Apparently there is absolutely no way to email HIAS, even if you use the emails listed on their website or the "contact us" form. They will not respond.

What I want to know is what they are doing to help LGBTQ Jews and their families move AWAY from the US.

The US is no longer safe for LGBTQ families, non-christian refugees, and non-white immigrants.

Why is HIAS not responding to the changing political reality?

Does anybody know what the heck they are doing and why they're not helping Jews move to safe places?

You know, their actual job? The purpose for their existence?

They certainly aren't going to get any more funding from me until I see some reality based decision making there. So far, no sign.

Register here to attend Network Briefing on September 9th
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/K4eSTaiFRMaBHkKgZACzBA#/registration

If the science is ignored or corrupted so that EPA rules these gases are "safe," EPA loses its ability to regulate air pollution.

See our Action Alert: Tell EPA Administrator Zeldin that Air Pollution is Still Dangerous
Article: https://www.jewishearthalliance.org/post/tell-epa-administrator-zeldin-that-air-pollution-is-still-dangerou

From Ritual Well:
A Loving Walk Through Elul
Beloved teacher Rabbi Vivie Mayer gently guides us through the month with wisdom, heart, and compassion — a journey you can take at your own pace. Her teachings are an invitation to slow down and meet this season with tenderness.

Info & Registration: https://ritualwell.org/learn/at-your-own-pace/an-exploration-of-teshuvah-and-love/

If you want to help with hunger but don't want to support any local christian organizations who are also likely working toward stripping you of your rights to religious freedom, there are alternatives.

You can give to your local Federation, which usually has a fund to help with food and emergencies.
Find your nearest Federation Office: https://www.jewishfederations.org/federation-finder

Or you can give to Mazon.
Link: https://mazon.org/

From Rabbi Jill Zimmerman:
Join our warm and welcoming community of learners as we study core texts from Jewish tradition to illuminate the path, along with mindfulness practices to enrich your experience.

Register: https://jewishmindful.org/hh2025-course/

Tiered Pricing: $72 - $144

From Rabbi Jill Zimmerman:
This personal work is so important that we set aside an entire month (Elul) for reflection.

You think deeply about who you are, where you are, and who you want to be. You review the past year and set new intentions for the coming year. You reflect, repair, and renew.

When you take time to engage in this practice, the High Holy Days season is exponentially more meaningful. They become a tool for spiritual transformation.

Get the Download: https://jewishmindful.org/return/

Interactive PDF: $18-$36

I know many people feel powerless to improve the world, especially as so many institutions are falling apart, but we can always make a difference to someone #TikkunOlam

(From Babylon 5, season 3, episode 20)

This Sunday, from the Shalom Center:

Yahhhh b'Av: A New Torah of Love

Sunday, August 10, 2025

7:00 PM  8:30 PM

Register HERE: https://theshalomcenter.org/events/yahhhh

From Ritual Well:

Shiva Handwashing for Estranged Relations

by Julianne Bellin / Sahar Bareket

Link: https://ritualwell.org/ritual/shiva-handwashing-for-estranged-relations/

We are pleased to announce that today the Chevra enrolled as a partner with other religious organization as part of the new Faithful Majority for Reproductive Freedom initiative!

Your congregation or organization can enroll here: https://faithfulmajority.org/join-us

It is a violation of our right to freedom of religious practice for laws enacting one sect of christian religious beliefs to be imposed upon Jewish women, women of other faiths, women of other christian sects, or women with no religious affiliations.

This is an opportunity to work with like-minded religious people to restore our constitutional rights to practice our respective faiths without interference.

Join us: https://faithfulmajority.org/

From JEA:
We're kvelling!  Bill McKibben 
 will be the featured speaker at the July 15th Network briefing!

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Bill, a pioneer on climate change in 1989 when he published The End of Nature, the first book on the subject aimed at a general audience.

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/bYdDGGH8TC2HDbKQ4iM_cg#/registration

Yale interview with Bill: https://e360.yale.edu/features/bill-mckibben-interview

Book promo: https://billmckibben.com/end-of-nature.html

Get the Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-end-of-nature-bill-mckibben/11162694

Jewish communities are going to need to step up and provide funding for families that need to move either to blue states or out of the country entirely.

We cannot let these whackadoodle republican nutjobs take away Jewish families' freedom to decide their own children's healthcare, practice our own faith without christian interference, and save the lives of countless Jewish youth who will kill themselves rather than live the fake lives christians are imposing on them.

This funding can be collected via local federation offices, synagogues, local chapters of Jewish organizations, and other Jewish nonprofits. I would like to see the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society take the lead on this, but the local communities should not wait.

We need to do this now, while we still can.

Read the Article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/trans-kids-attacks-trump-families/

Reach out to your community. Organize. Plan. Give. Act. Don't wait until it's too late.

From Lilith:
"This is going to be a long fight, and the anti-immigrant far right has been preparing for years for this moment. Our movement is prepared too, but I try to heed the call from Pirkei Avot: “You are not obligated to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Find the small piece you can contribute, and know that there are thousands like you doing their small parts as well."

Read the Article: https://lilith.org/articles/how-to-show-up-for-immigrants/

From The Workers Circle:
Happy Pride Month, everyone! A week from today, join the Workers Circle online for Shtolts: A Night of Queer Yiddish Poetry on Monday, June 23 from 7:00 – 8:00 PM ET. 

The Yiddish literary canon contains many rich engagements with gender and sexuality. Despite the social and political repression of the era, queerness abounds in a number of beautiful and challenging texts.

We will unpack several provocative examples of kvirkayt  — queerness — in Yiddish literature and culture, and we’ll also learn some Pride Month Yiddish vocabulary along the way. All are welcome!

Register: https://www.circle.org/events/shtolts-a-night-of-queer-yiddish-poetry

Our April 2025 protest took place on Yom HaShoah, a day when people who died during the #Holocaust are remembered. We said "Never again!" to #genocide as we protested the Chinese government's genocide of its #Uyghur population.

From Jewish Dems:
The most important step that could be taken is a clear and resounding denunciation of antisemitism – in all its forms – from this White House, and that is an action Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to take.

In the meantime, the steps he is taking against universities and foreigners will not make Jewish Americans more secure. We need leadership, not exploitation of the very real threat we face in the form of antisemitism, and we need it now.

Article: https://jewishdems.substack.com/p/dont-ban-defund-deport-in-our-name

Subscribe: https://jewishdems.substack.com/

Support: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jdca?refcode=060625ww

The vilification of Jews and the false equivalence between the actions of the Israeli government and Jewish people is antisemitism. To the extent that phrases such as “globalize the intifada,” “Free Palestine,” and “from the river to the sea” are used to blame Jews as a people for the government of Israel’s actions, it is antisemitism.

From the Workers Circle:
Monday, June 23, 7:00 PM ET

Shtolts: A Night of Queer Yiddish Poetry

Happy Pride from the Workers Circle!

The Yiddish literary canon contains many rich engagements with gender and sexuality. Despite eras of social and political repression, queerness abounds in a number of beautiful and challenging texts.

Come celebrate Pride Month (der shtolts-khoydesh) with Workers Circle staff Yasha Giner (Yiddish Cultural Activism Fellow) and Francesca Rubinson (Senior Social Justice Organizer). Unpack provocative examples of kvirkayt  — queerness — in Yiddish literature and culture with us, and learn some Pride Month Yiddish vocabulary along the way. All are welcome!

Register: https://www.circle.org/events/shtolts-a-night-of-queer-yiddish-poetry

This event is free, but donations are welcome to strengthen our activism and Yiddish work.

From the Nat'l Womens Law Center:

"For nearly 40 years, EMTALA has ensured that patients can access health- and life-saving emergency abortion care. As a federal law, EMTALA protects emergency abortion care in states that now try to ban that care. If anti-abortion extremists succeed in stripping away EMTALA’s protections, doctors in ban states could be forced to violate their sworn duty: to save lives and prevent harm.

Extremists are relentlessly trying to limit abortion, and they are putting pregnant people’s lives on the line. That’s why we’re fighting back. Make a donation now to power the fight for accessible abortion care and a better future for all."
https://nwlc.org/donate/

We don't need more dead women. We need to be free from religious oppression by christian nationalists.

More Info: https://nwlc.org/

"The backlash against trans existence is not a side issue; it is central to the broader collapse of bodily rights. Feminism that does not extend itself in defense of trans lives is not feminism, it’s gatekeeping dressed up as theory."

#TikkunOlam

https://jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?blogPost=the-body-bears-what-the-system-cannot-hold

I wrote about how grief lives in the body, especially when systems demand composure, compliance, or silence. About loss of bodily rights, state violence, and the myth that anyone can carry this alone. (No paywall) "The Body Bears What the System Cannot Hold." #TikkunOlam

https://jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?blogPost=the-body-bears-what-the-system-cannot-hold