WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Reform movement leader described a “new sense of vulnerability” in the United States at the movement’s biennial Consultation on Conscience.
“We hear the demonization of immigrants, we the descendants of immigrants, we see refugees turned away at our borders, we witness our fellow citizens unjustly denied the right to vote, we are pained by transgender individuals who are unable to live with authenticity, we fear the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, we experience the assault on women’s reproductive autonomy and rights, we worry about people of color who continue to bear the weight of a crushing mass incarceration and broken criminal justice system,” Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said Sunday in opening remarks.
Pesner did not name President Donald Trump, but Trump’s election in November has galvanized liberal Jewish activism, particularly as it relates to his crackdown on illegal immigration, his rollback of transgender protections and of criminal justice reforms, and the rise of bigotry following a bitter and divisive campaign.
The three-day conference featured workshops on the issues Pesner named as well as on climate change. The conference, which organizers said brought 800 activists and movement leaders to a Washington-area hotel, culminates Tuesday with a lobbying day on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s election was never far from the surface. Rabbi Larry Bach of Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, North Carolina, described the new sense of risk his family felt for his transgender son in the wake of the election. Former President Barack Obama’s administration opposed laws in the state banning special accommodations for transgender school students.
“My son no longer has a champion at Justice or in the White House, but he does have a champion in the Reform movement,” he said Sunday.
