The James Beard award-winning author of the acclaimed The Cooking Gene explores the cultural crossroads of Jewish and African diaspora cuisine and issues of memory, identity, and food.
In Koshersoul, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them.
The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. Koshersoul also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.
As intimate, thought-provoking, and profound as The Cooking Gene, this remarkable book teases the senses as it offers sustenance for the soul.
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Lunch and Learn: Legal Missouri and Other Ballot Initiatives
Thursday, September 15
12 pm | Virtual
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Legal MO, the initiative that would legalize marijuana for personal use for those 21 years old or older and allow individuals convicted of non-violent marijuana-related offenses to petition to be released from incarceration and/or have their records expunged will be on the ballot in November. What does this mean?
Recent research shows that Black people are 2.6 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession in Missouri. And marijuana possession arrests during that same time period accounted for 50 percent of all drug arrests in Missouri, placing the state just outside the nation’s Top 10 for the highest cannabis possession arrest rates.
To help illustrate the issue further, NCJWSTL is teaming up with JCRC to welcome John Payne, Campaign Manager of Legal MO and Sharon Geuea Jones, the founding member of the Jones Advocacy Group. Payne graduated with a degree in history from Washington University in Saint Louis in 2005. In 2018, he managed the successful campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Missouri. As an attorney and lobbyist, Geuea Jones has advocated on behalf of her clients in the Missouri General Assembly, at the ballot box and in the courts since 2002. In conjunction with the Missouri NAACP and the Missouri Educational Equity Partnership, she is leading the "Let Them Learn" coalition in Jefferson City.
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Meet the Janes: The Heroes of Abortion Access Before Roe v. Wade
Thursday, September 15
6:30 pm | Ethical Society of St. Louis (directions)
Sponsored by Access Missouri, American Association of University Women, Ethical Society of St. Louis, Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis through the Bohm Social Justice Initiative, Hadassah, MaTovu, National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis, ProgressWomen, WashU Hillel, and Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice
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In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Seven women were arrested and charged. The accused were part of a clandestine network. Using code names, blindfolds, and safe houses to protect their identities and their work, they built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions. They called themselves Jane. Now that we live in a post-Roe world, The Janes helps us envision the enormous potential for collective action to ensure abortion access.
Prior to the screening, award-winning journalist Charles Jaco will give a brief introduction about his connection to The Janes. At the conclusion of the film, Stacey Newman of ProgressWomen will share information on how you can take action to support access to abortion.
The event is free of charge, but registration is required. There are no walk-ins. Doors will open at 6:30, the movie will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Proof of vaccination or a negative covid test within 24 hours must be shown at the door.
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Arts and Faith 2022 Concert
Sunday, September 18
4 pm | Sheldon Concert Hall (directions)
A Program of the Newmark Institute
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Empower Missouri Fall Friday Forums
Fridays
12 - 1 pm | Virtual
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Empower Missouri’s Friday Forums are monthly online educational offerings for Missourians to build knowledge on poverty-related policy issues and skills in legislative and grassroots advocacy. For this fall, we have scheduled four sessions covering a wide range of topics:
September 9th: Missouri's Private Probation System
October 7th: Tenants' Unions
November 4th: A Case for Reparations
December 2nd: Legislative Preview
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Did You Miss A Recent Program? | |
You can click here to watch recordings of JCRC's recent programs on our YouTube channel.
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