Related Blog Posts on Balfour/Brickner Fellows, Burstein Fellows, Eisendrath Legislative Assistants, L'Taken Seminars, and Machon Kaplan

L'Taken Ruach Week!

Shira Zemel

Thanks to everyone who participated in our inagural L'Taken Ruach Week! This post has been updated below to show the winners of our four prizes. And to thank everyone who participated at L'Taken we will have a special gift for you at L'Taken.

At the RAC, we

From L’Taken to Machon Kaplan and Beyond: My Advocacy for LGBT Equality

By Abby Kirshbaum When I was in 10th grade, I attended the Religious Action Center’s LTaken Seminar with my confirmation class. On the last day of the trip we got to lobby to one of our senators on an issue that appealed most to us. Little did I know, the legislation in which I lobbied, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), would become such a huge part of my life.

Taking Steps to Support Mental Health

By Elise Glaser With the correct resources and aid, those suffering from mental illness can find a way to a cure, or a way to effectively manage their illness. I watched my brother climb out of a deep addiction after years of rehab, sober living, Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous and therapy. Only with my parents’ health insurance was this possible and was his stability secured. I have many friends who have found their way out of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder with the right medication and treatment. However, these treatments were always accessible by their families’ income and insurance. Throughout these rehabilitation processes, there was little help or guidance from the government, putting the majority of the stress on the concerned family members.

Coming Together as a Movement Through Social Justice

By Reuben Bank When people ask me why I’m passionate about social justice I always struggle to find the correct answer. There are several generic responses that I could go to such as, “because there are so many unjust things in the world,” or another classic, “because I have a passion for helping people,” but these never seem to work for me. They don’t encompass the real reasons that I am passionate about tikkun olam, about repairing the world. I’m not passionate about social justice by itself, I’m not interested in doing random community service hours every weekend. As a Reform Jewish teenager, I am passionate about being a part of a movement.