The iconic picture above showing leaders of the Reform Jewish community presenting a Torah scroll to President John Kennedy captures one of the foundational values of the Reform movement. As postwar Reform Judaism flourished in the United States it quickly became apparent that Jewish values, as our movement’s founders understood them, were inextricably linked to the flourishing of American democracy. The Religious Action Center was created in 1961 as the lobbying arm of the Reform Movement. Supported by the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, its mission was to advocate on behalf of causes that affirmed the centrality of Jewish values in American life and improved the very fiber of our society.
From its earliest days, the RAC (as it came to be called) was at the forefront of civil rights, women’s rights, climate advocacy, immigration policy, and so many other issues. In fact, the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were drafted in the RAC’s conference room as civil rights leaders from the Black community joined with RAC staff to change this country’s future.
It is who we are. The Reform Movement has always seen the political arena as the place to advocate for the assertion of our values into the policies of our country. We embraced the prophetic mandate—that is the visions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos that called on their contemporaries to pursue peace and justice, uphold the cause of the widow and the stranger, let the oppressed go free. Through the struggle for civil rights, the ending of the Vietnam War, the demise of the Soviet Union, and every major national and international struggle for justice, the RAC as the representative of national Reform Judaism was front and center. Today, in our own heated national political environment, we might be tempted to step back or reduce our engagement because it is fraught with challenges; but we are bearers of a uniquely American Jewish legacy and when circumstances call us to action, as they certainly do now, our tradition compels us to work even harder to realize our vision of justice.
— Rabbi Ron Stern