Advocacy

PACT

People Acting for Community Together

Temple Beth Sholom is a proud member of PACT, the largest interfaith community in Miami-Dade County working together to make long-lasting change.

2023-2024 PACT Community Gatherings:

  • Monday, October 30 – Annual Meeting
  • Monday, November 13 – Research to Action Kick-Off
  • Monday, February 26 – Team Assembly
  • Monday, March 18 – PACT Rally
  • Monday, April 15 – Nehemiah Action Assembly
  • Monday, May 13 – Justice Ministry Team Assembly
  • Monday, June 3 – Community Celebration

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  When I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? – Rabbi Hillel

Temple Beth Sholom is a proud member of PACT, the largest interfaith community in Miami-Dade County working together to make long-lasting change. We believe in building relationships across faith, racial, and socio-economic lines to bring about justice and address our most pressing community concerns.  

PACT uses the power of large organized people to hold public officials accountable to create systemic change in Miami-Dade County. PACT is a ‘direct action’ organization, it hosts large community assemblies where public officials are encouraged to adopt solutions to serious problems. 

PACT identifies issues through an extensive ‘Listening Process’ reaching more than 1,500 members. After the listening process, PACT members vote on 2-3 problem areas to focus on for the year. Once PACT members achieve victory on a campaign, leaders put in place a series of checks and measures to ensure that progress is made. Public officials remain accountable even after the original objective has been fulfilled.  

PACT congregations are currently working on the following issues:  

  • Policing and Arrests
  • Caring for Creating
  • Community IDs
  • Gun Violence
  • Affordable Housing

Fighting injustice is how we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Will you join the fight with us?

Contact: Jeff Agron

PACT Team Members: Jonathan Sepsenwol, Rachel Unger, Sofia Morales, Doris Galindo, Rachel Lilembaum, Jeff Agron, Rabbi Jessica Jacobs

RAC

RAC AND RAC-FL – THE RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER FLORIDA, THE FIGHT FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

For more than six decades, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) has worked to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Reform Jewish community to advocate for social justice. We mobilize around federal, state, and local legislation on more than 70 pressing socio-economic issues, including gun violence prevention, immigration, reproductive rights, and criminal justice reform.

We have been building RAC-FL since 2018 when we organized around the successful passage of Amendment 4. In 2019 we partnered with immigration justice organizations to close the Homestead child detention center. Last year, we worked to turn out voters for the mid-term election, especially those in underrepresented communities.

In 2023-24, we are working with RAC-FL and a broad coalition of partners to put on the ballot in November 2024, a Florida Constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion in our state. We are working within Temple Beth Sholom and in our larger community to collect 1 million petitions statewide by December 31, 2023. This will enable all Floridians to determine what rights we want our citizens to have. If you would like to be involved in these efforts, please be in touch with co-chairs Myra Spindel [email protected] and Barbara Gelber [email protected]. Once we have enough petitions to get the amendment on the ballot, we will be working in 2024 to educate people about the law and to turn out the vote in November.