good morningn't and welcome to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. across our country, faith communities have a different way of responding to life with all the things that happen in the world currently, things that happen in a school shooting, ou we want to invite into a conversation about how the the way the things are going these ways. here is julie sacks taller who

is a senior organizer with the religious action center of reformed judaism and karen stiller for the jewish community relations council based here in san francisco. why don't we jump in and talk a little about rale le what is your organizations do and then we can funnel that conversation into the ways in which you expressed your leadership in responding to these kinds of events that are happening interworld around us. >> well, the religious action center is the social justice, you could say, department or man niv this station of the reformed movement and it is a national organization, religious center or the raak has been around for a long time and many are familiar with it, hopefully are. in 2012, rabies and some

leaders in california decided that way were going to -- we need today organize in california specifically to try to impact statewide policy and so they are under the umbrella of the rack and integrated into the national organization but we're also a statewide network of reformed congregations putting together the justice work of each congregation to be more powerful on a state-wide level. >> and we should say the reformed movement in american jewish life is part of the theological left branch in the united states. >> yes. >> karen. >> so jc rc represents over 60 jewish institutions in the bay area on a wide rang of issues, anbi community and mmunity out

turn it into action. we really are trying to amplify our community's voice that we deeply care about. we're one of about 100 in the country that were formed in the community got together and realized we need to be more effective in advocating for issues that impact our community and so we were -- we came together to bring the community together to increase that affecttiveness. >> and is it fair to let folks know that in the broader jewish landscape, the council is a community based organizational structure that is not attached to any particular branch of judaism but more of a community based. >> yes. we represent across the streams of judaism. >> so you're a little different. can you talk a little about how you even understand what is jewish response to an event in general? is that a is that a fair way to

understand these events? how do each of your organizations think of jewish response to what happens in the world around us? >> yes. well, you're referring to a number of events that happened recently or -- and so my question or not -- it depends what we think of as a jewish event, when there is a synagogue shooting, then we have a response that is public but it is also internal. and when there is a shooting in a mosque or there is a natural disaster even, there are other kinds of response and there is lots of overlap because we care about human beings but there is a response that happens when people feel lake we're being personally under attack where we have to do both thinking on a policy lev and how we care for our mountains. >> interesting. yes, karen, from your perspective? >> i think we're am plifying

the needs of the community, the voice of our community and responding with these challenges. i think about it is not just happening to our community but ny others. our community wants to do something. our jewish values tell us, we have an aim pairtive. we see everybody in god's image and so when a tragedy happens, when an issue happens, we say what can our community uniquely provide in this situation to help out? >> interesting. we're going to take a quick break and then come back and continue this conversation in a moment here on "mosaic."

good morning and welcome back to "mosaic." i am rabbi eric weiss, and hor fond to be your host. karen stiller is the project director and rabbi julie sacks taller with the religious action center of reformed judaism. >> welcome back. >> thank you. >> we were talking a little about how your organizations' view in response to events and talked a little about some of the current events that happened in the world of late. and i was thinking as we were

ending that segment that both of your organizations consistently respond to the world, but in the media we see a community respond together a particular event and we don't realize all the work they do otherwise. i am wondering if you can talk a little bit about really the nature of your on going response to the world anyway in an ongoing way. what about -- >> yes. i really appreciate that question. as it happened just now in the past several weeks this season, california, again, the network of the reformed congregations in california has chosen as our top priority campaign a gun violence prevention campaign. it is for something called zip, zip standing for cavil ole intervention programstheir local programs are proven to be effective at reducing gun violence income maun tis where they are already funded

drastically reducing gun violence by 40%, 50%. in oakland, stockton and a couple other states. we're looking for full funding for those all over the state because of how effective they are. this is a campaign we were in the midst of including a call- in week to give governor newsom and then this happened. there is not usually such a confluence but in that moment we were able to do what we would most want to do, want to mourn that attack and then to actually have something for people to do right here and now about gun violence. >> what vip. >> they are individual cities. >> they are state or county program? >> we want to get statewide funding to cities who doesn't have them yet or doesn't fully

let them operate yet. >> i'll distinguish between those programs and the source of the shooting in san diego because they are not the same. these programs are operating in the communities where gun violence is part of every day life. where people are most at risk for both committing and being injured or killed by gun violence. and that is where these programs are most needed and effective. >> and karen, from the jcrc perspective. >> yes. let me step back a little. with the way we approach these issues, we try to be as proactive as possible. when we look at many of the challenges, whether challenges to our democracy or gun violence which we worked on, as well, whether it is poverty or any host of challenges, we take what we call a community relations approach and we build

relationships and start proactively be working with other communities which we think is really critical for us to advance any of the concerns we have. it is critically important to build coalitions with other faith org supplies, other organizations of interest that are working on the same issues we do, so we build these relationships year in, day in, day out, so that when something like this happens, not only do we have some somebody to call but we have been advocating towards these ends and able to be much more effective whether getting legislation passed or bringing the community together to address the needs of the particular community in response to an event. >> and we have a lot of overlap in our perspective, it is about building relationships and in working with synagogues for as long as we know synagogues have had social justice committees

and often those organize things atyoens,ongregation can do, ives, clng dres and diyou loand say, why are people hungry? or why are we haviday life for we're looking at how we can affect policy and that comes with building relationships lake you said. >> that is great. we will talk about what is sustained response and how do you sustain something and get to the deeper roots of something than an event that happens in a moment the we will be right back here on "mosaic."

good morning the welcome back to "mosaic." i am rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. we're in the middle of a conversation with julie saxe- taller and karen stiller. >> welcome back rabbi saxe- taller and karen. we were moving in our conversation toward this deeper understanding of what i think of and i think others think of is what is a sustained response after something leaves the news cycle but there is still an issue at work and rabbi saxe- taller you were bringing up issues of the understanding current of something around for example poverty. is there an economic issue or gun violence issues. it is an education issue or advocacy issue. maybe broaden the conversation to talk to you how you

understand what those elements are in terms of sustaining response, maintaining response and building towards response. it might be part of the larger picture of an event than the moment. >> well, in california, they have at this point six issues that we work on. they all work towards our mission which is to stand with vulnerable communities to build the state of california that we want to live in. and we ask ourselves that question, what is the california of our dreams and what is the next step we need to take to get there? >> in terms of the sustaining our work after a given campaign, we go back to that question and we go back to the issues that we built our teams to work on. we actually have now an issue team on each of six issues. housing, climate change, immigrants' rights, let's see if i can remember them all.

gun ence prevention, so our teams is looking at the campaigns that we could potentially work with our peril ners on in a given season, so we're doing that research and building those relationships so when one campaign ends, we look for what will rise e next of our priority campaign and we have already built relationships and thinking about that. >> and how does that function? >> so we have core issues we always have to work on and when things come up in the community, it is hands on deck, drop everything and work on that, but we work on issues that are really relevant and that our community really cares about so over the last number of years, we have taken up issues about immigration, this year democracy because we feel counder model we use, we study issue. we take a year, we bring

together our committees and groups, study the issue, bring in experts, have town halls so they can hear from experts and they give their feedback and then we come up with a list of action items we're going to do to follow-up on those issues we have taken a consensus on. >> we know when groups come together, a group coming together in and of itself is an accomplishment and paying attention to what individual is saying in a group and how that process then yields something of a consensus. i'm just curious to know how do you even decide oh, it is immigration, or it is democracy or it is education? whatever it is. how do you even come to those theme toss begin with? >> i mean, we lack at what is

going on in the community, where are we putting out the most fires. we even step back and say what are the core issues, what are the core root issues and that is where we came around racial justice. it is not just looking at incarceration rates. we realize it is around racial justice. same with democracy so we bring our committees, our structure together, they come up with a consensus to look at this particular issues and then it is a whole process of building consensus around that and consensus around very detailed policy statements that layout position and then put together an action plan for mobilization around those issues. >> similarly, we work with each congregation, so while we're building a statewide network on the one hand, i have an opportunity to work with the justice teams at each congregation i work with and for them to think about what

you care about, what is happening, where is your congregation on different issues and where you can work that won't divide the congregation but bring people together who want to have an impact. sometimes that is something very local and sometimes that local issue will bridge to something larger but also coming back to root causes because in addition to the direct service work that congregations do, we want to help them be a part of addressing root causes through policy and advocating. >> we have to take a quick break but what you're both alluding to, it makes people feel that this enhances their jewish identity to be involved in these topics. maybe we can talk about that when we come back. join us in a moment when we come back on "mosaic."

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good morningn't welcome back to "mosaic." i am rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host. we're in the mid of a conversation and welcome back julie and karen. we were talking about this notion that this work for a lot of people in the jewish community like people in every faith community is actually something that animates their religious identity, in this case jewish identity, and i am wondering karen if you can talk about that aspect of the work in general.

>> sure. i think a lot of people really relate to the aspect of social action, social justice. that for them is their expression in judaism. it is a fun place. we have so many different and unique organizations, so many things people can go into to express their jewishness, their jewish values and the way they go about it. this work, mobilizing in the community and working on issues you care about deeply brings people in where in other parts of the jewish come community they don't find a home, but they do there. >> and whether you are a a jew of color, jew by choice and any age, any ability, is that a cross ises brus all together. >> for sure.

all the research shows that people are most proud of the commitment to justice of jews and when we get the opportunity to act for justice as jews, not just as individuals but with their congregations or our organizations there is a coming together of who we want to be. we sometimes say that our lobby day, which is coming up on august 20th , people can actually connect with their reformed synagogues and come to lobby with us in sacramento. we call it our high holy day sometimes because it is a way to express what it means for us to be jewish while acting on the world around us and trying to impact policy. >> so from a jewish perspective, the notions of justice in the world deriving out of two biblical stories where we're created uniquely in god's image so it is not just me, it is you, too. >> every person. >> as well as that we were free from slavery so we come out of

a place of oppression and moved into a place of freedom and those two core biblical stories yield these values that animate us to do good in the world, am wondering how those notions define even the term justice like what justice is because the word justice in other realms takes on different meanings but for us, it is a particular way of seeing that term. can you talk a little about how that an mates us and when we talk about gun control, poverty. >> certainly on immigration and similarly on the other issues we look to our history and to the way that justice is framed in the torah as something that we're connected to in part because of our own history. right? that is the history, the biblical histories and our

history more recent, knowing what it is like to be% caught, being on the outside and not to have the protection of law. all those things, we can feel it in our bones and we organize based on that history and knowing what is rate. >> absolutely, yes. on the issue of immigration, so many people came to this work because of their own personal family story whether they were refugees or grandparents were survivor of the holocaust. it really infused them with the need to do that, the need to have a different way of looking at people that come in this country than the popular discourse right now. >> rate. >> believe it or not, we half just a minute left together so we have come full circle to talk about how to respond to a world event whether it is a natural distancer than need a

response or a violent incident at a synagogue or mosque. i am wondering not to put you on the spot in such a big way, but can you make a comment about what is hoped out there for how we are to have an impact in a sentence or two. >> i'm try a sentence. when we respond to scary events, we need to both come together so that we find comfort in each other and actually listen to each other, how we're doing. then we have to get together so we don't act from fear. >> thank you. >> karen. >> i would say something similar. in these times of increasing party sin ship and instability, we need to stand together. we have a choice 0 to make. we can respond together or respond separately. >> thank you so much for joining us on "mosaic." we want you to continue this

conversation and doing good in the world. thank you for joining us on " mosaic." purse

right now streaming on cbsn bay area, shots ringing out across the bay area this weekend. a deadly shooting shuts down a highway in contra costa county. the search is on for a suspect. shots fired in the south bay. police are describing it as two separate shootings the details we know now. plus, the latest on the deadly shooting in san raphael. the sprawling crime scene and what police connects the victims. a busy night for first responders in the bay after two nasty crashes details on both. good morning, it's sunday july 25th thank you s