Pursue Justice Update

Photo: Post-Abortion Care Kit Packing Event

Calling all warriors for democracy. Your Pursue Justice and Reproductive Rights team will be very active in 2024. We have three actions to tell you about. Please join us. If you haven’t already, sign up on our mailing list to get additional information.

1. Please mark your calendars for the NCJW Repro Shabbat, February 9-10. The Pursue Justice Reproductive Rights group, led by Sara Guido, is proud to be a co-sponsor with Beth Am and Beth Am Women. Reproductive freedom is a Jewish value. Repro Shabbat is an annual Shabbat celebration that honors that Jewish value. Parshat Mishpatim is the reading that contains verses commonly referenced as the foundation of Judaism’s approach to reproductive health, rights and justice. In collaboration with the Beth Am Reproductive Justice Committee, there will also be another NCJW Post Abortion Care Kit collection and packing in February for Beth Am teens and their parents. Please consider donating supplies for the teens to use in packing the kits. LEARN MORE
    
2. We will once again be working with the Center for Common Ground (CCG), a non-partisan voting rights organization led by people of color, to provide outreach to underrepresented voters in voter suppression states. Reclaim Our Vote (ROV) is a grassroots, primarily volunteer-run campaign of CCG that focuses on increasing BIPOC voter turnout through postcarding, texting and phonebanking. They have partnered with the VoteRiders, Mi Familia Vota, Black Voters Matter, Native American Voting Rights, The Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, The Workers Circle, Unitarian Universalists, as well as fraternity and sorority organizations. Join with us in 2024 to write postcards, text and/or phonebank with them to educate and empower voters. Postcarding will begin in February. Postcards do make a difference. Our postcard group, led by Ina Bauman, wrote 1,300 postcards for VA. All of Beth Am postcarders (plus friends of Ina) wrote 12,900 postcards in 2020.  Through this get-out-the-vote work, postcards provide early voting locations and times, voter registration deadlines, information for free rides to the polls and phone numbers for county election officials. In 2022 our Beth Am volunteers did voter outreach for the primary and general midterm elections, the Georgia runoff and the primary for Virginia's 4th Congressional District special election. ROV understands that information is power. Work with Pursue Justice and ROV to empower voters in 2024.
    
3. The California Presidential Primary is Tuesday, March 5. The last day to register is Tuesday, February 20. All California active registered voters will receive a vote-by-mail ballot. Your county elections office will begin mailing ballots by Monday, February 5. You can check your registration status at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov. As Beth Am Pursue Justice team member Tracey says," Voting is foundational to Democracy so please, no sitting on the sidelines. Every person's vote counts and some of these elections will be very close. Use this opportunity to show your commitment to a functioning democracy — get educated and make sure you mail in your ballot." Here are some additional ways you can take action:
    
   1. Learn what is on the Ballot (Visit Vote411.org to find out what is on your specific ballot)
      • President of the United States
      • US Senator
      • Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors (5th District replacing Joe Simitian)
      • Congressional Representative (16th District replacing Anna Eshoo)
      • State Assembly and State Senate
      • Proposition 1
   2. Why is this PRIMARY ELECTION so important? There are many open positions which will impact all of us at both the county, state and federal levels. In this primary, we will vote for:
   3. Do your research — Get Vote Ready
      There are a lot of candidates running for many of these positions. The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan group focused on educating voters, is hosting several zoom sessions on the various hotly contested elections. Please register to participate.
      • (a) Saturday, February 3, 4:00-6:00 PM, Zoom: 16th Congressional District Candidate Forum hosted by LWV of Palo Alto and co-sponsored by LWV fo Cupertino-Sunnyvale; Los Altos-Mountain View; Southwest Santa Clara Valley; San Jose/Santa Clara; North & Central San Mateo County; South San Mateo County. REGISTER and ask your questions
      • (b) Wednesday, February 7, 7:00-8:00 PM, Zoom: 23rd California State Assembly District Candidate Forum hosted by LWV of Los Altos/Mountain View. REGISTER

The Beth Am Pursue Justice Committee engages in non-partisan, pro-democracy work through voter engagement. Sign up to be on our mailing list.