An Informed Activist is an Effective Activist

A list of books, articles and podcasts you can use to stay on top of the issues surrounding social justice.

Books

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

March by John Lewis (3-part graphic novel)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law by Leah Rothstein and Richard Rothstein

Fight Like a Mother: How a Grass Roots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby by Shannon Watts

Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove

Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See by Richard Kahlenberg

Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book by W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz

Articles

“My Religion Makes Me Pro-Abortion” by Danya Ruttenberg

“Before the Law” by Jennifer Gonnerman

“Two different realities: Why America Needs Environmental Justice”

“How to Reduce Shootings” by Nicholas Kristof

Podcasts

The Activist Files

The Unpacked Project

Nice White Parents

School Colors

Through the Cracks

White Lies

Available at the TSLibrary

The Temple Sinai Library maintains a broad collection of books, periodicals, and media; the books listed here have been recommended by the TS Library Committee and offer an overview of Jewish perspectives on various social justice issues.  Please email Ruth Polk to borrow a copy.  Visit the Bibliographies tab on the TSLibrary homepage to go deeper on these issues.

Reproductive Justice:

• The Jewish Family Ethics Textbook, by Rabbi Neal Scheindlin
• Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority: our Jewish obligation to social justice, edited by Rabbi Seth M. Limmer, DHL and Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner; foreward by Reverend Cornell William Brooks; introduction by Rabbi David Saperstein
• Abortion in Judaism, by Daniel Schiff

Gun Violence Prevention:

• Not by Might: Channeling the Power of Faith to End Gun Violence, edited by Rabbi Menachem Creditor
• Peace in Our Cities: Rabbis Against Gun Violence, edited by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Refugees:

• Reconstructing Lives, Recapturing Meaning: Refugee Identity, Gender, and Culture Change, co-edited by Linda A. Camino and Ruth M. Krulfeld
• The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War, by Ben Shephard
• The Book of Jonah: A Social Justice Commentary, by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

 General Resources:

• Provisions: Poems Held Close in a Time of Crisis, edited by Claire Schwartz and Nathan Goldman
• Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security, edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Danya Ruttenberg 
• Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Social Justice, edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Danya Ruttenberg