Sarah Strnad

Merav Michaeli’s inaugural speech to Knesset. Michaeli is...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:06:17 -0500

Merav Michaeli’s inaugural speech to Knesset.

Michaeli is an Israeli journalist, TV anchor, radio broadcaster, activist, feminist and newly elected Member of Knesset. Born in Petah Tikva, she is the granddaughter of Rudolf Kastner, who facilitated the departure of Jews out of Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II and the Holocaust.

Wealth inequality in America. If you are not a numbers person,...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:04:11 -0500

Wealth inequality in America. If you are not a numbers person, then the infographics in this video may help you wrap your mind around the wealth distribution in the US.

Photo

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:35:47 -0500

MAP: You Won't Believe What These States Did Last Night

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:33:00 -0500

MAP: You Won't Believe What These States Did Last Night:

They legalized what for the who now!

#Blankets4Brooklyn says THANK YOU on Day 3!

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:22:53 -0500

The following post is the e-mail that my girlfriend Rachel sent out last night thanking those who helped us and our friends help so many people around New York City for a third day in a row:

Dearest Friends, Friends of Friends, Parents of Friends, Friends of Parents (and, therefore, me!), Utter and Complete Stranger(angels), and Makers-of-Dreams-Come-True,

The sun has set on Day 3 of #blankets4brooklyn - the most rogue fundraising operation to hit Brooklyn since … ever?

We started out the day with just over $700 and are ending the day with nearly $8000. You have helped us raise nearly $1000 on a work day (when most folks are busy getting back to “life as usual”) so that we could get much-needed supplies to the Far Rockaways and Coney Island. All of the money that has come in has either been spent or will be spent by tomorrow.

“So,” you may be asking, “what did my dollars help buy today?”

$1000 for a van full of flashlights, batteries, and blankets that went to the 10th-14th floor of a housing project in Coney Island where tons of elderly, homebound seniors are currently sitting in the dark without food, water, or even a flashlight - intrepid strangerangel, Eric Moed, went door to door with a troupe of 4 volunteers to get these goods to the seniors and check on their well-being

$258 for 1 car-load of supplies delivered to the Far Rockaways by strangerangels Linda Rosenblatt, Elissa Moore, and Arlo Paust with help from fabulous friends Erika Davis and Miriam Aronoff … I’ll let Linda’s words speak for themselves:

“Another perfectly coordinated day with Rachel GM. It began at 9am when Erika Davis, Miriam Aronoff and Elissa Moore picked me up in our zipcar van. We picked up another friend Arlo T. Paust and headed to St. Jacobi’s Church in Sunset Park - a major hub distribution for goods and supplies but also a station for volunteers to be assigned. Picked up goods and supplies and added another volunteer, Shannon, and we were off to the Rockaways - another day doing what we can. We stopped at a Rite Aid on the way, bought A LOT of batteries, the few flashlights that were left and probably 30 Jesus candles (is there a real name for these candles?). The 59th Street Firehouse didn’t need our help so we headed back over to St. Gertrude’s Church. I’m telling you, Facebook family - it is powerful to see what is happening on a grassroots level here in NY. It is powerful to see the devastation that has affected so many. The amount of organization that was taking place today warms my heart. We had someone managing new volunteers coming throughout the day. People in the kitchen organizing and making food. People in a room organized by Erika Davis for supplies (diapers, batteries, cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc..) I was in the front with a few others, managing cars and people with new goods and supplies to drop off. On the other side of the church, a line began - people in need of all of these goods, supplies, clothes, shoes, hats, towels etc. And, at one point in the day, the doors opened up and volunteers helped as these families made clear what they were in need of.”

Thank you for enabling us to do this much needed relief work; we literally couldn’t do it without you.

Next on the agenda: coolers to transport hot soup to people who are freezing and hungry and sitting in the dark … and may continue to be sitting in the dark until as long as Thanksgiving … you can imagine how important hot soup and hot food will be.

We’ll also be providing seed funding for a project starting up in Long Island to get supplies to folks who are working on cleaning out their absolutely destroyed homes. Soon, the fund will be empty. Which is exactly what we want to happen - this is all about real aid to real people in real time … no money languishing in a bank account, no goods languishing in a warehouse.

As I returned to work today (albeit to coordinate the relief efforts of the wonderful synagogue for which I work), it heartened me to know that donations would still be coming in so that we could help volunteers get goods into the hands of folks who need them.

Thank you for being our partners,

Rachel/Sarah/Mickey/Nina/Sierra/Linda/Eric/theevergrowing#blankets4brooklynteam

#Blankets4Brooklyn says THANK YOU on Day 2!

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:00:30 -0500

The following post is the e-mail that my girlfriend sent out last night thanking those who helped us and our friends help so many people around New York City for a second day in a row yesterday:

Dearest Friends, Friends of Friends, Parents of Friends, Friends of Parents (and, therefore, me!), Rabbis of Wonderful Fundraising-Religious-School-Students, Utter and Complete Stranger[angels], and Makers-of-Dreams-Come-True,

The sun has set on Day 2 of #blankets4brooklyn - the most rogue fundraising operation to hit Brooklyn since … ever?

Yesterday I wrote an email to the day 1 contributors that started by talking about how, while I was COMPLETELY exhausted (and without a charged cellphone battery from all the charting of donations and disseminating of funds), I was filled to the brim with love and wonder at the goodness of my loved ones and the generosity and trust of complete stranger[angels]. As today comes to a close, I have to tell you that, though I know I’m still pretty exhausted from all the yawning I seem to be doing, I FEEL completely energized by the love and wonder that has grown to epic proportions.

We started off the day just over $4000, and we are ending it just over $7000. You have helped us almost double the funds we are collecting to get much-needed supplies all over damaged parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island. At this point, the only borough we’re missing is the Bronx!

“So,” you may be asking, “what did my dollars buy today?”

• $1600 for the materials needed to convert 4 bicycles into bicycle-powered charging stations - 2 will go to Staten Island and 2 will go to the Far Rockaways tomorrow/Tuesday

• $300 for 1 car-load of baby food, peanut butter, dry milk, and SO much more that went directly to the Fire Station in Far Rockaway Queens to be distributed by strangerangel, Linda Rosenblatt

• $600 for cooking supplies to continue getting hot food to distribution centers in the Rockaways, Coney Island, and Staten Island TODAY and the rest of this week AND for hand warmers, D batteries, and 180 bars of soap that were delivered directly to residents in Coney Island today by yours truly

• $367 for 50 winter hats, 25 pairs of men’s winter gloves, 15 mega packs of baby wipes, 27 tubes of toothpaste, 63 toothbrushes, 10 boxes of tampons, 7 Queen-sized blankets that all went straight to Coney Island (I went with this carload and put many of these things directly into the hands of residents)

• $100 that went to two stranger angels, who we met while buying our supplies at the dollar store, to purchase tons of children’s games, toothpaste, and personal hygiene products for those in evacuation shelters in Brooklyn - we bought this load and they promised that they’ll go and buy another load … we doubled the mitzvah!

Attached are photos of that - the quinoa bought yesterday cooked into quinoa salad that was delivered today, the trunk of the car-load that went to Coney Island (the one with the blankets), PART of the trunk of supplies that went to the Far Rockaways with baby food and peanut butter …

We’ve got 3 (maybe 4) more car-loads of goods in the pipeline for this week (tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday/Friday). I’ll personally be back out on the road next Sunday … and who knows where this will take us! I just got word from my accountant that I don’t have to worry about the IRS coming to get me, which means we’ll just keep doing this for as long as we can sustain getting supplies immediately to folks who need them or until there’s not a need - may the second scenario come sooner than the first.

I want to share with you a piece from my first contributor update that I sent out last night because it so TOTALLY still applies:

“And, while it wasn’t my intention at ALL, your dollars have done something else for which I will NEVER be able to fully thank you: they have begun putting the pieces of my very broken heart back together. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 7 years ago, I knew my life would never be the same. And it isn’t. And there are so many people who now share an anguish I hoped no one else would ever know. The pain is so great. And, yet, the potential for love and healing is enormous.

If I’ve learned anything today, I’ve learned that no dream is insignificant, no idea is silly, and, when we work together, we can truly change this world.

There’s a saying that goes, “Each one, teach one.” That is how we raised this money. I don’t know half of you. And I probably will never meet you (though, if I do, there’s a Brooklyn-sized hug coming your way). I was just one person. Who reached out to another person. Who reached out to another person. Who reached out to another person. TOGETHER we did this. Some of you are clearly crazy - you sent money to a perfect stranger but that makes me know you are TRULY “my people.”

So, from the bottom of my ever-expanding heart, THANK YOU.

We’re in this together,

Rachel/Sarah/Nina/Mickey/Linda/Sierra/strangerangelseverywhere …

I saw similar scens in Coney Island...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:45:36 -0500

I saw similar scens in Coney Island yesterday.

humansofnewyork:

Seen on Staten Island.

humansofnewyork: These two women came from the Netherlands to...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:43:27 -0500

humansofnewyork:

These two women came from the Netherlands to run in the marathon today. Instead of moping about the event being cancelled, they spent their time volunteering on Staten Island. Saw so many people in running gear today, helping New Yorkers remove debris from their houses. Makes sense— because nobody who signed up for a marathon is afraid of hard work.

humansofnewyork: Seen in Sea Gate, Brooklyn.

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:06:32 -0500

humansofnewyork:

Seen in Sea Gate, Brooklyn.

humansofnewyork: Seen in Breezy Point, Queens.

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:04:39 -0500

humansofnewyork:

Seen in Breezy Point, Queens.

#Blankets4Brooklyn Says THANK YOU!

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 07:41:00 -0500

The following post is the e-mail that my girlfriend sent out last night thanking those who helped us help so many people around New York City yesterday:

Dearest Family, Friends, Strangerfriends, Colleagues, Congregants, BEAUTIFUL people and makers-of-dreams-come-true –

It is 10:50pm (or, it was when I started writing you this email).

I can barely feel my feet. I’m pretty sure I have arthritis in my left hand from scrubbing industrial pots. My calves are bruised from banging a CostCo shopping cart into them. My cell phone has a completely dead battery from plotting and scheming and collecting dollars and my computer isn’t far away. And I don’t think I’ve ever felt more love for and gratitude to the world in my life.

Yesterday, I had what I thought was a fleeting idea - I’d throw up the offer to collect people’s money, go buy supplies that were needed, and get them to folks who’ve just had their lives destroyed … IMMEDIATELY - no waiting, no paying a huge bureaucracy of employees … real aid in real time to real people. It started with a shopping cart pushed from downtown Brooklyn to Red Hook and it has continued to Queens, to Staten Island and beyond.

Last night, I asked my Facebook friends if they could help me wake up to $1000.

I woke up to $1300.

By the time I left the house to start to buy goods and get them where they needed to go, we’d surpassed $2500.

It’s now 12:04am (I had some work email to tend to … oops!) and we’re at $4053 from 68 people … in less than 30 hours.

So, what did we buy, you ask? Here were your dollars at work today …

$1303.89 for TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY fleece blankets
$300 for a space heater and air filter for 2 amazing disabled, homebound disability activists who have been severely impacted by the storm in lower Manhattan
$300 worth of toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, and hygiene products that went STRAIGHT from my PayPal account to the Far Rockaways - I saw a message on a friend’s wall from a person who wanted to know if her car could help in the relief effort. I replied “YES! Message me!” I sent her $300. She went and bought goods, loaded up her car, and drove to the Fire Station in Far Rockaway. We’re intrepid at #blankets4brooklyn - you tell me you’ve got a car, I give you money.
$606 worth of food (good, wholesome food - quinoa, eggs, beans, etc.), D batteries, pocket hand warmers, and kitchen set-up materials (these materials were used to set up an industrial kitchen at a new distribution center in Clinton Hill Brooklyn that is distributing hot, cooked meals and supplies in the Far Rockaways and Staten Island)
$122 worth of kitchen towels, vegetable peelers (to do the cooking above), and hand sanitizer (both for use in the industrial kitchen to prep the food and individual bottles for families in directly affected areas)
$12 worth of steel sponges that enabled the industrial kitchen to be cleaned up tonight to be in shape for what will be another week (or more) of SERIOUS cooking and food distribution to those in Queens and Staten Island

Tomorrow your dollars will continue feeding people, keeping them warm, and letting them know that there are people who care deeply for them and want to help them put their very broken lives back together.

And, while it wasn’t my intention at ALL, your dollars have done something else for which I will NEVER be able to fully thank you: they have begun putting the pieces of my very broken heart back together. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 7 years ago, I knew my life would never be the same. And it isn’t. And there are so many people who now share an anguish I hoped no one else would ever know. The pain is so great. And, yet, the potential for love and healing is enormous.

If I’ve learned anything today, I’ve learned that no dream is insignificant, no idea is silly, and, when we work together, we can truly change this world.

All I can say is: thank you - thank you from the deepest, deepest place in my heart.

All my love (and then some),

Rachel

Holding the NYC Marathon will harm recovery, not help

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:54:00 -0400

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I think most of how you have prepared for and responded to this hurricane has been good. But I wish you had asked me about whether or not to hold the marathon this weekend. I would have told you that it is a monumentally bad idea.

I know why you want to hold the marathon. You want things to get back to normal as quickly as possible. You want to get the revenue for the city that the race generates. You want to show that New York has survived. Trust me. I get it.

But here some are the reasons why you are making the wrong choice:

The marathon requires lots of city resources, particularly in the form of NYPD personnel. The police need to be focused on hurricane recovery. They need to be focused on protecting the citizens of New York. They need to be helping distraught and displaced New Yorkers, not securing a race route.
The marathon requires blocking off streets, highways, and bridges in all five boroughs of the city. On a normal weekend the marathon causes huge traffic disruptions, detours and jams. But this Sunday it will not be a normal weekend. Traffic in the city is already an incomprehensible mess. The subway is only partially operational. Some bridges and most tunnels are still closed or partially closed. This is not the weekend to complicate traffic any more than it already is. This is not the weekend to shut down bridges that have just been reopened to carpooling and trucks moving vital supplies. These bridges should remain open while they are the only safe passage around the city. They should not be closed so that people can run a race.
The marathon brings thousands of additional people to New York. These people need food, water, shelter, and presumably would like to have electricity. At a time when thousands of New Yorkers are without adequate food, water, and shelter; a time when resources are becoming scarce and many already lack access to these resources, bringing extra people into the city whom will also need these resources does not make a whole lot of sense. Some New Yorkers, the lucky ones with money and the ability to, have been “living” in hotels. They are about to get kicked out of their rooms, which gauged them on rates, for people who have reservations for Marathon Weekend.
The lovely people running the marathon will have water stations and food stations set up along the course. They can run up, grab some water, and drink it while the keep running. They can even splash themselves with potable drinking water to cool off if they so choose. All the while thousands of people around the city will still lack access to potable water. It’s great that they city has the ability to distribute water to runners for a race. Maybe that same ability should be used to stage water distribution points in neighborhoods without power and at shelters housing displaced New Yorkers?
The marathon uses generators to power the marathon tent in Central Park. At a time when generators are desperately needed and in short supply, allocating this resource for this use is completely out of step with the current reality that exists on the ground in New York.

I love the New York City Marathon. I go almost every year and cheer on the throngs of regular folks running the biggest race of their lives. It’s fun. It’s unique. It’s quintessentially New York.

But this year, this coming weekend, just two days from now and less than a week after Sandy hit, is not the right time to hold this event. Many people around New York, from the Lower East Side and Chinatown, to Red Hook and folks all over Staten Island, are not OK. For them life is far from normal and it will not be for quite some time. Right now this city needs to worry about getting food, drinking water and generators to people who need them – not to runners. And calling this year’s event the “Race to Recover” is certainly catchy, but it does not actually mean that holding the race aids recovery in any way. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s just that simple.

De-funding PBS will not balance the budget. As if firing people...

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:48:09 -0400

De-funding PBS will not balance the budget. As if firing people did not bring him enough joy, Mitt Romney wants to fire the Muppets too. Of course, this is not new. Republicans always want to get rid of “the commons” (aka shared public resources).

Transformative Organizing in Park Slope: my piece in the JFREJ newsletter

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:27:29 -0400

Over the last five months a remarkable, powerful, and transformative process has been unfolding in living rooms in Park Slope. A group of employers of domestic workers has been meeting to draft a neighborhood-wide “Park Slope Domestic Employers Commitment Statement” that covers both the legal requirements as well as the ethical and professional standards of being an employer. This group, a brain trust of sorts, has years of personal and professional experience with employing domestic workers and working as labor organizers, labor lawyers, writers, filmmakers, and activists.

Most of them are women. All of them live in Park Slope. All of them are former or current employers. All of them have been involved with JFREJ on the Bill of Rights campaign in one capacity or another. And, most importantly, all of them believe they have a vital role to play in shaping future policy and current practices of employing workers in the home.

This brain trust did not materialize out of thin air. This group is the result of strategic organizing by the JFREJ Community Organizer Rachel McCullough, and many members of the Shalom Bayit campaign, for the express purpose of translating the victory of the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights into action in our communities. We wanted to build on our past organizing in Park Slope, use the collective knowledge and skills of employers in the neighborhood, and move the campaign into a new phase that would address domestic work and employment on the community level.

Using group meetings to build analysis, one-on-one conversations to grapple with the core issues of ethically employing a domestic worker, and drafting and editing sessions, this group has created a powerful document. The “Park Slope Domestic Employers Commitment Statement” is a game-changing communal statement that reflects Jewish social justice values. This statement will become the new basis of our organizing in Park Slope, and eventually other New York City neighborhoods, to attain justice and ethical employment practices for domestic workers.

This model is exciting. We believe that domestic employers and workers have a shared interest in an employer-employee relationship that is fair, respectful, and mutually beneficial, and we are organizing employers from this position of self-interest to achieve justice for workers at the community-wide level. We see this process as another step towards increasing peace and justice in our homes, in our communities, in our city, and across our country for the work force that makes all other work possible.

Voter ID laws are bull shit. And if you don’t believe me,...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:13:38 -0400

Voter ID laws are bull shit. And if you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll listen to Sarah Silverman.

From the website VisualizingPalestine. This map depicts bus the...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:09:40 -0400

From the website VisualizingPalestine. This map depicts bus the segregated system of roads in the occupied territories, allowing Israelis (cars with Israeli license plates) freedom of movement and access to Jerusalem.

From the website VisualizingPalestine. This map depicts bus...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:56:00 -0400

From the website VisualizingPalestine. This map depicts bus routes that run between West Jerusalem and West Bank Settlements, allowing Israeli Settlers freedom of movement and access to Jerusalem.

A friend of mine just informed me via twitter that this “infographic is very inaccurate: missing many bus lines while including ones that were shut down years ago.”

"The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A..."

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:41:00 -0400

“The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A president cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.”

- Adrienne Rich

In her letter to President Clinton refusing the National Medal for the Arts, 1997

How Dispossession Happens - The takeover of Palestinian water springs by Israeli settlers

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:01:21 -0400

How Dispossession Happens - The takeover of Palestinian water springs by Israeli settlers:

A brief introduction to the March 2012 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): In recent years, Israeli settler activity in the West Bank has significantly impaired Palestinian access to, and use of, a growing number of water springs. Springs are the single largest source of water for irrigation in the West Bank and an important coping mechanism for communities not connected to a water network, or poorly supplied, to meet domestic and livelihood needs. The main methods used by settlers to that end have been intimidation and threats, and the erection of fences around the targeted areas. This phenomenon comes in the context of Israel’s longstanding policy of settling its civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of international humanitarian law.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to..."

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:24:36 -0500

“To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.”

- E.E. Cummings