July 2020

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Bat Yam Temple of the Islands Social Action Committee.

 

The Social Action committee, prompted by ongoing racial justice issues, has been planning zoom talks, as part of the 2020 Racial Justice Forum Series.

 

Rabbi Capers Funnye, the leader of the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, one of the largest black synagogues in America, is speaking on Thursday July 30 at 4pm EST. Rabbi Stephen Fuchs is the moderator.

 

Rabbi Funnye sits on the Chicago Board of Rabbis and has spent years involved in efforts to bridge the racial and ethnic divides both within Judaism and between Jews and other communities. He is family to the Obamas – Michelle is his cousin. His rabbinical career stretches back to 1985. Now, in 2020 he continues building bridges.

 

Gwynetta Gittens will be Bat Yam’s next guest on August 13 at 4.00pm. Her topic will be Racial Justice in Education. She is a School Board Member of District 5 of the Lee County School district. She has had extensive professional experience as an educator including Four-Time Golden Apple Finalist, Teacher of distinction, Advancement via Individual Determination, Initial Coordinator, East Lee County High School.

 

She was adjunct Professor at Indian River State College and also at Bermuda College. Her education also includes A.A. Accounting from the University of Maryland and Kennedy King College, Chicago. Gittens is a certified Supreme Court Mediator, FL.

 

She has enjoyed extensive volunteer community experience and has held many positions on Lee County School’s Committees. Her present positions include but are not restricted to district advisory council, strategic planning steering committee and student board advisory committee.

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Chantel Rhodes, local racial justice advocate will be the speaker on August 27 at 4pm. Watch this space to learn more about future speakers. If you would like to be in the zoom room please email  batyamsanibel@gmail.com or you may view the programs live or later on www.facebook.com/batyamsanibel.

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December 2019

 

BAT YAM MEMBERS ATTEND IMMIGRATION SUMMIT

 

 

On November 18, more than eighty-five immigration professionals and immigration advocates gathered at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s “Collaboratory” in Fort Myers for the first-of-its-kind Southwest Florida Immigration Summit.

 

Janice Block Chaddock of Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee was a member of the Task Force that put this Summit together, along with leaders from Americans for Immigrant Justice, Florida Rural Legal Services, Legal Aid Service of Collier County, and Catholic Legal Services of Miami. In addition to Janice, Rabbi Fuchs, Bat Yam’s Social Action Chair Garry Weiss, President Barry Fulmer, Barry Roth, and Howard Lorsch attended.

 

The Summit began with an overview of how the complex U.S. immigration process works, including who does what among the immigration courts and these three agencies of the Department of Homeland Security: (1) Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), which is in charge of granting visas and other immigration benefits; (2) Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), which is in charge of enforcing immigration laws by various means; and (3) Custom and Border Protection (CBP), which controls the flux of persons and goods through U.S. borders. The Summit provided attendees with a deeper understanding of each of the “immigration statuses” beyond being a U.S. citizen, including Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs), Temporary Protected Status (TPS) seekers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) seekers, and Undocumented Immigrants including Asylum Seekers and Unaccompanied Minors. 

 

A recent study shows that there are eleven million people in the U.S. who are “undocumented,” meaning they do not have lawful immigration status or proof of lawful status. Recent trends show that only 16% of the undocumented immigration population may have a path to permanency to remain in this country. One path to permanency is to apply for Asylum, in which an immigrant must prove a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country on account of their race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion or national origin.  A key take-away from the Southwest Florida Immigration Summit is that Unaccompanied Minors under age eighteen have the highest chance of successfully applying for and being granted Asylum. Another key take-away is that immigrants may now be deemed ineligible to apply for admission to, or to remain in, this country if they are found likely to become a “public charge” – meaning they could become dependent on the U.S.

government for public cash assistance or long-term care at the government’s expense. 

 

Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee is focused on providing support to Asylum seekers in Southwest Florida. During the time undocumented immigrants are in the U.S., they do have important constitutional rights, which include the right to refuse searches of homes without a valid warrant signed by a judge, the right to remain silent, the right to public education, and the right to due process and equal protection, among others. Stay tuned for more information about Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee’s work to offer “Know Your Rights” presentations to immigrants in our area.   

 

 

October 2019

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UPDATE ON SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES

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The Social Action Committee has worked together with FISH and SCUCC to sponsor a Paper Drive throughout the season. Food Pantries often receive food and cash donations, but rarely get donations of paper goods such as paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, tissues, diapers, feminine products, etc. 

Please bring paper product donations to remaining High Holy Day services. There will be clearly marked FISH bins by each set of stairs, as well as upstairs, for you to deposit your donations.

 

The Social Action Committee is continuing to network with other immigrant rights activists in South Florida. We are working with a local pastor and Lee County Legal Aid to schedule an immigrant Know Your Rights session at a local Church. Our Committee has helped organize and will attend the Southwest Florida Immigration Summit in Fort Myers on November 18.

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If you are a Florida registered voter....a group, Ban Assault Weapons NOW, affiliated with the Parkland students in association with Americans For Gun Safety Now, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Florida American Academy of Pediatrics, Florida PTA, Florida Veterans For Common Sense, League of Women Voters, March For Our Lives, and Newtown Action Alliance is gathering signatures for a proposed Florida Constitutional Amendment for the November 2020 ballot to ban assault weapons in Florida.

 

This is how Florida got medical marijuana and the vote for former felons. They have so far gathered 100,000 out of approximately 767,000 Florida registered voter signatures needed. Please print the petition from https://bawnfl.org/amendment.html and mail it in. Match your signature to your driver’s license/voter registration. Please share with other voters registered in Florida.

 

Garry Weiss,

Chair, Social Action Committee

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September 2019

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UPDATE ON SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES

 

The Bat Yam Social Action Committee is continuing its focus on asylum-seeking immigrants in our midst.  We had a bus trip scheduled with other immigrant activist groups to go to the Florida Child Detention Facility in Homestead, but Homeland Security mysteriously evacuated the facility a few days before we were scheduled to go.  We do not know where they took the children.

 

We continue to work with Lee County Legal Aid, Lee County Hispanics, and Catholic Charities of Immokalee to support Immigrant Know Your Rights sessions.  We are also involved in a task force led by Adonia Simpson of Americans for Immigrant Justice (she led our Know Your Rights training session last April) to plan an Immigration Summit for Fort Myers.

 

If you are an attorney or know any attorneys, here is a link from ACLU for providing legal help (including opportunities to help remotely) for the victims of the ICE raids in Mississippi:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmL9Uwg8j8GvuSUr3HvKUkjIT7ZgQuHhLC DmoqeiuUkhXPpg/viewform.

 

If you are a Florida registered voter, please note: A group, Ban Assault Weapons NOW, affiliated with the Parkland students in association with Americans For Gun Safety Now, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Florida American Academy of Pediatrics, Florida PTA, Florida Veterans for Common Sense, League of Women Voters, March For Our Lives, and Newtown Action Alliance is gathering signatures for a proposed Florida Constitutional Amendment for the November 2020 ballot to ban assault weapons.  This is how Florida got medical marijuana and the vote for former felons.  They have so far gathered 100,000 out of approximately 767,000 Florida registered voter signatures needed.  Please print the petition from the link below and mail in the form. Match your signature to your driver’s license/voter registration.  Please share with other Florida registered voters via https://bawnfl.org/amendment.html.

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May 2019

REPORT FROM THE SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE

 

On March 29, the Bat Yam Social Action Committee along with Americans for Immigrant Justice (www.aijustice.org) sponsored a workshop on how to conduct Know Your Rights sessions for immigrants in our midst who are woefully unaware of their rights, needs for qualified legal representation, and how to prepare their families in the event they are detained or deported.  Approximately forty people from Bat Yam and other Southwest Florida community organizations attended.  

 

We hope to follow the “welcome the stranger” teachings from throughout the Torah and work with the community organizations that attended the workshop over the next few months to plan our next steps. We expect to be involved in initiating and participating in immigrant Know Your Rights and Legal Screening sessions in our community over the next year.  

                                                     

Garry Weiss, Chair, Social Action Committee

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March 2019

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SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE TO HOLD “KNOW YOUR RIGHTS” PRESENTATION AND WORKSHOP MARCH 29

 

On Friday March 29 at 2 p.m. in Fellowship Hall of the SCUCC, the Bat Yam Social Action Committee will host a “Know Your Rights” presentation and workshop to train people who are interested in learning more about the topic or interested in delivering “Know Your Rights” presentations to immigrants in our community. The presenter/trainer will be Adonia Simpson, a lawyer for and Director of the Family Defense Program of Americans for Immigrant Justice in Miami. Some knowledge of Spanish or Creole is helpful but absolutely not necessary. 

 

According to Garry Weiss, Chair of the Social Action Committee, this program came about because in January, he, Janice Block Chaddock, Barry Fulmer, and James Davis visited the contractor-run ISAP (Intensive Supervision Appearance Program) Check-in Center in Ft. Myers. They spoke directly to a number of “clients,” all from Guatemala and all wearing ankle monitors. They eventually spoke with a “Deportation Officer” who “politely” asked them to leave and not return, claiming they were on “private property.” 

One of the clients told them he arrived in the US in Arizona with his two children and that his wife remained in Guatemala because of the dangers of the journey. He came here because there is no work in Guatemala and hoped when he left the office that day he’d be able to work. He mentioned beatings he received in Guatemala and showed the delegation a form he signed in Arizona. It was in English only; he did not understand English at all. He said there was no official in Arizona who spoke Spanish. All he knew was that if he signed the form, he could get into the US and get to Ft. Myers. “Obviously,” Weiss points out, “he had no idea what he had signed.”

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The clients also appeared to have the basic necessities of life. “But,” according to Weiss, “It appeared they had little or no understanding of the ‘process’ or of their rights and need for representation or knowledge that such services could be obtained for little or no cost. The Deportation Officer made sure we knew all the clients had been arrested because they had entered the US  ‘illegally’. He also said they had no need of legal representation until they had their hearings, which would be in Miami or Orlando, the only two cities with immigration courts in the state of Florida, and they would be advised there. We believed this is too late, even if it did really happen. Again, he mentioned we were soliciting on private property if we were to return with the ACLU ‘Conozca Sus Derochos’ (‘Know Your Rights’) international handouts provided by the ACLU and other immigrant activist organizations. 

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We decided to address the need for legal resources by helping to outreach and organize ‘Conozca Sus Derechos’ (Know Your Rights) programs in the area that would also include local legal assistance sources.”

Please respond to Garry Weiss at GSW211@gmail.com if you want to attend the March 29 workshop, and invite others who might be interested to come.

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February 2019

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SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE FOCUSES ON ASYLUM-SEEKING IMMIGRANTS’ NEEDS IN OUR COMMUNITY

 

Each week at Friday night services, Rabbi Fuchs mentions the “Number 1” Torah lesson – welcome the stranger!  Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee’s number one goal is to have our congregation do everything it can to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk” of Judaism’s teachings. In December, Maria Cardenas from Catholic Charities Immigration Services in Immokalee gave a moving presentation to the Bat Yam Social Action Committee on the plight of Immigrant Asylum Seekers in our midst and the work of her organization. Via networking with other island organizations, we have recruited nine attorneys and three medical practitioners as volunteers to support Immigrant Services in Immokalee. We are also working with Rev. Deborah Kunkel from SCUCC to plan a combined Immigration Issue awareness session for our two congregations. We have several other potential projects in the works. Watch your Bat Yam emails and future issues of “Bat Yam Matters” – there’s more to come!

                                            Garry Weiss,

                                           Chair, Bat Yam Social Action Committee

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January 2019

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BAT YAM TZEDAKAH COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTES

TO CALIFORNIA FIRE VICTIMS

 

Salessa Berk, Chair of Bat Yam’s Tzedakah Committee, announced that the committee has donated $500 to the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles to aid victims of the recent California wildfires.

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April 2018

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The Social Action Committee’s last paper drive of the season to benefit FISH will be April 6th and 7th. Leave your paper goods in bins in front of the SCUCC.

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March 2018

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According to Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee, Florida has the third highest incidence of human trafficking in the United States. Children as young as nine years old are victimized. These victims of labor and sex trafficking can be U.S. citizens or immigrants, female or male, children or adults. No one is immune from being targeted. On Thursday March 1st at 7 p.m., Nola Theiss, Executive Director of the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnership, will speak at 7 p.m. in Heron Hall of the SCUCC about what parents, grandparents, and community members can do to help prevent this crime.

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The Social Action Committee’s next paper goods drive to benefit F.I.S.H. will be March 2nd and 3rd. Leave your donated paper goods in bins in front of the SCUCC.

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February 2018

 

SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE HUMAN TRAFFICKING PROGRAM

 

According to Bat Yam’s Social Action Committee, Florida has the third highest incidence of human trafficking in the United States. Children as young as nine years old are victimized. These victims of labor and sex trafficking can be U.S. citizens or immigrants, female or male, children or adults. No one is immune from being targeted. On Thursday March 1st at 7 p.m., Nola Theiss, Executive Director of the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnership, will speak at 7 p.m. in Heron Hall of the SCUCC about what parents, grandparents, and community members can do to help prevent this crime.

 

The Social Action Committee also helped organize a public vigil at a Fort Myers Wendy’s on January 18th, part of a nationwide protest calling for a boycott of Wendy’s to urge them join all of the other fast food chains in participating in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers/Alliance for Fast Food Program. Members of faith communities from Sanibel and Fort Myers, including Rabbi Fuchs and Reverend John Danner, participated.

 

The committee’s next paper goods drive to benefit F.I.S.H. will be

 

Feb. 2nd and 3rd. Leave your donated paper goods in bins in front of the SCUCC.

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January 2018

The Bat Yam Social Action Committee has worked together with FISH (the food pantry on Sanibel) to sponsor a once a month Paper Drive. The next collection will be during the weekend of January 5th.

 

Social Action Committee Chair Garry Weiss reports, “We had a tremendous response to our Paper Drive on December 1 and 2. Please bring paper product donations to services and classes on January 5th and 6th.

There will be clearly marked FISH bins each month for you to deposit your donations.”

 

For more information about the Social Action Committee, contact Garry at gsw211@gmail.com.

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December 2018

UPDATE  ON SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE

The Bat Yam Social Action Committee is gathering a group of volunteers to pack and sort food for Hurricane Irma relief and other initiatives once a month at the Harry Chapin Food Bank at 3760 Fowler Street in Ft. Myers.

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The committee will  arrange carpooling. According to Social Action Committeechair Garry Weiss, “We are planning to volunteer the third Wednesday of each month for the 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. shift, probably starting in December.” If you are interested in participating (it is understood that volunteers may well miss individual shifts), please contact Garry at gsw211@gmail.com or telephone 410-336-2612. The Committee also works with FISH, the food pantry on Sanibel, to sponsor a once-a-month Paper Drive for the organization during the first weekend of Shabbat services and Shabbat morning classes for each month beginning December 1st. Please bring paper product donations to services and classes during the first weekend of each month. There will be clearly marked FISH bins each month into which you can deposit your donations.

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The committee is planning another visit (it made its first visit last April) to the Coalition of Immokalee/Fair Food Alliance in Immokalee for a tour, educational presentation, discussion of the group’s needs, its history, and a discussion about how the social action committee and Bat Yam members can help local migrant farm workers. For more information about the Social Action Committee, contact Garry at gsw211@gmail.com.

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October 2018

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Bat Yam Social Action Committee Chair Garry Weiss reports that according to his research, the best way to help local Irma hurricane victims is through the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida in Ft. Myers. Its website is www.harrychapinfoodbank.org. Plans for the Social Action Committee’s upcoming season include a paper drive (such items as toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc.) for F.I.S.H. (Friends in Service Here) of Sanibel- Captiva. Says Weiss, “Food pantries generally receive little or no contributions of these items, which are a large expense for F.I.S.H., and are thus often in very short supply.”

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Activities Through September 2018

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This past July, the Bat Yam Social Action Committee arranged for the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) to present a program at that month’s Democratic Club of the Islands’ meeting. According to Social Action Committee chair Garry Weiss, “Following their presentation, the CIW received over $5,000 in contributions from Democratic Club of the Islands members.” The committee plans another visit to CIW in Immokalee for those who missed the initial visit last April.

 

Plans for the upcoming season include a paper drive (such items as toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc.) for F.I.S.H. (Friends in Service Here) of Sanibel-Captiva. Says Weiss, “Food pantries generally receive little or no contributions of these items, which are a large expense for F.I.S.H., and are thus often in very short supply.”

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The committee received a “Save the Date” notice of January 28th, 2018 for the Sanibel/Captiva Heart Walk, in which Bat Yam has participated for the last several years.