CHICAGO (Press Release)–North America’s Reform rabbis took on the sometimes-ignored human costs of two of today’s pressing social issues: immigration policy and healthcare inequality.
The rabbis addressed the topics in two sessions — “Undocumented and Unafraid: Standing Strong as an Immigration Ally,” and “The Death Gap: Inequality in America and the Unfinished Business of Health Reform” — at the 125th annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) in Chicago. The CCAR is the world’s largest organization of Jewish clergy, with over 2,000 member rabbis. It has a longstanding commitment to social action.
“The overarching inequality in this country, which includes people dying unequally because of lack of access to healthcare, is a moral issue of our time,” said Dr. David Ansell, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Ansell led the session on health reform, reflecting on his career as a doctor, especially at Cook County Hospital.
Dr. Ansell brought to life the rampant inequality in the U.S. healthcare system that results from income and wealth inequality; he described a “death gap” defined by 45,000 excess deaths every year caused at least partially by lack of insurance. He sounded a more optimistic note at the close of the session — the fact that the Affordable Care Act is expected to decrease the number of uninsured Americans from nearly 50 million to around 30 million.
“I think that clergy should be speaking about healthcare disparity from their pulpits, because this is a moral issue that remains unresolved despite the advances of health reform,” said Dr. Ansell on the role of religion in addressing health inequality.
Two immigrant rights activists — Marcela Hernández and Rebecca Katz — spoke on immigration reform. Marcela Hernández, an Outreach Organizer for the Chicago Religious Leadership Network, and Rebecca Katz, Director of Teen Programs at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, described the current state of immigration reform, bringing into high relief the injustice delivered on the undocumented population in the United States. They also disparaged both congressional inaction and presidential over action, citing the fact that the Obama administration is set to reach 2 million deportations next month.
Immigration reform has been a major social justice priority of the CCAR in recent years. Reform rabbis have advocated for change through grassroots programs like Rabbis Organizing Rabbis and Reform CA.
Hernández and Katz also discussed the Jewish responsibility to care for the stranger, and advised attendees on how to be an ally of the immigration rights movement. They suggested that allies understand that their privilege, as documented citizens, is always present and, first and foremost, that they inform and educate themselves in order to be empathetic as possible.
Other sessions at this year’s convention will cover issues like gun violence and labor movements in the U.S.
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