The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, is committed to relevant, compelling programs that excite, challenge and at times, provoke strong responses that lead to action.
Wednesday, December 2: Antiracism and Economic Empowerment: Jewish Perspectives on Being an Ally Led by Andy Tarsy with Special Guests Robin Washington, Deborah Frieze, and Tali Puterman
Robin Washington grew up in a Chicago family of Black and Jewish civil rights activists, participating in sit-ins and protests when he was three years old — events he recalls fondly as “family outings,” though history records them as dangerous and nation-changing. A journalist and filmmaker, he has gone on to chronicle the movement in his acclaimed PBS documentary, “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!” and also made history with likely the first TV interview with a little-known Harvard law student named Barack Obama. A research fellow for the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, Washington was a co-founder of the Alliance of Black Jews. He was editor-in-chief of the Duluth News Tribune, a contributing editorial writer for the Boston Globe and a Boston Herald columnist. His commentaries have appeared in scores of other newspapers around the world, including the Jewish press, as well as in books edited by Ishmael Reed and Charles Ogletree. Currently a show host for Wisconsin Public Radio and longtime contributing reporter for Boston's GBH, he has also appeared on NPR, BET, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and many other broadcast outlets.
Deborah Frieze is founder and president of the Boston Impact Initiative, an impact investing fund working to close the racial wealth divide in Eastern Massachusetts. The fund takes an integrated capital approach, combining investing, lending and giving to build a resilient and inclusive local economy. Deborah is co-author (with Margaret Wheatley) of Walk Out Walk On, an award-winning book that profiles pioneering leaders who walked out of organizations failing to contribute to the common good—and walked on to build resilient communities. She is also founder of the Old Oak Dojo, an urban learning center in Boston, MA.
Originating from Cape Town, South Africa, Tali Puterman now lives in Newton Massachusetts and works as the Assistant Director of Social Justice Engagement at Temple Israel of Boston. Reacting to her own experiences of miseducation growing up white and queer in post-Apartheid South Africa attending an Orthodox Jewish day school, Tali challenges her communities to question and confront injustices and see themselves as Jewish leaders of change. She is an organizer whose driving passion is to make the often-invisible structures of white supremacy visible so that we, as a society, can pave a path together towards antiracism, equity, and justice for all. Tali is the recipient of the 2017 Natalia Twersky Educator Award. Tali received her MA in Educational Studies from Tufts University and her BA from Brandeis University. She trained as a community organizer through courses with Marshall Ganz at the Harvard Kennedy School, Metro IAF, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, and JOIN for Justice.
Monday, December 7: Antiracism and Economic Empowerment: Toolbox Construction
Led by Nia Evans (with The Boston Ujima Project team) and Andy Tarsy
Monday, December 14: Organizations Moving to Action: Your own Toolbox Design
Led by Nia Evans (with UJIMA team) and Andy Tarsy
In partnership with Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Jewish Family Service of Metrowest, Jewish Family and Children's Service, Jewish Vocational Service, Facing History & Ourselves, Hillel Council of New England, Falmouth Jewish Congregation, Worcester Jewish Community Center, Temple Israel Boston, Temple Shir Tikva Wayland, Temple Beth Shalom Needham, Action For Post-Soviet Jewry, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, Jewish Collaborative Services of Rhode Island and Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston.
Andy Tarsy leads Emblem Strategic LLC, a strategic advisory firm that helps organizations gain advantage by aligning their vision with their values. He is also co-founder of Conscious Customers LLC, a tech-enabled solution to help organizations of all kinds put Black and Latin-owned businesses at the center of their spending. Andy’s work at the Anti-Defamation League earned him a spot in 2007 on the Forward 50 list of the most influential Jewish professionals in the US. He is former President of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute and a founder and past president of the Alliance for Business Leadership. Andy is the recipient of the NAACP’s Kivie Kaplan Humanitarian Award in 2008 and the Max Michelson Humanitarian Award from Jewish Family Services of MetroWest in 2017. The Racial Justice Initiative he led at Boston’s Temple Israel created a purchasing and investment initiative that earned the Union of Reform Judaism’s Irving J. Fain Award in 2018. He is a Trustee of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology.
Andy trained as a civil rights lawyer at the United States Department of Justice and in private practice, working exclusively on discrimination cases. He is a graduate of Cornell University, George Washington Law School and the Roxbury Latin School.
Nia Evans is the Executive Director of the Boston Ujima Project. Her educational background is in the areas of labor relations, education leadership, and policy. Her advocacy includes a focus on eliminating barriers between analysts and people with lived experiences as well as increasing acknowledgement of the value of diverse types of expertise in policy. She is a co-creator, along with artist Tomashi Jackson, of Frames Debate Project, a multimedia policy debate project that explores the intersection between drug policy, mental health services and incarceration in the state of Massachusetts.
Ms. Evans has a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Master of Arts in Education Leadership, with a course of study in Leadership, Policy, and Politics from Teachers College at Columbia University. She also studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where she focused on International Labor Relations