Shuls write to premier urging action on poverty

TORONTO — An open letter to Dalton McGuinty, left, from 18 Ontario synagogues urging the premier to keep an election promise to fight poverty was co-ordinated by a Darchei Noam Congregation committee.

The Reconstructionist synagogue recently formed a social justice advocacy committee to lobby the government on this issue.

Val Hyman, chair of the congregation’s social action committee, said its focus has always been on housing and homelessness, and its projects include running an Out of the Cold program and volunteering for the City of Toronto’s three-year-old Street to Homes program, which provides housing for people living on the street.

The congregation has also sponsored two affordable housing buildings near Lawrence Avenue and Bathurst Street.

“This is all well and good, but nothing will change unless we try to influence the government,” she said.

Hyman praised Rabbi Shalom Schachter, a member of the social justice advocacy committee and spiritual leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Peterborough, for “having the energy to contact all the synagogues and pull the whole thing together.”

The shuls represent all four major denominations – Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist.

Hyman said Darchei Noam is part of two interfaith social action groups, because its members believe that faith groups need a Jewish voice. “We are guided by tikkun olam, and we need to put [it] into action. We believe that housing is a right, not a privilege.”

In December, Miloon Kathari, the United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing, visited Canada, “and said he was mystified [to discover] that we are the only G8 country without a social housing strategy. He could not understand why we are not looking after our most vulnerable citizens,” Hyman said.

“As Jews, we have a special reason for asking the premier to stick to his promise.”

Myer Siemiatycki, left, co-chair of the newly formed advocacy committee and a professor of politics at Ryerson University, said Darchei Noam has always addressed homelessness on the front lines, “but this advocacy piece is new. We had our first meeting of the new year in January, and we realized that the Ontario government would soon be coming out with a budget. We wanted the Jewish voice heard.

“We realized that the best format would be to have as many synagogues behind us as possible.”

The committee spent about two weeks getting congregations to sign on, “and we were thrilled and delighted with not only the response, but the breadth of the response,” Siemiatycki said.

“This is an important reminder that the call for justice is a common ground that all Jews can share,” he said.

In the letter, the shuls praised McGuinty for his commitment to target poverty, but said that “time is of the essence… and a child who missed a year’s good nutrition or education, whose family dissolves under grinding economic pressure, will not easily make it up next year.

“We urge your government to put a down payment on its poverty fighting strategy in its upcoming spring budget.”

He said that Rabbi Schachter received a fax from the  cabinet office acknowledging the letter and asking for his return address.

“We’re hoping this will lead to a meeting with senior officials,” Siemiatycki said.

The synagogues that signed the letter were Beth Ezekiel, Owen Sound; Beth Israel, Peterborough; Beth Jacob, Kitchener; Beth Torah, Toronto; Darchei Noam; Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto; Am Shalom Congregation, Barrie; Lodzer Centre Holocaust Congregation, Toronto; Or Shalom Congregation, London; Shaarei-Beth El Congregation, Oakville; Solel Congregation, Mississauga; Temple Emanu-El, Toronto; Temple Har Zion, Thornhill; Temple Israel, Ottawa; Temple Kol Ami, Thornhill; Temple Sinai, Toronto; Temple Shalom, Waterloo; and Adath Shalom, Ottawa. Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl of Beth Tzedec Congregation also signed the letter.