Posted By James Besser
This Jewish Life: Introducing Jessie Weiser
Looking back, my major problem with college was that we spent so much time analyzing what was wrong with the world and so little time trying to change it. Now, as an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), I spend every day advocating for a better world. It's certainly a full-time job--and a welcome change of pace.
I never took a politics class in college and my chosen medium for tikkun olam was generally direct service, so working at the RAC has come with a steep learning curve.
At first, I asked questions like, "Who is Harry Reid?" (Senate Majority leader) and "How many votes does it take to override a Presidential veto?" (two-thirds majority in both chambers).
But I've quickly become engaged, informed, and enthralled with the political process and the issues that I advocate for every day. I find myself making political jokes (that I would not even have understood 6 months ago), seeking out conversations about health care and religious freedom, and answering questions from friends about what's going on in Washington.
Many of my friends who recently graduated from college are stuck in jobs where their days are monotonous, their work menial, and their responsibilities minimal. I am on the other end of the spectrum. I am constantly busy-- shifting between tasks and political issues and maintaining a largely self-directed to-do list that is pages long. I lobby Congressmen, attend coalition and working group meetings, draft press releases and action alerts, write educational programs, teach students about the intersection between public policy and Jewish values, and call Rabbis across the country to encourage them to get more involved with the RAC's work.
And, I can only be a legislative assistant for a year, so I get to throw myself into the experience completely, without being too worried about burn-out or exhaustion. Though, I have to admit, all of this work can be quite tiring at times.
Every year, the RAC entrusts recent college graduates with the responsibility of conducting the RAC's legislative and educational programs. Each legislative assistant is given a portfolio of issues and full responsibility for the RAC's work in those areas. After negotiations with my fellow legislative assistants, I ended up with the fitting portfolio of Church/State separation, Education, Children's Issues, Bioethics, Health Care, and Mental Health.
This diverse portfolio allows for many wonderful opportunities, including the chance to work closely with Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the RAC and a leading expert on the separation of Church and State, and the responsibility of being the coordinator of a major new Union for Reform Judaism initiative to promote state-level advocacy for health care reform.
So, I've transformed in the past four months- into a passionate and informed advocate speaking on behalf of the Reform Movement. I've retained my love of community service and the academic scrutiny of social issues, but I've added political activism as a dimension of my social justice pursuits. My blog posts over the next few weeks will be reflections on this new focus of my life--- politics and life in the beltway.