Organizing as Optimism in Action: A Workshop on Jewish Influences in Modern Organizing & Their Practical Application

How can Jewish community organizers of the past provide us with a framework for making a positive impact on issues we care about? In this workshop, we will learn the principles of community organizing from Jewish leaders in the women's suffrage movement, the labour movement, the civil rights movement, and the Queer liberation movements, which were based on building relationships with others, making strategic choices, and understanding more deeply our own motivations and interests.

On Erev Shavuot, the Jewish harvest holiday that marks the receiving of the wisdom of the Torah, together we will have a chance to share our own wisdom that informs our actions. Local environmental issues will serve as a basis for understanding how grassroots campaigns work.

Since it is traditional to eat dairy on Shavout, we will celebrate the accomplishments of our ancestors by enjoying a dessert potluck together.

Thursday, May 21st from 5pm to 7:30pm

Gallia & Ben Chud Auditorium at the Peretz Centre

6184 Ash St., Vancouver, BC V5Z 3G9​

➤   How to Get Here / Building & Accessibility Information

Parking is available on the street or in the underground parkade.

This event is open to everyone! Registration is required in advance (by donation, suggested amount: $18). Bring a sweet dairy or creamy non-dairy treat to share if you can.

Sponsored by the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. ​​Located in Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, we hold classes, lectures, exhibitions, concerts, holiday celebrations and similar gatherings in order to teach and advance the cause of progressive and modern Jewish learning, culture, and education and the Yiddish language.

Workshop Leader

This workshop is led by Cantor Shira Stanford-Asiyo as part of her participation in the Mother Tree Local Leaders Program of the Sierra Club. Shira was the Executive Director of Jewish Youth for Community Action in Berkeley, and worked for Obama for America and Move On, doing voter turnout and election campaign work.

Shira grew up in North Carolina and was deeply impacted by the southern civil rights organizing model of the Highlander Center in Tennessee and by queer organizing groups like the Lesbian Avengers and Southerners on New Ground (SONG). She has worked in Vancouver to support more options for progressive and queer Jews, interfaith couples and families, and those on the margins through her work with Hamakom and the Jewish Chaplaincy Society. 

Photo credit: View of the mountains from Vancouver, courtesy of Shira Stanford-Asiyo.