By Amy Shapiro, Member of Leadership & Organizational Development and Nominating Committees

 April 5, 2023

 As we look toward our next program year, we’re inviting applications for board and other leadership roles! We rely on volunteer community leaders for all of our board governance, direct community service, policy advocacy, and leadership development work. We welcome the opportunity to learn more about you and your interests as we look to fill board positions, committee rosters and the many other volunteer opportunities NCJW Minnesota provides. Current board member Amy Shapiro recently sat down for an interview on her experiences in leadership:

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Q: How did you first become involved with NCJW?

A: I originally got involved with NCJW when my aunts were active in leadership with NCJW Minnesota. My Nana, of blessed memory, would also tell me about her involvement with NCJW throughout her life. I heard that they wanted to engage more young adults, I was invited to a couple of events and the rest is history!

Q: What initially drew you toward serving on the board?

A: I was interested in serving on the board because I thought it would be a great opportunity to grow in my own leadership and work with other smart and interesting women on causes I care passionately about. I was able to participate in a Leading for Change series of workshops through NCJW Minnesota and after that experience I knew I was interested in joining the board.

Q: What have you enjoyed most about your board service? What are some of your proudest accomplishments?

A: I really love the fact that it is an intergenerational organization. We have the opportunity to build relationships with other smart, thoughtful and passionate women who want to make change in the world for the better.

I feel proud that I am part of an organization that other Jewish women have been active in for the past 100 years. The same organization that advocated to get women the right to vote is the same organization I’m involved in today, advocating for the issues that matter most to me.

Q: What advice would you have for someone considering serving on the NCJW board for the first time?

A: I would recommend to anyone who is considering applying for leadership involvement, please do so, whether you’re born and raised in MN, new to the area, or anything in between! We have lots of opportunities to serve on committees and build your leadership.

Committee or board service is an excellent way to give back to the community, fight for issues you care about, and build your relationships and leadership skills all at the same time.

Q: What are the biggest opportunities that you see for NCJW in the coming years?

A: So much continues to be at stake. It’s going to take all of us to take action to make the changes we’d like to see in the world.

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If you or anyone you know is looking for an opportunity to impact progressive policy and contribute to community equity, please consider joining us! Learn more about board and leadership positions and apply by filling out the NCJW Minnesota Leadership Application or email info@ncjwmn.org with any questions.

Applications are open through the end of April.

By Sam Gault, Communications and Engagement Manager

March 1, 2023

Thanks again to our wonderful presenter (who we are not naming here for privacy reasons), to Maddy Lerner for facilitating, and to all of you who showed up, asked questions, and helped make our first educational event of the year such a huge success! For those of you who were unable to attend abortion 101, our presenter has supplied a brief list of resources pertaining to abortion in the United States:

Podcasts:

• SMA (self-managed abortion) is a storytelling podcast that was created in 2020, before Roe fell. It presents stories about how and why people opt to manage their own abortion.
• Radiolab recently put out a two-part podcast about smuggling mifepristone and misoprostol to Ukraine. While it doesn’t really apply to what’s up in the United States, it provides a fascinating perspective on the state of reproductive freedom internationally.

Resources for people seeking abortions:

• SASS (Self-Managed Abortion, Safe and Supported) is a U.S. project of Women Help Women, a global nonprofit organization that supports the rights of people around the world to have information about and access to safe abortion with pills. Information is power. We all deserve accurate information about our bodies and reproductive health.
• Abortion Finder provides up to date state-by-state laws as well as funding and clinic information.
• The Guttmacher Institute tracks and synthesizes state and national data on reproductive health and rights.

Family Planning info and resources:

• Euki is a secure sexual health app and period tracker with links to lots of great resources. It does not track personal information or sell it to advertisers.
• Bedsider is an excellent place to get up to date information on contraception, sexual health, and abortion.

An example of the experience of providers in restricted states:

• The Guardian recently published a heartbreaking articled titled “‘I cried with her’: the diary of a doctor navigating a total abortion ban.”

This is by no means a comprehensive list of resources! If there is a question or topic that you wish had been addressed here, please email sam@ncjwmn.org for additional resources.

By Sam Gault, Communications and Engagement Manager

February 15, 2023

We’re so proud of our menstrual equity champions! NCJW Minnesota’s Periods Happen initiative has made great strides in recent months, both in terms of product distribution and legislative action.

While our tampon supply has been holding up, since we tend to get fewer requests for them, our supply of menstrual pads was dwindling. At the beginning of this month, we were down to our very last carton of Seventh Generation pads from the company’s 2020 donation. Thanks to the generosity of 80 donors, our “Give to the Max(i Pad)” campaign this past November was a huge success, and we raised enough money to order 100 cases of Kotex pads, for a grand total of 14,400 individual pads! The new order arrived just in the nick of time, as we received three requests for pads from three schools in the past week alone. Now all we had to do was transport 100 cases of pads to our storage unit for distribution…

A mighty team of volunteers (pictured above) stepped up to save the day, making quick work of transporting our order from the medical supply company to the warehouse, where they are ready to be distributed as we head into the final months of the school year. Thank you Abby, Lisa, Marilyn, Rollie, and Pam!

If you’d like to join the listserv of Periods Happen delivery volunteers, please send me an email and I’ll add you straightaway.

On the legislative side, we’re closer than ever to passing House File 44/Senate File 50 to bring menstrual equity to Minnesota schools! You can learn more about this bill, as well as other legislation we’re watching this session, from the regularly updated “Bills We’re Watching” post on this blog. Erica Solomon, our Executive Director, was also recently interviewed about NCJW Minnesota’s work on menstrual equity on Gender Justice’s podcast—give it a listen here.

If you would like to write a post for this blog—whether on an event, a social issue, or anything else NCJW-related—please don’t hesitate to send it my way!

By Erica Solomon, Executive Director

January 26, 2023 [Updated 3/8/2023]

Feel like there’s a lot of action going on at the Capitol this session? Us too! There has been so much great progress on issues of importance to NCJW in just these first few weeks of 2023. Here’s a guide to the legislation that we’re supporting and/or following. We’ll do our best to keep this post updated, but things happen fast! For the most up-to-date news about specific bills, we recommend using the MN Legislature’s MyBills tool and keeping in touch with your district’s representatives (even if they are “on your side” of an issue, it’s crucial that they hear words of support and gratitude from constituents). If you need to double check who represents you in the state legislature, you can find them using this link.

HF44/SF50: K-12 Menstrual Equity 

Chief authors: Representative Sandra Feist and Senator Steve Cwodzinski

The K-12 menstrual equity bill, which NCJW has partnered on with the chief authors and a team of student and community advocates, would require that period products be freely available in all 4th-12th grade student restrooms, and provide schools with the necessary funding. Access to period products is a matter of gender, health, and education equity, and it is far past time to ensure that no students in our state miss class because they lack access to or cannot afford the menstrual products they need.

Status as of 3/8: The Menstrual Equity Bill has completed its hearings in House and Senate Committees and is now awaiting a floor vote. We are so grateful for the advocacy of the legislators championing the bill as well as the students and school staff that have provided powerful testimony at its hearings.

HF2488/SF1215: Higher Ed Menstrual Equity 

Chief authors: Representative Sandra Feist and Senator Oumou Verbeten

The higher education menstrual equity bill would require that period products be made freely available to students of state-funded colleges and universities in Minnesota.

Status as of 3/8: HF2488/SF1215 had its first hearing with the Senate Higher Education Committee on March 2, and is currently awaiting its first hearing in the House.

HF91/SF70: Reproductive Freedom Codification Act

Chief authors: Representative Tina Liebling and Senator Erin Maye Quade

This bill, championed by the UnRestrict Minnesota Coalition, would repeal unnecessary and unconstitutional abortion restrictions in Minnesota. The restrictions in question—including a two-parent notification law for minors, a mandatory 24-hour delay period for patients seeking abortion care, a requirement that providers recite state-mandated anti-abortion propaganda to patients, and restrictions on qualified practitioners providing abortions—create dangerous ambiguities in our laws, impose unwarranted barriers to abortion access, and undermine the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy in our state. By repealing these unconstitutional restrictions, HF91/SF70 will ensure that anyone in Minnesota can access abortion care.

Status as of 2/2: HF91/SF70 had its first hearings in the House Health Finance and Policy Committee (Jan.12) and the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee (Jan. 24). On January 26, the House Public Safety Policy and Finance Committee approved the bill, sending it on to the House Ways and Means Committee, which re-referred it to the House Health Finance and Policy Committee for a hearing originally scheduled for Thursday, February 23rd (which has now been delayed due to weather). In the Senate, the bill has been heard by the Health and Human Services Committee and passed with amendments by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

HF1/SF1: PRO Act

Chief authors: Representative Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn and Senator Jennifer McEwen

The Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act would codify the fundamental right to abortion and protect reproductive rights, justice, and access to essential healthcare in Minnesota.

Status as of 3/8: Governor Walz signed the PRO Act into law on January 31, making Minnesota the first state to codify abortion rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

HF366/SF165: Reproductive Freedom Defense Act

Chief authors: Representative Tina Liebling and Senator Lindsey Port

The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act would cement Minnesota’s status as a safe harbor for people exercising their reproductive autonomy by protecting anyone in Minnesota seeking abortion care, as well as providers in the state, from prosecution under laws aimed at imposing other states’ abortion restrictions on us.

Status as of 2/21: The House version of this bill has been approved, with amendments, by the House State and Local Government Finance and Policy, Judiciary Finance and Civil Law, and Health Finance and Policy Committees, and will have its next hearing with the House Ways and Means Committee. The Senate version is still awaiting its first hearing with the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

HF289/SF366: Positive Pregnancies Support Act

Chief Authors: Representative Liz Olson and Senator Mary Kunesh

The Positive Pregnancies Support Act would shift state funding away from crisis pregnancy centers and toward agencies providing genuine help to pregnant people by banning states grants to agencies that encourage clients toward one pregnancy outcome over another, as well as by requiring state grant recipients to provide pregnant people with medically accurate information and services with regard to abortion and pregnancy.

Status as of 2/21: The House version of this bill will have its first hearing with the House Health Finance and Policy Committee and the Senate version has been referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

HF181/SF691: Bias and Discrimination Reporting and Response

Chief author: Representative Samantha Vang 

HF 181, which is supported by the Communities Combating Hate Coalition (led by Jewish Community Action), does not yet have a companion bill in the Senate. This bill would improve data gathering and reporting around bias and discrimination, and create a Bias Response and Community Equity Outreach Team to provide communities that experience acts of hate with culturally-specific support.

Status as of 1/24: This bill had its first hearing in the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on January 17th, 2023.

HF25/SF524: Crime Reform

Chief author: Representative Cedrick Frazier and Senator Ron Latz 

The Crime Reform Bill, which has strong support from our coalition partners at Mothers Against Community Gun Violence,  would provide funding for an expansion of community-based crime prevention services, including victim services programs, juvenile diversion programs, and social service workers to accompany police responding to individuals who are experiencing mental health crises.

Status as of 2/8: HF25 was approved by the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on January 19th, 2023, and will have its next hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee.

HF14/SF1116: Expanded Background Checks

Chief Author: Representative Dave Pinto

This House bill would require criminal background checks for all firearm transfers, and expand the grounds on which transferees can be disqualified from receiving a gun permit.

Status as of 2/8: HF24 had its first hearing with the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on February 3rd. It is scheduled for its next hearing with the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on February 9th.

HF15/SF1117: Red Flag Law

Chief Author: Representative Cedrick Frazier

The “red flag” or “extreme risk protection order” (ERPO) bill would enable family members or law enforcement to petition the courts to prevent people who pose a significant danger to themselves or others from possessing firearms.

Status as of 2/8: HF15 had its first hearing with the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on February 3rd. It is scheduled for its next hearing with the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on February 9th.

HF396/SF916: Safe Firearm Storage

Chief Author: Representative Jamie Becker-Finn

This bill would mandate the safe storage of all firearms and ammunition, and would impose criminal penalties for violations.

Status as of 2/8: HF396 had its first hearing with the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on February 3rd.

SF353: Capitol Complex Safety

Chief Author: Senator John Marty

This Senate bill would prohibit the possession of dangerous weapons in the state Capitol Complex.

Status as of 1/26: SF353 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, with its hearing date to be determined.

HF601/SF606: Lost or Stolen Firearms Reporting

Chief Author: Senator Bonnie S. Westlin

This bill would require the prompt reporting of lost or stolen firearms.

Status as of 2/8: SF606 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, with its hearing date to be determined. It had its first hearing with the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee on February 3rd.

by Erica Solomon, Executive Director 

January 13, 2023

Periods Happen–which started when one school’s request for menstrual hygiene products sparked an NCJW program that has distributed 200,000 pads and tampons to the community–is close to counting a legislative achievement among its impacts.

After faltering at the last moment in 2022, chief authors Representative Sandra Feist (39B) and Senator Steve Cwodzinski (49) introduced the Menstrual Equity Bill in the first week of the 2023 session as HF44/SF50. NCJW has been working alongside Rep. Feist, Sen. Cwodzinski, and a team of community advocates (many of them high school students led by Hopkins High Junior, Elif Ozturk) to bring menstrual equity to Minnesota schools by providing funding for period products for all 4th-12th grade student restrooms. Learn more about the bill, the research behind it, and how it would help Minnesota students thrive, in this Star Tribune Opinion piece from January 11, 2023.

Where we are

This past Wednesday, January 11, the bill had its first committee hearing with House Education Policy. A great slate of student and school nurse testifiers did a fantastic job advocating for the bill’s necessity and impact. Rep. Urdahl (16A) introduced an amendment to prevent the bill from including “boys” gendered restrooms (currently, it states that products must be provided in at least one of these in each school). NCJW opposes this amendment because the inclusion of trans or nonbinary students that have no choice but to use gendered restrooms at school is crucial to fulfill the bill’s goal of creating equity for all students that menstruate. Additionally, exposing even male identifying students that don’t menstruate themselves to these products helps eliminate stigma and normalize periods–an important goal of the legislation. Thankfully, the amendment did not prevail, and the committee approved the referral of the bill in its original form to the House Education Finance committee. This is a big win as it brings us one step closer to a floor vote and eventual signing into law!

What’s next? 

The House Education Finance Committee will hear the bill on Wednesday, January 18 at 10:30 a.m. Later that same day, at 12:30 p.m., the Senate House Policy Committee will hear their version of the bill. Another strong group of testifiers is lined up for the day’s hearings. We welcome you to attend the hearings, which will be held Capitol 120 (House committee) and Senate Office Building Room 1200 (Senate committee). You can also livestream them on the House website and Senate YouTube channel as your schedule allows. We look forward to sharing outcome of the hearings, and hopefully being scheduled in the Senate Education Finance Committee soon afterwards.

How you can help

Contact your representatives in support of the bill! Here’s a template you can use, but it is super barebones and we encourage you to add a personal touch! You can also utilize/share this one-pager/policy brief and these social media graphics. To read the full text of each version of the bill and follow its progress, search HF44 or SF50 on the MN Legislature website. 

If you are connected with any school staff and/or 4th-12th grade students that would be interested in submitting a written statement of support, or possibly testifying at an upcoming hearing, please get in touch with Erica Solomon at Erica@ncjwmn.org.

Let’s make 2023 the year that we #EndPeriodPovertyMN!

by Laura Monn Ginsburg, NCJW Minnesota Advocacy Co-Chair and Past President

December 22, 2022

Full steam into a new year (and new legislative session)!

Earlier this month, our team of advocacy leaders met to discuss NCJW MN’s policy priorities for the coming year. Given the shifting power dynamics at the MN Capitol, our historical areas of interest and advocacy, and our capacity to show up as the allies and advocates we want to be, we landed on four familiar and important topics:

1. Reproductive Justice – Protecting access to abortion and ensuring all Minnesotans can safely receive the affirming and validating care they deserve. We look forward to continuing our work with the UnRestrict MN to lessen barriers and burdens to those seeking abortion services.
2. Menstrual Equity – Ensuring all students who menstruate have the items they need to stay in school. From grassroots work to deliver items likes pads and tampons to area schools to grass-tops work advocating for subsidized menstrual products in all Minnesota public schools, we’re excited to continue this work.
3. Gun Violence Prevention – Working to keep all Minnesotans safe from gun violence. We’ll continue our work with key partners—including Mothers Against Community Gun Violence (MACGV), Protect MN Interfaith Alliance, and Moms Demand Action MN—to advocate for commonsense gun laws and protections that ensure Minnesotans can live without fear of gun violence.
4. Fair and Independent Courts – #CourtsMatter is a longstanding NCJW MN priority to advocate for judicial appointments that uphold a fair and independent rule of law.

You may not be surprised to see any of these on our list. NCJW MN has actively advocated for all four of the issue areas listed above. However, we come to each new year (and each new legislative session) with fresh eyes and open minds as we consider where we can be most useful and successful.

If any of these sound like an issue you’d like to support, join us! Contact sam@ncjwmn.org and we’ll be happy to get you on the team. We all have the ability to make a meaningful difference, especially when we bring our voices together.

by Erica Solomon, Executive Director 

December 8, 2022

Welcome to the brand new NCJW Minnesota blog! Our hope is that this will be a forum for us to share updates, news, and action opportunities, and also for you, our NCJW Minnesota advocates, to share your own stories. I thought I’d kick us off by sharing a bit more about what this organization means to me, and why, after six years as a volunteer, Board member, and committee leader, I was so thrilled to join the staff as executive director this past June. 

My NCJW story begins in the long-ago days of early 2016 (I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it really does feel like it was another world back then, right?!). After spending the majority of my life in St. Paul and its suburbs, I’d packed up my covered wagon for the move to Minneapolis and a job at JFCS. I was at a big transitional point in my life and career, and was eager to get more involved with the Jewish community in ways that resonated with me as an adult (because, in so many ways, I just wasn’t the person I was in my “star in the USY musical” days anymore). 

NCJW was going through its own changes as well–it was right around this time that the separate St. Paul and Minneapolis sections merged into the singular NCJW Minnesota that we know today. The expanded reach of the section, its mission to develop new leaders, and the well-timed suggestion of a colleague who was an NCJW Board member at the time all converged into my landing in “Women Leading Change,” a cohort that convened monthly to learn about the organization, build skills, and get fired up about the power of collective change-making. 

In those six months of Women Leading Change, I got a taste for what I consider the three boldface headers of my NCJW story–themes that continued to grow with me as I moved on to other engagement opportunities with the organization, and move me daily as I continue the work in this newest role…

Empowerment
If you’d asked me, before I stepped into that first NCJW event in 2016, what “advocacy” meant, I honestly might have drawn a blank. Like so many folks, I always thought about policy and government as something that happens to individuals and communities. NCJW showed me that we the people, when we work together and stand up for our beliefs, truly have the power to make change for ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. For the first time in my life I was contacting my representatives, lobbying in St. Paul and Washington D.C., and empowered with the knowledge that I have a voice and all kinds of ways to raise it (besides, you know, the aforementioned showtunes). Never have I felt more empowered than when I had the opportunity to co-lead Minnesota’s delegation to NCJW’s Washington Institute in 2019–talking with federal legislators about what matters to me, and feeling heard in the most meaningful way I ever have. 

Intergenerational
Aside from the powerful learnings, there was another big takeaway from that first jump into NCJW…this was a place with history and big l’dor v’dor energy. Yes, I suppose that goes without saying for an organization founded in 1893. But here was a space with a broader range of age representation than my then-25-year-old brain could conceive of. Sitting next to me learning the ins and outs of changemaking were women in just about every stage of life from 20s to late 80s…and I think there was at least one baby who tagged along too! I also learned that my great-aunt and namesake, Elaine Simon, served as a past President of NCJW Minneapolis. Fast forward to getting my mom involved in NCJW (yes, we’re one of the rare cases in which the daughter was the influencer and not the other way around), and having the opportunity to connect with her in a whole new way as fellow Board members and allied advocates. 

Living my Judaism
To steal a quote from one of our Board members’ reflecting on her involvement with NCJW: “It’s where I Jewish.” Growing up, I had a certain set of ideas of what it meant to be Jewish–attending synagogue, marking traditional holidays and life cycle events, going to Jewish summer camp, etc. Of course, many of these things are still important to how I live my Judaism today, but what NCJW introduced into the mix was the potential of more actively living out the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek, tzedek tirdof (justice, justice you shall pursue) through social action. The fact that I can connect deeply to my faith through advocacy, and the unique voice I have showing up as Jewish in Interfaith and non-faith-based coalition spaces, even further increases that feeling of empowerment…bringing us full circle back to boldface header #1. 

I hope that learning more about what NCJW has meant to me inspires you to share your own story…or at least to return to this new blog for more. Check back regularly for updates and reach out to info@ncjwmn.org if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see, or if you’d like to contribute a blog post of your own.