Mission location update

We’re just a few days away from Sacramento! 

Due to the overwhelming response to the Mission, the morning program on Tuesday April 29th has been moved from the Sheraton Grand Sacramento (1230 J Street) to The Grand Ballroom (1215 J Street), directly across the street

As the Grand, we will hear Assemblymembers John Laird (Chair, Assembly Budget Committee) and Mike Villines (Republican Assembly Leader) speak on the ongoing budget crisis.  We will also learn about our legislative agenda and break out into our lobby groups for pre-meeting preparation. 

We will then return to the Sheraton Grand Hotel (Gardenia Ballroom) for our lunch program where State Controller John Chiang will keynote. 

For the fully updated schedule, please click here to download a PDF and here to download a Word document. 

Join us for the 2008 JPAC Mission!

JPAC Logo  

JPAC Statewide Advocacy Day

Monday, April 28 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sheraton Grand Hotel
1230 J Street
Sacramento, CA

 Schedule of events

Monday, April 28, 2008

5:30 p.m.:  Legislative Reception (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

8:00 p.m.:  Dinner to honor various Legislators for their work on behalf of JPAC, No Host (Location TBD) 

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

8:00 a.m.:  Registration and Breakfast (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

9:00a.m.:   Opening Session (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

                    Welcome remarks
                    Nancy Goldberg
                    JPAC Chair   

                    “The Legislative Landscape in a tough budget year”
                    Assembly Member John Laird
                    Assembly Budget Chair

                    Assembly Member Mike Villines
                    Assembly Republican Leader*

10:00 a.m.:  Advocacy & Issues Briefing (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

                     Cliff Berg
                     President, Governmental Advocates, Inc.

                     Gia Daniller
                     Government Relations Consultant, San Francisco JCRC

                     Caron Spector
                     Government Relations Director, Los Angeles JCRC

11:30 a.m.:  Lobbying Group Breakouts - Preparation Time!  (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

11:45 p.m.:  Lunch Program (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

                     Keynote Address
                     The Hon. John Chiang
                     California State Controller

                     Earl Raab Award Presentation

1:30 p.m.:  Legislative Appointments (State Capitol Building)

4:30 p.m.:  Closing Session/Wrap-up (Sheraton Grand Hotel)

* Invited, not confirmed

DOWNLOAD  

Registration form (Word, PDF)

Schedule of events (Word, PDF)

For more information, please email us.

Save the Date: JPAC Mission to Sacramento

SAVE THE DATE

Annual JPAC Mission to Sacramento

April 28 - April 29, 2008

Sheraton Grand Hotel

Sacramento, CA

Join with us and other Jewish activists from around the State to make for another successful Annual Mission to Sacramento.

For more information, please email us.

High School Speech Competition Conflicts with Passover

Each year, over 800 students from throughout California spend months preparing for the state’s largest annual high school speech competition, organized by the California High School Speech Association – an organization whose mission states their aim to “encourage, support and sponsor both curricular and co-curricular oral communication which will empower students to be productive participants in American society and the global community” and includes the goal that “[e]very student will develop interpersonal skills necessary for establishing understanding among members of a diverse society.”

In May of this year, it was discovered that the 2008 State Tournament is scheduled for April 18-20, dates that unintentionally conflict with the first nights of Passover, among the holiest of religious observances for the Jewish people. The conflict was brought to the attention of the CHSSA’s Executive Council by several Jewish community organizations that requested that CHSSA reschedule the event so that a large portion of the tournament’s participants and coaches would not be excluded from this extraordinary educational experience. With great respect and admiration for the skills that CHSSA fosters both within the curriculum and as extracurricular activities, we had hoped that with ample notice – over 10 months – the organization would move to change the dates of the event. The majority of these requests were ignored.  

Representatives of the Jewish community were subsequently allowed to attend a September meeting of the CHSSA Executive Council to formally present our concerns. At that meeting, a reasonable request seeking a two-week investigatory period – time to consider the matter and explore the feasibility of changing the tournament’s date – was struck down.  

Isn’t it ironic that an organization dedicated to fostering debate and understanding amongst members of a diverse society was so quick to cut off of discussion?

TAKE ACTION

  1. Please call or email the CHSSA’s Executive Council to voice your opposition to their refusal to change the 2008 competition date.

Contact information is available by clicking HERE.

  1. Contact your local school board and ask them to weigh in on the matter.

Los Angeles Unified School District : Click HERE (scroll down to find your Board Member).

Beverly Hills Unified School District: Click HERE.

Culver City Unified School District: Click HERE.

Las Virgenes Unified School District: Click HERE.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District: Email brd@smmusd.org or call (310) 450-8338.

  1. Join the coalition of community organizations working together to resolve this conflict:    

Contact Caron Spector of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles at (323) 761-8163 or CSpector@JewishLA.org to add your organization’s name to the growing list of groups involved, including:

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders, and other s.

  1. Ask leaders of other faith communities to register their concern by contacting the CHSSA and joining the community coalition.

TALKING POINTS

Time to Act

  • With nearly seven months remaining until the debate, there is still time to move the dates of the event in order to allow participation by all the hard working students and coaches throughout California.
  • There are precedents for changing dates on short notice for such major events for students. For example, the Fremont Union High School District changed the date of a statewide band competition scheduled to take place in the district on a date that conflicted with a Jewish high holiday. The Superintendent at that time, Joe Hamilton, and the Board said that the District could not in good conscience knowingly eliminate Jewish students from the competition. At another time, many schools in the San Francisco Bay area changed the first day of school so as not to conflict with the date of an important Jewish Religious observance ( Rosh Hashana) and cause Jewish students to miss the first day of school.

Prevent Future Conflicts

  • The Jewish community is aware that it can be difficult for schools and school-related organizations to schedule important events and avoid conflicts. That is why many Jewish communities regularly send multi-year calendars of major Jewish religious observances to school superintendents and school principals. With thoughtful consideration for the diversity that makes California so unique, conflicts like this CAN be avoided.
  • CHSSA should adopt a formal policy or amendment to their by-laws stating that tournaments will not conflict with religious observances. No faith groups should be excluded from these extraordinary educational experiences.

Respect for Religious Observances

  • Passover is a major religious observance for the entire spectrum of Jewish families. Passover is a time that families come together to acknowledge the privations of their people’s history as slaves, and to affirm their commitment to justice for all peoples, everywhere.
  • If the dates of the California Speech Association’s Championship for 2008 are not changed from April 18-20, Jewish students throughout California who have worked hard all year to have the honor of participating, and many of their coaches, will not be able to participate.

AB 221 Passes California Legislature

The California Public Divest from Iran Act (AB 221), one of the bills we actively lobbied on during our annual Mission to Sacramento, unanimously passed the State Senate last week by a 36-0 vote. 

Yesterday morning, the State Assembly concurred with the Senate’s amendments, unanimously passing the revised bill making California the third state in the nation to pass Iran divestment legislation.  The bill now heads to Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk for his signature. 

Introduced by Assemblyman Joel Anderson, AB 221 will prohibit the state’s public pension funds from investing in companies with business ties to Iran’s petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, or defense sectors.  Depriving Iran of investment in these sectors of their economy will send a clear message to Tehran that they must give up their nuclear weapons program. 

HELP US THANK THE LEGISLATURE 

Please call your State Senator and Assembly Member in Sacramento to thank them for voting for the California Public Divest from Iran Act (AB 221).  Visit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html to look up your State Senator’s contact information.

Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), the author of AB 221, should be thanked for introducing the bill and for leading the effort in the Legislature to ensure the bill’s passage.  Assemblyman Anderson can be reached at (916) 319-2077. 

Senator Darryl Steinberg (D-Sacramento) should be thanked for his leadership on AB 221 in the Senate.  Senator Steinberg can be reached at (916) 651-4006.

Votes

The following State Senators voted for AB 221:

Aanestad, Ackerman, Alquist, Ashburn, Battin, Calderon, Cedillo, Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, Dutton, Florez, Harman, Kehoe, Kuehl, Lowenthal, Machado, Maldonado, Margett, McClintock, Migden, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla, Perata, Ridley-Thomas, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg, Torlakson, Wiggins, Wyland, Yee

The following State Senators were not present for the vote:

Ducheny, Hollingsworth, Scott, Vincent

The State Assembly passed AB 221 unanimously.