Congregational Community Organizing

Describes: the hallmark of effective leaders as commitment and competence to widen the circle of leaders, both formal and informal; Moses' model of leadership development; the traditional view that character is the critical qualification for leadership; the essence of leadership development in practice as relational; and practice guidelines.

Suggests that what Korach took (vayikach Korach) was the opening created by the spies "evil report" to launch a revolt; that he recruited informal leaders as organizers and agitators; the means he may have used to appeal to their self-interest; his own self-interest and modus operandi; and lessons for contemporary faith community policies and practices in regard to informal leaders. [4 pp.]

This collection represents imaginary conversations between the photographic artist Polixeni Papapetrou (1960–2018) Polixeni and her artistic friends.  The subject matter concerns migration, diaspora and displacement, ecology and lifestyle as well as more personal themes of how we productively engage our imagination and achieve contentment.

[This paper may be viewed and downloaded at https://www.gatherthepeople.org/resources/Downloads/TIKKUN_OLAM_SOUL_SEARCHING.pdf with bi-lateral endnotes that allow instant access from text to endnotes and instant return from endnotes back to text.]

Recounts a Torah-based conception of repair of the world (tikkun olam) that reflects the authors’ combined 75-plus years of learning, living, and teaching Torah and community organizing and development; recognizes the critical linkage between repairing ourselves as change agents and repairing the families and communities that ideally form the foundation of our society’s moral-spiritual infrastructure; examines the obstacles, challenges, and role of faith in tikkun olam; and identifies the central role of Torah in the moral vision, values and path of community organizing and development aimed to promote righteousness, truth, justice, freedom, peace, and compassion.

This article examines voter rights, voter exclusion, and democracy in the US from historical and ideological perspectives. The contention is that voter exclusion is not the issue but a symptom of larger problems of the anti-democratic institutions of separation (dominator hierarchies), including nationalism (e.g., white supremacy and Christian nationalism), militarism, imperialism, and imperial capitalism. Voter exclusion, particularly aimed at Black and other non-white people, and their allies, and the suppression of democracy are traced through four eras: the establishment of the US 1600s-1850s), emancipation and Jim Crow (1865-1930s), protest movements (late 1940s-1990s), and Trumpism (21 st Century-present). A continuity in extensive voter exclusion and antidemocratic policies and practices, and the rise the US as the dominant imperial power is demonstrated. Problems are both systemic and ontological. Thus, a multi-pronged integral approach for democratizing US society is proposed. Essential to this approach is ideological paradigm shifts in politics, economics, philosophy, science, and spirituality.

This article examines voter rights, voter exclusion, and democracy in the US from historical and ideological perspectives. The contention is that voter exclusion is not the issue but a symptom of larger problems of the anti-democratic institutions of separation (dominator hierarchies), including nationalism (e.g., white supremacy and Christian nationalism), militarism, imperialism, and imperial capitalism. Voter exclusion, particularly aimed at Black and other non-white people, and their allies, and the suppression of democracy are traced through four eras: the establishment of the US 1600s-1850s), emancipation and Jim Crow (1865-1930s), protest movements (late 1940s-1990s), and Trumpism (21 st Century-present). A continuity in extensive voter exclusion and antidemocratic policies and practices, and the rise the US as the dominant imperial power is demonstrated. Problems are both systemic and ontological. Thus, a multi-pronged integral approach for democratizing US society is proposed. Essential to this approach is ideological paradigm shifts in politics, economics, philosophy, science, and spirituality.

Provides an extensive range of evaluation categories, and examples that describe objectives and content of education and training to help organizers meet performance standards. Focuses on base-building community organizing and emphasizes the overriding objective of leadership development.

Focuses on the necessity within community organizing projects of achieving internal accountability; the commonplace failure of leaders to constructively confront others within their organizations for the sake of accountability; the failure to develop a culture of accountability; obstacles to achieving internal accountability; essential elements of holding someone accountable within our own organization; and appropriate attitude and language in accountability confrontations.

Describes social learning theory, concepts, and procedures, and outlines community organizing technology based on the theory, with applications in the micro to mezzo range, highlighting modeling. (Authored in 1978 by Moshe ben Asher under his former English name, Michael Silver.)

Recognizes that despite resurgent American optimism in mid-2021, after a fearful year and a half of coronavirus pandemic, the faith and hope of the people remain subdued because of existential threats to our democracy, particularly Republican-led legislative assaults on voting rights and nonpartisan electoral administration. Identifies in these developments  the central role of a growing fascist oligarchy, populated by a brotherhood of billionaires. Considers the tortuous path ahead for community organizing and the essential role of the profession's treasured legacy. Proposes a strategic vision to achieve institutionalized, structural empowerment of the demos, to revitalize and redirect the nation's democratic institutions.

Describes the necessity for organizers to build relationships of trust with those they're organizing, which requires that they demonstrate moral and ethical character; the demands of "professing" organizing, the purposes and obligations; the critical role of teamwork and team culture; and the principal means of overcoming one's moral and ethical shortcomings as an organizer.

Related in story-form as an ongoing discussion between three congregational rabbis, offers a detailed approach to the development of the congregation as a kahal poalei tzedek (congregational community of doers of justice and righteousness), not only in their own community but in the larger world.

Points to the contemporary relevance of Deuteronomy (Devarim) 16:18-20; notes the importance of clarifying the national motivation for prosecuting President Trump; posits that revenge, retribution, and deterrence rationales will all increase division and hatred in the country; and proposes an untarnished moral justification for prosecuting Trump and his co-conspirators.

Acknowledges that the U.S. is headed for a Dark Age, marked by wholesale moral collapse of institutions, a slide toward authoritarianism; recognizes that the devastating assault is masterminded by a brotherhood of billionaires; laments the general lack of appreciation by American citizens for the potency of evil arrayed against our democratic form of government; itemizes the discouraging conditions which indicate we will not avoid the looming darkness; and proposes that although the darkness can no longer be avoided, it may be limited to years rather than decades if the institutions of democracy are rebuilt from the grassroots.

Proposes Trump's likely action if the pandemic continues to have extremely disruptive effects on the economy and the health care system and if it appears he will lose the election in November; outlines a strategic vision to deal with the constitutional crisis that threatens American democracy; and acknowledges the necessity for Americans to question whether to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the Government of the United States if Trump declares himself "king."

Describes the recent predations on American democracy as threatening the moral-spiritual core of the nation; notes the specific reasons for pessimism about the nation's future; acknowledges that doing more of what we've been doing, while necessary, is obviously not sufficient; and proposes rebuilding the institutions of democracy at their roots by establishing directly democratic assemblies as the lower tiers of metropolitan government, through which citizens could shape their own laws and policies, and ultimately hold accountable corporations and higher levels of government.

Highlights the leadership deficit in progressive community organizing attempts to hold accountable the stockholders and executives of the country's massively consolidated corporations; the need for continuous broad-based  leadership development to build a unified national progressive grassroots movement; the importance of organizers taking greater risks in trusting leaders; the pillars of developing individuals as leaders; critical supportive organizational context; and criteria for evaluating the growth of leaders.

Explores the shortcomings of mass mobilizations not grounded in long-term organizational development and seasoned leadership; the downside of failing to target indirect decision-makers; the disappointing experience of the Million Mom March, which employed a tactic as a strategy, and was opposed by the NRA; the basis of the extraordinary NRA political power; the Wall Street-led "billionaire brotherhood" forces behind the NRA, working to replace a bottom-up elective democracy with a top-down empire; and the most practicable means of remedying the imbalance of power by securing institutional powers for the general citizenry.

Considers the implications of Election 2016 for community and congregational organizing, the handicap of limited funding for building a national progressive coalition, and the need to focus on democratizing metropolitan government to build permanent, directly democratic grassroots power.

Acknowledges that modern people often believe that much of Torah's description of ritual is irrelevant, but that there is a deep, potentially redeeming connection between Torah ritual and the social dysfunction and disease in contemporary society, particularly wrongdoing done in secret by powerful leaders, and the importance of ritual in communicating as a community with ourselves about what we value most and how to protect it. (3 pp.)

Explores issues and concepts related to the economic viability of small-scale political institutions, reviews surveys of "decentralization experiments," and considers the potential for small-scale (neighborhood) government to play an economically useful role in providing neighborhood-based health care service delivery. (Authored in 1978 by Moshe ben Asher under his former English name, Michael Silver.) (63 pages)

Explores the challenge of staff development, a leadership strategy for staff development, the primary role of leaders to maximize staff development, the basic tools of leadership development that drive staff development, and the measure of successful leadership development. (4pp)

Reviews a full range of material from which an organizer might choose elements to incorporate in a one-to-one visit, including: credentialing; vision, values, and religious legitimization; personal biography and surfacing pressures; strategic organizing vision; and stumbling blocks. (9 pp.)

Considers the functional differences between formal and informal meetings, the importance of meetings as platforms for action, the fundamentals of pre-meeting prep sessions with leaders, the essentials of chairing, and the minimum requirements of reviews and evaluations of meetings. (5 pp.)

Outlines role of coalitions in lobbying, choosing a decision-maker to lobby, questions to help devise a lobbying campaign strategy, preparation of a policy brief, meeting with a decision-maker, and testifying at legislative hearings. (8 pp.)

A majority of current HIV/AIDS interventions are designed primarily after individual-based public health models and pay little attention to the socioeconomic environment in which HIV transmission occurs. This article focuses on outlining how migration acts as a conduit for disease transmission in South Africa and then proposes a macro-level prevention model based on social capital theory, thus then supplementing current prevention literature. It is based on the argument that social disruption and stresses from migration lead to sexual interactions during the migration periods that amplify the risk of HIV transmission among migrants.

Political decision makers often argue that their agenda is driven by the needs, values, and wants of constituents, yet little evidence exists documenting the transmission of agendas from the constituents to the decision maker. Interest groups play a crucial role in educating political decision makers about issues and persuading their response; therefore, this study begins to explore the transmission of agendas from interest groups to political decision makers by conducting individual interviews with nine state legislators. The results reveal that state legislators view interest groups as essential to making informed political decisions congruent with the constituents' agenda. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

All talk about organizations relies on abstract conceptions, using words and their meanings, to make sense systematically of our experience and observations of people doing things together. A great deal of organizational life can be described and, more importantly, sometimes even understood, predicted, and influenced, with abstract ideas about structure and culture.