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SURJ Bay Area Statement on the October 27 Shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue As Jewish and non-Jewish members of SURJ Bay Area, we grieve the murders of Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, brothers Cecil Rosenthal and David Rosenthal, husband and wife Sylvan Simon and Bernice Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday during Shabbat morning services. We hold these individuals, their loved ones, Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and the broader Jewish community in our hearts. As we hold one another in our grief, let us be renewed in our work toward collective liberation. Continue reading the statement here. [Scroll down to see National SURJ resources on Anti-Semitism.] Tuesday, November 6 • 7:00 am - 8:00 pm VOTE! VOTE! Yes on Prop 10 and Oakland Measure Z! SURJ Bay Area has been supporting and mobilizing around these two ballot initiatives: California Prop 10 (Restores the power of local communities to pass rent control and make housing more affordable) - VOTE YES! Oakland Measure Z (Raises the minimum wage for hotel workers and protects them from harassment) - VOTE YES! Location: Not sure where to vote? Find your polling place here. Wednesday, November 7 • 6:45 - 9:00 pm Intro to SURJ Meeting Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority. You'll hear about SURJ's pathways for entering the work, including committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We'll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice. Please RSVP - space is limited. Location: Sierra Club, 2101 Webster St. Suite 1300, Oakland Wednesday, November 7 • 6:30 - 8:30 pm Investing in Sanctuary: Freedom to Stay, Freedom to Move, Freedom to Return Come learn about border walls and those who are profiting from them, and celebrate international resistance to defend human dignity and resistance to walls in their many forms. The event includes live music, a photo exhibition, and speakers Nellie Jo David, organizer for Indigenous human rights and autonomy on the imposed U.S./Mexico borderlands intersecting the Tohono O’odham Nation and Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. Event is free, but support and donations accepted. Location: Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, 1433 Madison St. Oakland Tuesday, November 13 • 6:00 - 7:30 pm Living on Ohlone LandLearn about the protection and preservation of sacred Indigenous sites in the East Bay, with acclaimed speaker and activist Corrina Gould, spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone and co-founder of Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC). She also hosts the annual Shellmound gathering in Emeryville, and formed the Sogorea Te Land Trust. Event is free. Location: Golden Gate Branch Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave. Oakland Tuesday, November 13 • 6:00 pm Make Sanctuary Cities a Reality in Berkeley and Oakland Come out to support a sanctuary contracting ordinance championed by the #DeportICE Coalition that’s being considered by both the Berkeley City Council and Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee. The municipal ordinance declares California’s sanctuary cities will not do business with companies that work to identify, profile, target, and detain undocumented California residents for ICE. #DeportICE, of which SURJ is a member, is a coalition of advocacy groups striving to make sanctuary protections real in cities and counties across California. The ordinance has already passed in Richmond. Location: In Berkeley - 2134 MLK Jr. Way • In Oakland - 1 Oscar Grant Plaza Tuesday, November 13 • 7:00 - 8:30 pm SURJ Marin Event: What the %$*# is SURJ? Do you live in Marin? Would you like to connect with other Marin residents interested in racial justice? Join SURJ Marin to learn more about our values, mission, and what we’ve been up to in the county. Practice having courageous conversations about race. Join in a local collective action to support racial equity. Get involved, break white silence, and show up for racial justice in Marin! Location: 301 Poplar St. #8 , Mill Valley Thursday, November 15 • 7:00 - 8:30 pm The State of Black Lives in America with Alicia Garza and Dr. Jelani Cobb Come engage in a discussion with Black Lives Matter Founder Alicia Garza and New Yorker Staff Writer and Professor Dr. Jelani Cobb about the state of Black lives in contemporary America following the 2018 election, the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, voter suppression across the country, a completely new slate of candidate running for office, and potentially an African American woman running for President. Tickets are $16-$72 - buy here. Location: Manny’s, 3092 16th Street, San Francisco Saturday, November 17 • 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Cultivating Race Consciousness in Children This SURJ workshop is for anyone who is loving, nurturing, caring for, and raising up white children. It is an invitation for participants to root more deeply in mutual liberation by developing their capacities to have more meaningful conversations about race, racism, and white supremacy with the children and young people in their lives. Using storytelling, prompts, and somatic practices, this workshop will empower us to step into the everyday conversations needed to recognize and name racial injustice, develop positive racial identities, and use this knowledge to interrupt systemic inequities. Tickets are sliding scale $5-$25. No one turned away for lack of funds. Location: Oakstop, 1721 Broadway, Suite 201, Oakland Saturday, November 17 • 12:00 am - 6:00 pm People Get Ready II Conference How do we take up the often-difficult task of balancing our revolutionary imagination with the brutal realities we face - war, right-wing terror, racist state policy, environmental devastation, etc. Sponsored by the Center for Political Education, this one day conference on analysis, strategy and the fight for our future features visionary speakers and sessions to understand where we are, what we’re up against, how to fight back, build strength, and shift power — now and into the future. Learn more here. Location: Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley Sunday, November 18 • 10:00 am - 1:30 pm SURJ Difficult Dialogues Workshop How do we approach challenging conversations, whether it’s about confederate flags, Donald Trump, cultural appropriation, Palestine/Israel, or even just racism and racial justice in general? Members of the White Noise Collective will facilitate this workshop exploring the difficult conversations in our lives around race and power. Tickets are sliding scale $15 - $25. No one turned away for lack of funds. Location: Sierra Club, 2201 Webster St. Suite 1300, Oakland Thursday, November 22 • 5:00 - 8:00 am Indigenous Peoples' Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering The International Indian Treaty Council sponsors this annual Indigenous Peoples' Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering. Tickets cost $14 (children under 5 free) and the ticket booth opens at 3:00 am with boats departing from Pier 33 at 4:15 am and running every 15 minutes until 6:00 am. All boats return by 9:00 am. Recommended to purchase tickets online in advance (the event sells out). Location: Alcatraz Island, Ohlone Territory, San Francisco Bay Saturdays, December 1 & 8 • 9:30 am - 5:00 pm Emergence-See: White Fragility and the Criminal Injustice System Building on the powerful debut of "9-1-1, What's Your Emergency?" - a play exploring white fragility, personal narrative, and systemic racism - the playwright Jovelyn Richards and SURJ Bay Area are co-hosting two 1-day workshops for white folx who identify as women and those who have been socialized as women. The goal is to deepen individual and collective understandings of what may drive white women to call the police on people of color; on the immediate impact those calls can have; and how healing is necessary for collective liberation. Space is limited. Register here. Location: Will be emailed to registrants, Oakland, CA Sunday, December 9 • 5 PM – 10 PM 20 Years of Strategy and Struggle for Abolition Critical Resistance invites you to this community celebration, highlighting 20 years of dismantling the prison industrial complex and building for the world we need. Author, educator and activist Angela Y. Davis will be in conversation with Black liberationist organizer Kamau Walton (Critical Resistance), anti-imperialist organizer and former political prisoner Linda Evans (All of Us or None), and firebrand Southern freedom fighter Mary Hooks (Southerners On New Ground). The evening includes a dinner, reception, and program. Tickets $15 - $45. More info. Location: First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St. Oakland Donation Drive for The Village in Oakland Winter is coming and the temperature is already dropping when the sun goes down. Support The Village, an Oakland encampment on public land of unhoused people being assisted by community groups including #FeedthePeople, The East Oakland Collective, Asians4BlackLives, and others. The Village addresses the immediate needs of some of Oakland's more than 6,000 homeless residents, and urgently seeks winter clothing and camping supplies. Find the full wishlist and donation info here. Change the Name of the Dixie School District in Marin County SURJ Marin is calling on people across the Bay Area to demand that the name of San Rafael's Dixie School District be changed. Established during the Civil War, the district’s first schoolhouse was built by several pro-confederacy residents who named it Dixie in defiance of those in the area who were pro-Northern. Visit the Change The Name website to learn more and add your name to the list of public supporters. Here you'll also find suggested actions you can take — from writing a letter to the Dixie School District Board of Trustees to suggesting a new name for the school district. SURJ Faith Resources on Anti-Semitism and White Supremacy SURJ-Faith curates a "Countering Anti-Jewish Oppression" resource list. There are general resources at the top of the list; the rest of the list provides resources particularly for addressing anti-Semitism/Anti-Jewish Oppression in Christian tradition and other religious/spiritual traditions that utilize the Bible and aspects of Christian theology. This past February, SURJ-Faith offered a webinar led by members of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) on anti-Semitism and intersections with Christian hegemony and white supremacy. Find that webinar here. Dove Kent, Former Executive Director at Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, has collected some of her work on anti-semitism at Medium, which you can find at this link. Her most recent piece is a collaboration with Rev. Jennifer Bailey drawing the connections between the violence of racism and anti-Semitism. Help Restore the Voting Rights of 1.4 million Floridians SURJ chapters across Florida have been engaged in a campaign to pass Amendment 4, a ballot initiative to simplify the process to restore voting rights to those with past felony convictions. They’re inviting folks from the SURJ network across the country to help turn out voters from anywhere in the country by:
Support a Life-Changing Ballot Initiative in Ohio SURJ Action is supporting an Ohio ballot initiative that will reclassify some drug charges (such as simple possession) from felonies to misdemeanors. This has the potential to free thousands of Ohioans imprisoned under those draconian penalty systems and reallocate millions of dollars from the prison system to health care services to care for people who use drugs. SURJ is working to build support in rural, predominantly white Ohio counties where opioid deaths are some of the highest in the nation. Sign up here to make calls *from your home* to critical voters in Ohio, or make a financial contribution specifically to this campaign so SURJ Action can run trainings, provide materials needed to run canvasses, and convene member-leaders after the election to capture our learning and plan next steps. SURJ Bay Area Chapter - Join us! Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. Learn more at www.surjbayarea.org. SURJ Bay Area is one of 150 chapters and affiliates nationwide. Learn about SURJ National and our mission, vision, and values HERE. Want to support our work? You can make a donation for SURJ's organizing and educational efforts with over half of what we raise going to Black and people of color-led partner organizations. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer HERE. Contributions are tax-deductible. Follow SURJ Bay Area on Social Media: Facebook • Twitter • Instagram Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area c/o PO Box 22748, Oakland CA 94609 Comments are closed.
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