Repair the World

Repair Interview: Eliza Parad and the Jewish Organizing Initiative (JOI)

Eliza Parad has social work in her blood. Literally everyone in her family – her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brother and even sister-in-law – are committed social workers. And while, like her family members Eliza graduated college with a deep commitment to social change, she found herself growing deeply frustrated with the model of direct advocacy.

This past year through a bit of “right place right time” luck, Eliza became a fellow at the Jewish Organizing Initiative (JOI), a Boston-based organization that runs a year-long fellowship that engages Jewish activists in their 20s-30s in fostering “community organizing as a strategy for social change.” Over the past year, the JOI experience has surprised Eliza in more ways than one, and enlivened her enthusiasm for both her work and Jewish life. Eliza took a moment to speak with me about the importance of building power in a community, finding strength in numbers, and her experience co-leading her family’s seder for the first time.

What was your background with service/social change work before you started with JOI?

I come from a family of social workers. My parents were co-directors of a non-profit, and they would bring their work home and talk about it. I spent summers living in their residential program for inner-city kids. So I grew up in that environment believing that everyone needs access to the same opportunities and, no surprise, majored in sociology in college. After college I worked as a case manager at a housing organization.

How did you find JOI?

Oh, I love this story. I was working as a case manager in Jamaica Plains and starting to get more involved in the community. And I felt hypocritical because I was always telling people I worked with to “know your neighbors,” and how important it was to be familiar with people in your community, but I realized I did not know my own neighbors.

So I started getting involved with a local organization, and went to a yearly summit which brings together people from the community. We were in a breakout group talking about poverty, and I said how it didn’t make sense to me that there are so many positions created for outside social workers to do work for a community, rather than empowering people to do the work themselves.

Catherine Bell (from JOI) was at the meeting, and afterwards she asked me, “Have you ever thought about organizing?” And I said, “What’s organizing?” That was three years ago, and I began to talk to JOI fellows and I really liked their approach to community work. It resonated with a lot of the frustrations I had been feeling as a caseworker.

So what exactly is organizing?

The difference between community organizing and direct advocacy is that [the latter] views each person’s problem as “the problem,” whereas community organizing sees him or her as connected. Let’s say Maria is going to be evicted because she did not pay her rent on time to the housing authority. But the reason she did not pay her rent is because she did not understand the terms of her lease, or because English isn’t her first language, or no one was there to answer her questions. So tomorrow, Dorothy is going to have the same problem.

Community organizing looks at how many people are experiencing the same problem and try to figure out how common it is. Then, they find ways to help the entire group – like holding workshops where people can go over their lease, and build connections with one another.

Why did this approach resonate so strongly for you?

People who are powerless in society often feel that way because of circumstances out of their control like their skin color, language, body, or where they live. And we can help them solve a problem today – whether it’s that that they can’t buy food for their family, or find a job, or there is violence in their neighborhood – but there will be more tomorrow.

When those problems come up and a person feels powerless against them, then there are going to be more and more problems they can’t deal with. And it is overwhelming. But the more people in the world who feel like they can stand up for themselves and their community, the more of us who don’t feel defined by uncontrollable factors, the more we can be a happy, functioning society.

What did your parents and grandparents – who are social workers – think about your new approach?

It’s interesting to talk with my grandparents who got their PhDs in community organizing 50 years ago. The ideas were very different then. It was all focused on what programs and services a community needs, rather than about building power. I am not saying that individual work isn’t valuable – it helps many people. But my parents and grandparents have been supportive, and I am able to show them a different way to do this work.

What work are you specifically doing through JOI?

I’m doing tenant organizing in public housing, where people live in subsidized homes. My job is to help create and support tenant councils, organizations and neighborhood groups.

The hardest part is to not fall back into individual work model because people do have pressing needs. Someone will lose their home and feel this real, immediate threat. That’s where JOI has helped to think about things strategically. They help me to evaluate, “what is the risk if we take on a campaign that might take six months or a year,” and “how do we keep momentum?” It is incredibly supportive to be meeting with a group of peers once a week, who might be dealing with different issues, but have very similar challenges. They also help us skill build – to how to figure out which campaign is worth taking on, and which tools to use to win it.

Was the Jewish connection to service something you learned about growing up?

I didn’t know the term tikkun olam until this year. I did not know social justice was something talked about at synagogues and Jewish organizations at all. I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, which is a very Jewish, affluent community, but Judaism and social work were totally separate things for me. Unlike today, where my cousin is working at a food pantry with his friends as part of his bar mitzvah experience, I don’t remember having any sort of mitzvah project at my bat mitzvah. So to find out that it’s so important to so many Jews has been incredibly eye opening.

How has JOI helped bridge Jewish tradition and service for you?

JOI is all about building relationships and community, and for me, Judaism had always been defined about being an individual. It was about being proud of who I was, and revering my grandfather who came over from Lithuania by himself and struggled to make a life. Or being proud of my father who was the only Jew in his town and wasn’t afraid of saying it.

This year, I’ve realized that while that is all great, it’s much more rewarding to do things in community. The community gives to me, so that I can give back to others.

Do you have any examples of that?

Well, I’m still on the learning curve. One thing that was really meaningful was to learn the history of Jewish involvement with the socialist, civil rights, and labor movements. Seeing that kind of radical political action at the center of Jewish life for so long has made me feel more proud and excited about being Jewish, talking about it and practicing it.

Also, I never had a Shabbat practice before this year. My parents work 70 hours a week and never had enough time to give fully to themselves or their families. But Shabbat is a big part of JOI, especially the notion of balance and taking the time to care of us. We are doing all of this work to change the world, and Shabbat is a time to stop, recharge and appreciate each other and everything that is already there.

What do you want to take with you when your JOI fellowship ends?

Well, I definitely now that I want to continue with organizing – I believe now, more than ever, in the power of community. I’m really convinced that this is what I want to do, and feel genuinely excited about it.

Another thing I want to keep present are the stories from my family – why they got involved in their work, and what is the connection between Judaism and social work for them. And also looking at my personal history, where I come from and how that shaped who I am. This year for the first time I co-led the Seder with my dad, and pushed people to think about how we can bring about our own liberation as well as the liberation of those in our communities. There’s this new energy in my family now, where people seem more in tune with one another as individuals.

Any final thoughts?

Just that JOI has changed my life. It’s made me feel like I’m not alone in what I’m trying to do in the world. I’ve found my religion twice – both in that I’ve found what I want to do with my life, and that I’ve rediscovered Judaism. To have those two epiphanies in one year has rocked my base in the most wonderful way.