The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is the United States' most comprehensive resource for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. VAWA is up for reauthorization every five years - including this year. Each reauthorization provides a new opportunity to enhance these safeguards and ensure survivros of gender-based violence have access to the resources and protections they need.
On November 29, 2018, the Department of Education published a proposed rule that dramatically alters schools’ responsibilities under Title IX, a section of the 1972 Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.
These rules are likely to return schools to a time when rape, assault, and harassment were swept under the rug, and will disrupt years of progress toward ensuring academic institutions are held accountable for student safety.
As Reform Jews, it is our duty to demand that Congress pass common sense gun legislation and save countless innocent lives, like the 11 tragically lost in Pittsburgh on October 27. Call on your legislators to take action to end the unacceptably high rates of gun violence in our country.
On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. Urge your elected officials to visibly and consistently act to legitimize anti-Semitism, white, supremacy, and other forms of bigotry.
The administration’s decision to bring an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September 2017 put nearly 800,000 immigrant youth at risk of deportation. Congress must act immediately to protect DREAMers from deportation and provide a permanent, legislative fix that includes a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers.
Currently, federal law does not explicitly prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, federal funding, education, credit, and jury selection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
For more than 50 years, a crucial provision, known as the “Johnson Amendment,” has safeguarded the integrity of both religious institutions and the political process through protecting the separation of church and state. Any effort to weaken or repeal the prohibition on partisan politicking undermines synagogue’s independence and the First Amendment principle of religious freedom and must be opposed.
Urge Congress to support paid family and medical leave.
In the 115th Congress, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2017. The bill would improve the voting process in the United States by modernizing the preclearance formula to cover states with a pattern of discrimination that puts voters at risk, protecting voters from the types of voting changes
