Local members of the Jewish community joined advocacy-minded residents from across different faiths in St. Paul earlier this week for the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition’s Day on the Hill.
The interfaith group began the day at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown St. Paul with prayer, speakers, and briefing sessions where members learned about the coalition’s legislative priorities.
Leah Patton, executive director of the JRLC, led legislative training sessions, guiding participants on how to navigate bills, track legislation, and advocate effectively.
“Leaving members feeling like they have a sense of agency, feeling like they know how to navigate this process, how to track a bill, how to show up at a legislator’s office and ask to speak with them,” said Patton. “I want them to feel like, ‘I know how to make my point effectively, and I know how to follow up. I know how to advocate for things that I care about.’”
This year’s legislative priorities focused on strengthening food security, safeguarding affordable housing, expanding support for people experiencing homelessness, and opposing the expansion of online gambling.
Patton said this work matters because when communities of faith come together, their advocacy can actually make a difference for people who need support the most.
“Our goal is to provide an example of how people from different cultures, different traditions, different backgrounds that may have vehement disagreements on different things can come together and still find common ground to benefit their neighbors, and particularly their neighbors in need,” said Patton. “So if we can do it, have faith traditions that are very different in a lot of their belief systems, and we still find that we believe and expect our politicians to be able to do that as well for the good of our communities.”
She explained that equipping constituents to advocate with their legislators can have a greater impact than the work of a paid lobbyist.
Patton said this year’s Day on the Hill theme, “In the Image of God,” is meant to remind participants that every person reflects God.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas’ Director of Campus Affairs, Rabbi Jill Avrin, delivered the keynote address from the lectern and explored what it means to be created in the “image of God” and its implications.
“I’m very passionate about social justice work, and not allowing religious text and tradition to just be something we think about, but also something that we do. So the action part is really important,” said Avrin. “I love that the JRLC is finding ways to bring people together from different faith traditions. So it’s not only something that we do as Jews, but it’s something that all people of faith do, and that’s really powerful to be in coalition with others.”
Avrin said that both the call to serve our neighbors and the way we carry out that work during difficult times are connected to our religious obligation to help one another.
“This is a central part of what it means to be Jewish, [which] is not just to let these ideas sit on a shelf, but to bring them to life, to show that it’s all of our obligation to try to ensure that people are treated with human dignity,” said Avrin.
Avrin added that people of faith have an obligation to engage politically to uphold human dignity, and reminded listeners of the importance of Jews actively putting these values into practice.
Patton agreed and said the work ultimately comes down to this interfaith group coming together to help people who otherwise might be overlooked.
“Nothing gets done at the legislature unless people are there asking for it to get done, especially when it comes to serving communities that are underrepresented or under-resourced,” said Patton. “People who are living in poverty can’t afford to pay a lobbyist to be at the Capitol, but as people of faith, we can do that right. We can take our own initiative and serve those communities as a way of practicing our faith.”
After morning briefings, participants prepared for their scheduled meetings with legislators before boarding buses to the Capitol. There, they advocated for state funding on their priority issues in the Minnesota budget.
The day concluded with a final rally in the Capitol Rotunda.
Patton said she hopes members leave with a sense that their efforts made a difference and that collaborative, faith-driven advocacy can have a real impact.
“Feeling like they’ve made an impact for the people that need to have advocates at the Capitol,” Patton said. “For them, that feeling that they have practiced their faith in a way that feels fulfilling to them.”