This shabbos, I have a lot to celebrate!
- My birthday!
- The completion of my first year as DJJ’s executive director
- The beginning of 2023, a pivotal year for our community
2022 was a year of big steps, and not just for my kiddo (though those were the cutest). I have grown personally in the role of mom, watching my wiggly little baby turn into a talkative, acrobatic toddler. I have grown professionally as ED, confronting unknowns with confidence. And our community has grown by learning how to win. In 2022 I saw our people rally around the rights of birthing people in our state. I saw them lean into the joy, resilience, and power of Jewish tradition. I saw them build trusting, lasting relationships with our partners. I saw them win.
While we took critical steps in 2022, familiar forces continued to make the most nourishing things in life unnecessarily hard. Parenting is hard. Building powerful, visionary social movements is hard. Capitalism, among other things, makes doing both simultaneously feel impossible some days. I fall back on a Jewish tradition with technologies and memories of resilience and endurance, but that only gets us part of the way. As I move into my second year in this role, I feel that our steps have set DJJ up for unprecedented wins in 2023—for our movement to make systemic, long-lasting change for masses of people.
I feel this confidence because the political conditions in Michigan have changed in crucial ways since the midterms. We have the power to mobilize the coalitions we’ve been building over the past 7 years around issues we know people need. This is the good part. This is the part where we can feel like we’re no longer pushing up against a brick wall and see the fruits of our labor materialize at scale. There’s a finish line in sight for Water Rights, Drivers Licenses for All, a moratorium on tax foreclosures, and more.
This is our moment, and we are asking for your support. Will you give to DJJ to make sure we can see these campaigns through? Let’s win together.
