being deeply pained by California’s poor economy, by a public education system ranked (by some measures) 50th in the country, by deep class divisions, and by the lost “California dream” of prosperity for a growing number of state residents. In August 2012, 25 rabbis and select lay leaders from California Reform congregations—large and small, suburban and urban, politically and geographically diverse—met in Burlingame to lead and participate in training sessions on the California political system and to imagine the possibilities for social change through building and wielding collective power. Realizing that by acting together to galvanize thousands of Jews across California they might be able to achieve their individual dreams of social change, they formed Reform CA. “For the first time in my rabbinate,” said Rabbi Sydney Mintz of Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco, “it felt like I had a whole community of colleagues on whom I could call and who would have my back.” Widening the power base, the participating leaders then initiated conversations with 50 other rabbis throughout the state, asking them: What is the California you dream of? Meanwhile, they engaged in high-level meetings with California’s top campaign and coalition leaders, academics, and legislators to ascertain what issues were critical, current, and potentially winnable over the next two years. From there, the leadership team proposed five possible campaigns—immigration reform, public education, gun safety, California’s Prop 13 tax code, and marriage equality. At a Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis conference, the Reform CA leadership team narrowed down the five to two—immigration and education—and, upon their return home, began soliciting community feedback about the two issues. At Temple Israel in Stockton, Rabbi Jason Gwasdoff learned that the father of one of his religious school students was an undocumented immigrant who had to return to Mexico because of current immigration laws. “Let me be very clear here,” he declared during a Reform CA training session. “There are kids in my religious school who are being affected! This is a Jewish issue.” Hopes for immigration reform in California had been dashed in 2012, when
Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the TRUST Act after it had passed both state houses, describing it as “fatally flawed” because he said the list of crimes justifying deportation was not comprehensive enough, for example, excluding crimes involving drugs, gangs, and child abuse. Successfully lobbying the governor, the California State Sheriff’s Association, an organization of 58 sheriffs overseeing law enforcement in California’s 58 counties, had voiced strong opposition to the TRUST Act as impinging on the security and safety of California’s residents.
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Still, in Governor Brown’s veto message, which he reiterated on Spanish TV, he vowed to work with the legislature to create a bill he could sign. And so, in 2013, Assembly Member Tom Ammiano introduced an almost identical version of the original bill, hoping this time it would pass. At the time, the coalition working on immigration reform was mainly made up of Latino, Asian, and interfaith groups. We Reform CA advocates recognized the Jewish community’s participation would broaden and diversify the coalition, bolstering its effectiveness. The issue also
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