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Notes
1 Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements, offers some valuable insights here.
2 Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 60–61: “Anyone who is working against the Haves is always facing odds, and in many cases heavy odds. If he or she does not have that complete self-confidence (or call it ego) that he [sic] can win, then the battle is lost before it is even begun. … ‘Ego,' as we understand and use it here, cannot be even vaguely confused with, nor is remotely related to, egotism. No would-be organizer afflicted with egotism can avoid hiding this from the people with whom he is working, no contrived humility can conceal it. Nothing antagonizes people and alienates them from a would-be organizer more than the revealing flashes of arrogance, vanity, impatience, and contempt of personal egotism.”
3 Tüfekçi, Twitter and Tear Gas, writes about how technological changes have enabled mass movements to launch much more quickly but have also made it harder for them to adapt or self-critique.
4 Kook, “LaMahalach HaIdeot BeYisrael“.
5 B. Masechet Shevuot, 39a.
6 At many public actions and protests, the crowd is also the real star of the show. I’ve organized public actions where I’ve felt that the people could just look around at who else was there and then go home, with the mission accomplished.
7 Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith.
8 Yishayahu Liebowitz, “Derakhim Le'Emuna Be'Yahadut.”
9 To be clear, just because I see the humanity in someone, as someone created by God just as I was, that doesn’t mean I can’t believe that many of their political beliefs are despicable.
10 Industrial Areas Foundation organizer Jim Drake, an important mentor for me, taught me this form of analysis. Whenever I was agonizing over whether to take a deal, he asked, “Is it half a loaf? (which is better than none) Or half a baby? (which decidedly isn’t).”
11 Vincent Lloyd places anti-Black racism in the sinful human will to dominate. Sadly, over the past year I have seen some young white radicals, in the name of fighting racism, succumb and appear to use their political work more as a method of domination than as a tool of justice. Lloyd, “Human Dignity is Black Dignity.”
12 It is a commandment to pray with a minyan. Many critical prayers, and the reading of the Torah, can only be done with a minyan.
13 Lloyd writes, “the will to dominate promises confidence and clarity, but we are creatures who doubt.” Lloyd, “Human Dignity is Black Dignity.”
14 Hain, “Kohelet as Intertext,” offers a way to mine the challenging book of scripture to find both humility and determination.
15 Soloveitchik, “Imitating God: the Basis of Jewish Morality.”
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Meir Lakein
Meir Lakein has worked as a community organizer for over 30 years, the past decade as the Director of Organizing for JOIN for Justice, the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network. JOIN for Justice is training a powerful field of Jewish leaders capable of effectively organizing for justice, both inside and outside Jewish communities in the United States. JOIN trains rabbis, cantors, and seminary students, young organizers, lay leaders, and Jewish congregations and organizations across the country. Prior to JOIN, Meir has organized with a congregation based organization, synagogues, public housing tenants, and homeless people. His Orthodox Jewish practice and community and his family are central to his life and interests.