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Thoughts from volunteer leaders and supporters of Jews for a Secular Democracy. If you have something to share, please be in touch, we would welcome your contributions to the blog!

Welcoming Katie Reiter, Our New National Coordinator

27 Jan 2023
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Katie Reiter grew up at the Birmingham Temple, now known as the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism. She studied under Rabbi Sherwin Wine and feels strongly connected to and appreciative of the teachings of Rabbi Wine and Humanistic Judaism. Accordingly, she has spent her life advocating for her community and fighting for human rights. For over 20 years, Katie juggled raising three children with running a successful health management consulting business and being a volunteer community activist. Eventually, Katie opened Our...
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“Religion Clause” – A Great Resource on Church-State Separation

26 Jan 2023
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Howard M. Friedman, Distinguished University Professor and Professor Of Law Emeritus at the University of Toledo, writes regularly on issues of church-state separation on his Religion Clause blog, named on of the 100 favorite blogs of the American Bar Association. We asked Professor Friedman to tell us about his approach and how his Jewish identity in particular informs his work. He was kind enough to reply with the following: I welcome you to Religion Clause, a blog whose title refers...
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Tales from the Michigan Recount: Election Deniers’ Lack of Education Cost Taxpayers Over a Million Dollars

18 Jan 2023
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As a social justice organizer, I like to be proactive. However, sometimes it’s necessary to be reactive. Michigan’s recent statewide partial recount of Propositions 2 and 3 was one of those times. Proposition 2 (Promote the Vote) and Proposition 3 (Reproductive Freedom For All) passed by overwhelming margins. A statewide partial recount was nevertheless requested by a Bloomfield Hills man on behalf of the Election Integrity Force (EIF). Michigan law has very different guidelines for candidate recounts and proposal recounts....
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Florida Jews for a Secular Democracy Applauds the Filing of a Legal Suit Against the 15-Week Abortion Ban to Preserve Separation of Church and State

13 Jun 2022
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June 10, 2022—The Jewish congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Palm Beach County filed a legal suit today in the second circuit court in Leon County demanding declaratory relief and temporary and permanent injunction of HB5, the recently passed 15-week abortion ban law (formally entitled Fetal and Infant Mortality Reduction).  The suit asked the court to declare the law invalid, unconstitutional and unenforceable. Florida Jews for a Secular Democracy, a pluralistic Jewish initiative committed to advancing the Constitutional principle of separation of...
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The Ongoing Battle for a Secular America

29 Mar 2022
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This is a guest post by Rabbi Jeffery Falick of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit. To this day the biggest culture shock I ever experienced was my family’s move to Texas in 1978. From our fairly liberal and Jewish suburban Miami neighborhood (to which I’d return years later) I suddenly found myself in an overwhelmingly fundamentalist Christian world. The “buckle of the Bible belt,” they called it. Though I’d grown up around both Democrats and Republicans, I...
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Welcoming Nomi Joyrich, Our New Michigan JFASD Organizer

01 Feb 2022
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Nomi Joyrich is Michigan’s first organizer for Jews For a Secular Democracy (JFASD) and an organizer for Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN.) Nomi’s work supporting interfaith concerns and social justice issues spans decades and includes political activism at all levels of government. Nomi’s current focus is on reproductive freedom, economic justice, and voting rights and protection. Nomi received her B.A. in Minority-Majority Group Relations, Political Philosophy and Psychology from James Madison College, Michigan State University. She received her...
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Welcoming Nicole Klein Knight, Our Communications and Marketing Coordinator

02 Jan 2022
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Besides coordinating the Jews for a Secular Democracy initiative nationally, Nicole Klein Knight just finished her second-term as a New Hampshire State Representative. She served on the Criminal Justice Committee, was the Floor Leader for the Progressive Caucus and Secretary for the Young Democrats Caucus. Nicole co-founded the Never Again New Hampshire chapter in 2019. She centers her legislation and advocacy with the immigrant community, incarcerated community, minor’s protective rights, sex worker rights, substance user rehabilitation, and the houseless community...
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What it means to be a ‘Jew of No Religion’ — it’s not what you think

15 Jun 2021
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This piece originally appeared in J. The Jewish News of Northern California on May 19, 2021 I’m thrilled that atheist/agnostic, nonreligious Jews like me seem to be growing in numbers. I’m concerned, though, that our full set of values is not made apparent by the new Pew Research survey of American Jews. Pew splits the community between “Jews by Religion” and “Jews of No Religion.” It suggests an increase among Jews of No Religion to 27 percent of all Jewish...
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