On February 1, 500 of you participated in our first national call since the inauguration. Over 100 people committed to organizing community meetings or in-district lobbying visits in the days ahead. That’s after more than 550 of you, both seasoned and new activists, joined 25 community meetings all across the country since late December.
If you’ve been waiting for a moment to start or step up your organizing, we’ve put together tools to support you in growing the Jewish resistance. Below you'll find the call recording, toolkits for hosting community meetings and going on legislative visits, and stories of Jewish resistance rising.
Listen to the call recording:
Links to tools for taking action
Notes from the call
Community Meetings
It's a great way to build your local Moral Minyan.
- Map of community meetings - organize or find a community meeting
- Get the toolkit for planning a community meeting
In-district Legislative Meetings
- In-district lobbying toolkit for visiting with your representatives in Congress.
- Issues and talking points memo so you're equipped with powerful messaging.
- Crowdsourced list of town hall meetings because all politics is local.
Plug into Bend the Arc
- Find a local Bend the Arc chapter and plug in right away
- Here's Bend the Arc's action calendar so you know where to find us and partners.
[STORY] Esther in the Bay Area hosted a community meeting
Esther and her husband in the Bay Area have progressive Jewish values. They were shocked and outraged after the election of Donald Trump. They used our community meeting toolkit to host a meeting for other people who want to stand up and fight back. They posted their event on our community meetings map so we could invite other Jews in their area to attend.
"My husband and I thought an activist would come and lead us after we cleaned the living room. We realized WE had to make this happen. 'Us??' But we decided to step up, that now is the time to stretch ourselves. We got a well-thought-out agenda and help preparing. We had a small but very passionate, engaged group of people attend. We're working on next steps and connecting with others in the Bay Area."
[STORY] Jennie in Atlanta is getting involved in local politics
Jennie in Atlanta organized a community meeting in Atlanta and everyone brought someone. One of the things they saw is the importance of getting involved in local politics. They're going to get facetime with their reps by doing in-district lobbying, and here's our toolkit for that. They'll also be prepared with top messaging, which you'll find in our issues and talking points memo.
"Atlanta is on fire. We had 60 people – more than anyone expected. All ages. We broke into 3 groups: cross-community relationships (e.g. with Muslims and African Americans); opposing agendas and politicians to Republican officials; supporting Democratic candidates in Georgia. We have an open seat coming in District 6!"
Photos from where it all starts locally: Bend the Arc community meetings
P.S. Want to get started? Reach out to our national organizer Max for support at [email protected].