The Righteous Indignation Project

Righteous Indignation in Milwaukee

In early July we heard about the Fighting Poverty with Faith: Week of Action and thought “Why not fight poverty with faith right here in Milwaukee?” Actually, there were several reasons why not – the serious players in Milwaukee had never heard of Righteous Indignation and honestly, having just been created, we didn’t have a great handle on how to even start!

So we started with a simple phone call. And then another call. And then a third. Suddenly, we had all sorts of executive directors and lead organizers from Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim organizations sitting at a table together.

By September, we had run a Sunday op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel endorsed by a large number of religious community leaders calling on both politicians and the faith community to make poverty and social action a priority. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=794161

Unexpectedly, the Journal-Sentinel included an additional editorial that endorsed our op-ed and called on its readers to make social action a religious commitment. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=793815

Since coming onto the scene, Righteous Indignation in Milwaukee has gotten over 20 young Jews together for a Shabbat dinner, the vice-presidential debate, and several voter engagement projects. The beautiful thing is that it’s not even a difficult sell! I think the young Jewish community in Milwaukee has just been waiting for a righteously indignant push.