Teen Activist Reflects on Or Tzedek Retreat

Emily Isaacson wrote this reflection based on her experience at Or Tzedek’s first annual Winter Leadership Retreat.

Providing the Tools for Change: Or Tzedek’s Winter Leadership Retreat

By Emily Isaacson
Or Tzedek participant, Winter 2011

Leadership Retreat participants Meirav (from left), Emily and Rachel hanging out in the city.

Many people observe problems that plague today’s world.  But it takes a special kind of commitment to not only take a stand, but also choose to search deeper under the surface-to discover the depth of an issue and advocate for changing  root of a problem.

Or Tzedek has provided Jewish teens like me a unique opportunity to observe and begin to truly understand the corruption in our world. With this understanding, the program provides the tools to begin to make the changes we wish to see in the world today.

Or Tzedek, traditionally a week-long summer program, just hosted its first-ever winter retreat. As a participant in the three-day winter Or Tzedek program were extremely eye opening.

Sukkot Action for Housing Justice: Oct. 11

This graphic banner will be used in the portable Sukkah at the housing action day.

With American bankers meeting just feet away next week, Chicagoans will share stories about how the economic crisis has affected them.

It all happens on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at a special interfaith Sukkot action and press conference inside a makeshift Sukkah in front of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago.

Representing shelter in a time of wandering and crisis, or the halfway point between slavery and liberation, this may be the first time a portable Sukkah has been used in a protest action.