Pursuing Justice Together
Since Beth Am’s founding in 1974, pursuing justice – tzedek in Hebrew – has been central to its mission. This was reaffirmed by a congregational survey, which was conducted as part of the synagogue’s 2020 strategic planning process: 98% of Beth Am members surveyed said social action is a key part of the reason they identify with the shul.
Tzedek Beth Am (Justice Beth Am), formerly called the Social Action Committee, is the congregant-led body that oversees all of Beth Am’s social justice work. That work falls under three categories:
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Beth Am’s justice work has taken many forms over its history, primarily through the Social Action Committee (SAC). For 50 years, the SAC has worked to build relationships with Beth Am’s neighbors, neighborhood schools, fellow congregations, and community centers; provided direct support for people in need in Reservoir Hill and throughout Baltimore; and advocated at City Hall, Annapolis, and Washington D.C. on a wide range of issues, including support for immigrants, racial justice, and reproductive justice.
For much of that time, Beth Am’s Environmental Team has operated alongside SAC. It has worked to make the synagogue and neighborhood more earth-friendly by conducting energy audits of the synagogue, planting trees, installing rain barrels, and installing solar panels; sponsored nature outings, often with synagogue youth; partnered with local environmental and faith-based institutions; and advocated for pro-environmental legislation.
In 2013, Beth Am established In For Of, Inc. (IFO), a separate nonprofit comprising Beth Am and Reservoir Hill community members and designed to focus on relational justice. IFO has organized cultural and community activities, promoted Beth Am as a neighborhood meeting and event space, and facilitated social justice causes within the Reservoir Hill neighborhood, working with neighborhood community and civic groups.
In 2022, in order to harness the power of Beth Am’s multiple streams of justice-seeking work, we consolidated these groups under a new internal banner, Tzedek Beth Am (TzBA). When we are outside the synagogue, Beth Am members doing social justice work simply identify as representatives of Beth Am.
Within this new structure, IFO continues to exist as an independent non-profit, with its own Board members, able to solicit grants that benefit Beth Am and Reservoir Hill, while acting in coordination with Tzedek Beth Am.
Click the image above to open a detailed Tzedek timeline.
For more than 25 years, Beth Am has partnered with our neighborhood public school, Dorothy I. Height Elementary School (formerly John Eager Howard). Congregants have volunteered as tutors, mentors, teacher partners, reading buddies, and club leaders. We have sponsored regular book and food giveaways, outdoor education programs, and holiday family dinners. We recently dedicated a Little Free Library outside the school, and our members make sure it is stocked with a range of age-appropriate books.
In recent years, Beth Am has also made annual gifts to the school, in response to expressed needs. These gifts have included a freezer for the school’s Judy Center food pantry, school uniforms, supplies for the school store, and winter jackets. Every year, the Social Action Committee organizes a book drive and sponsors students to participate in trips to Echo Hill Outdoor Education School.
One of Beth Am’s long-standing events is Mitzvah Day, December 25, when we package and deliver Christmas boxes to 36 families in need. Boxes include full dinners with cooked turkeys, sides, homemade desserts, books, cards, and more. We have also regularly contributed meals to Dorothy I. Height Elementary’s Thanksgiving drive.
At the outset of the COVID pandemic, Beth Am worked with Baltimore City and other non-profits to establish a free, weekly food distribution at the synagogue that continues on Tuesday mornings. A grant from the African American Mayors Association allowed us to expand this effort. During the pandemic, Beth Am also distributed pulse oximeters and co-hosted vaccine clinics with neighborhood organizations.
For years, the Social Action Committee has worked to educate Beth Am members about pressing issues in our surrounding community, city, and state, and to advocate for positive change. This has included work for LQBTQ+ rights gay marriage, immigrant rights, reproductive rights, criminal justice reform, and racial justice, among many issues. Our partner in many of these efforts has been Jews United for Justice-Baltimore, with which Beth Am has sponsored many programs and campaigns. Beth Am was a founding member of JUFJ’s “Social Action in the Shuls” committee, which includes Social Action Committee chairs from synagogues in the Baltimore area.
Immigration has been a core issue for Beth Am since its founding and its work in this area touches all three realms of work: relational, direct service, and advocacy. Beth Am has hosted resource fairs, speakers, and bystander trainings to connect members with organizations doing immigration work, which include HIAS, CASA, and the Tahirih Justice Center. Numerous synagogue members have mentored individual refugees or refugee families who are resettling in Baltimore with the aid of the International Rescue Committee. We have also hosted Refugee Shabbats when recent immigrants speak to the congregation about their experiences.
Beth Am was able to take a more direct role when a large influx of Afghan refugees settled in Baltimore after the Taliban came back to power in 2021. Beth Am worked with Hinenu to sponsor the humanitarian parole of a large family with Maryland connections trying to settle in the area. In addition to financial support to bring the family to Maryland and help them get established, Beth Am members provided legal support, tutoring, and driving lessons. Members of the family spoke at Refugee Shabbat in 2022 to express their gratitude.
The weekly food distribution that Beth Am continues (link to above?) became a lifeline for Afghan refugees who settled into apartment buildings adjacent to the synagogue. In addition to this support, Beth Am hosted regular meetings for the Afghan refugees and other tenants to meet with Baltimore Renters United to advocate for better living conditions. The synagogue co-sponsored a welcome center for the refugees at the St Francis Neighborhood Center and congregants helped them found a sewing collective and cooking business.
Beth Am’s environmental team, originally called Shomrai Adama (protectors of the earth), has been active for more than 10 years. The group worked with the Interfaith Partnership for the Chesapeake and joined other religious congregations in signing a Covenant of Commitment. It conducted energy audits of the synagogue and congregants’ homes and planted trees next to our building.
In 2017, the team re-invented itself and engaged in projects at Beth Am and with other religious congregations. These include a Tu B’Shevat Seder, installing a rain barrel along Chauncey St., organizing spiritual nature walks, tree maintenance events in Reservoir Hill, bus tours of other religious institutions’ environmental projects, a Tashlich hazardous waste collection, a kayak tour of the Harbor for the Bnai Mitzvah class, an environmental movie event with Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, and ending the use of Styrofoam cups in the synagogue.
Beth Am has long been an Election Day polling place, and in 2018, the synagogue began hosting a “Party at the Polls.” Studies show that events at polling places increases turnout. Beth Am’s parties are a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with our neighbors, and have included a DJ, food and ice cream trucks, and kids’ activities.
