VOICES OF CONGREGANTS

Michael Sims

Mike is a member of the Temple Emanu-El Executive Committee. This essay appeared originally in the Jewish Funds for Justice Newsletter, Spring 2009.

Sacred Encounters: The Power of Relationships

It all began humbly enough. About four years ago, two of us from Temple Emanu-El in Dallas flew to Los Angeles to attend the second Jewish Funds for Justice Conference on Congregation-Based Community Organizing. Once there, we discovered more than 100 rabbis and lay leaders – from different denominations, from all over the United States – all of whom wanted to learn more about this "new" way of working for social justice.

We did not go to Los Angeles because social justice was not working at Temple Emanu-El. In fact, our congregation has led many social justice efforts in Dallas. Over the years, Temple Emanu-El’s members have opened pre-schools, helped create community health clinics, run food pantries, and worked closely with parents and children of a nearby elementary school. This work continues today.

We went to Los Angeles because we were intrigued by the idea of using the power of relationships to expand our social justice work. To put it another way, we wondered what would happen if we could move from doing things for people who needed help to doing things with people who needed help - empowering them to work with us for real and lasting change.

We have been amazed at what has happened since then.

Twice last year Temple Emanu-El hosted meetings of Dallas Area Interfaith, our local IAF (Industrial Areas Foundation) affiliate. Each meeting included more than 60 people – of differing faiths, of disparate economic backgrounds, and of varying political viewpoints – all sharing their stories about the economic pressures they face each day in their lives. Through their conversations each participant learned that they had more in common than they ever believed. On the way home from the first meeting, one participant, a low-wage worker who had a translator with her because she only spoke Spanish, remarked, "I did not know that people in North Dallas had problems like we do in South Dallas."

The conversations continued on Yom Kippur when 200 Temple members ranging in age from 14 to 92 came together for an afternoon study session and house meeting. Over the course of two powerful hours, we studied text and then broke up into ten-person house meeting groups to share our stories and discover the issues that are deeply and widely felt in our congregation. Almost all of the participants felt it was one of the more meaningful study sessions they had ever attended.

Today, after nearly 400 conversations in house meetings and one-to-one meetings, we have a core team of more than 25 members – including a number who have not previously been involved in social justice – working together with members of Dallas Area Interfaith around issues of health care and education. Temple Emanu-El’s core values statement says that our congregation "strives to be a place of sacred encounter." Our involvement with congregational-based community organizing has given us a new way to combine the sacred encounters of relationships with our long-standing commitment to social justice.

On Jewish Life
Michael Sims