2020 Annual Meeting
Social Action Committee Report
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Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center Social Action Committee 2019-2020 Annual Report
The areas of concentration are: Racial Justice; Immigration; Anti-Semitism; Gun Safety; and Fire Safety Racial Justice: We planned our traditional MLK event in coordination with the MV NAACP. Mariama White-Hammond was our speaker. Our committee worked on the refreshment piece. We had hoped to have the Slave Choir but they are not available in the off season. We explored the idea of presenting the 1619 Project, presented by The New York Times on the four hundredth anniversary of the introduction of slavery in our country and the numerous ways in which Afro-Americans have contributed to our economy and well-being. Yet they have been discriminated in so many ways. Caryn will reach out to Elaine Weinstein to see if she would head up a discussion group would read and discuss the findings of the Project. We agreed with Caryn’s idea of inviting Eric Ward to the Summer Institute to present his view on White Nationalism. We hoped to have invited one of the Ecumenical churches to come and discuss our different philosophies with each other, but the Corona virus interrupted that endeavor. We have been invited to join the Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition whose mission is to eradicate racism on the Island. Carole Early has been attending meetings. Immigration: We had hoped to have had a National Refugee Shabbat dinner on March 20th. We wanted participants who would relate their or their relative’s experience coming to this country to present their story. The pandemic canceled our plan. Anti-Semitism: Abe Seidman has readings and articles he presented. Mardi Moran hoped to introduce an explanation that would counter any Anti-Semitic reading during the Christian Lent to island church leaders, but since churches stopped having services during that time, she hopes to do so next year. Gun Safety: Beth Green had been involved in following up after our Gun Safety Forum. Since she moves off island for the winter, Mardi Moran took up the gauntlet and met with Ann Wallace who has been active with this issue. They discussed having a gun lock give away at the Spring Health Fair, which did not occur. What we did discover is that many, if not all, police departments on the island give away gun locks and that when guns are purchased, there should be a gun lock provided. David Murphy from the Aquinnah Police Department is the Safety Officer for the island and could be of help in the future. Fire Safety: This was a controversial topic since some people felt that this is an environmental issue while others felt that if there were a wild fire, it would spread so quickly that it would become a social issue. There will be a meeting in June to discuss this further. Look into Working Collaboratively with other houses of worship UU Church, FCC of WT. & the Apostolic House of Prayer have responded Stood with the Wampanoag Tribe of Mashpee Masks were provided at the synagogue’s building Many things have been "put on hold" due to the pandemic Respectfully submitted, Mardi Moran & Carole Early |
