Article for the BOND Networker magazine

The Experience of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Jewish Coalition

The MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Jewish Coalition is an exciting, unprecedented venture for the UK Jewish community.

The coalition has forged a unified group of many varied sectors of the UK Jewish community including most of the larger synagogue movements, youth and student groups and civil society organisations in the Jewish community. This sort of cooperation is not unprecedented, however it is amazingly rare.

We have had to be creative in addressing the fact that the rally on 2 July is a Saturday which has made it difficult for some people to participate as enthusiastically as they would have liked, due to Sabbath observance rules.

The Beauty of Cooperation

As the focus of the campaign is outward looking, it has enabled many organisations to overlook the theoretical difficulties involved with cooperation and coordination. The coalition meetings have become a real melting pot of opinions, argument and debate which have been stimulating. Where ideologies have differed, the differences have been dealt with humorously rather than antagonistically.

The UK Jewish community is overwhelmingly based in London, and so the opportunity to give the Edinburgh Orthodox and Liberal communities centre stage has been welcome. They have both provided great support. It was gratifying to see that Midge Ure, when calling on all religious groups to open their doors to people coming to Edinburgh, called on synagogues to activate their support. We can assure him that the Edinburgh synagogues have done just that and are so well organised including putting all booking forms on a great website.

We have kept the organisation of the coalition fairly loose which has advantages and disadvantages. It has had to be a loose coalition, as none of the organisations involved really has the capacity to lead a campaign. This has meant that in some cases there has been a lack of momentum, but in other cases it has meant that different people have been able to take the lead.

We handed in a very large postcard to Downing Street calling o the UK Government to support the aims of the campaign. We were joined by Louise Ellman MP, who has been supportive of the Jewish coalition and we are hopeful of getting more Jewish MPs involved in lobbying the right people. Many sections of the Jewish community have started to engage with the issues, and if we can get down to the general Jewish public then I think that the MPH Jewish Coalition will have done its role in ensuring that the casing of making poverty history is being aired in the Jewish community.

Jewish tradition and the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign

The aims of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign are part of Jewish tradition. The coalition has adopted the phrase from Deuteronomy " Justice, Justice, Shall you pursue " as its logo. The word for justice in this case is Tzedakah, and the same word is commonly used in Jewish circles to denote charity. Its true meaning embodies both charity and justice. The twelfth century philosopher Maimonides, when talking about Tzedakah explains (in his Eight Degrees of Charity) that the most effective way to help the poor is to empower them to overcome their poverty, just as the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign is trying to do.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY kippot

We are proud of the work we have put into producing MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Kippot (skull caps). We sourced the kippot in Argentina, from a company set up by families from among the "new poor" due the recent situation in Argentina. The participating organisations have covered the costs of the kippot which are being sold for £5. Any proceeds will be shared with the manufacturers, as we think this is one way we can act ethically in how we trade. The excess will also subsidise the Edinburgh Jewish communities which are doing so much for the weekend of 2 July.

Please contact me if anyone would like to buy one of the kippot.

How to summarise the experience so far

One of the coalition members wrote the following which I think is a fitting summary to what the Jewish coalition has achieved thus far:

"We hope that the working model, which has evolved through forming the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Jewish Coalition, could serve as a blueprint for future cross-communal cooperation. When our passion for an issue inspires us to rise above communal divisions - as this cause clearly has - we have shown that we are able and willing to unite and meet the challenge collectively, with one Jewish voice".

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