The Davis Center for Social Justice

Stay Informed

You can stay up to date on all of the latest Davis Center activities by reading our monthly e-newsletter that is sent to all Temple Sinai members; you can find the latest issue here.  You can also sign up to receive timely announcements from our various initiatives by completing this form.

An Informed Activist is an Effective Activist

Below is a list of books, articles and podcasts you can use to stay on top of the issues surrounding social justice. To suggest a title, please email Jenny Cohen. Books available in the Temple Sinai library are indicated by * and can be obtained by emailing Ruth Polk.

Affordable Housing

  • Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See by Richard Kahlenberg
  • The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law by Leah Rothstein and Richard Rothstein

Democracy and Voting

  • Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin*

Environmental Justice and Sustainability

  • Food Matters by Mark Bittman*
  • The Way Into Judaism and the Environment by Jeremy Benstein*
  • We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer*

Refugees and Migrants

  • Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
  • The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu
  • The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War by Ben Shephard*
  • Reconstructing Lives, Recapturing Meaning: Refugee Identity, Gender, and Culture Change co-edited by Linda A. Camino and Ruth M. Krulfeld*

Gun Violence Prevention

  • Fight Like a Mother: How a Grass Roots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby by Shannon Watts
  • “How to Reduce Shootings” article by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times
  • 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*

Reproductive Rights and Healthcare

  • Abortion, Every Day with Jessica Valenti (daily newsletter on Substack)
  • The Jewish Family Ethics Textbook by Rabbi Neal Scheindlin*
  • “My Religion Makes Me Pro-Abortion” by Danya Ruttenberg in The Atlantic
  • Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority: Our Jewish Obligation to Social Justice edited by Rabbi Seth M. Limmer, DHL and Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner; foreword by Reverend Cornell William Brooks; introduction by Rabbi David Saperstein*
  • “Outlawed” podcast featuring two OBGYNs on the front lines of abortion care.

Racial Justice

  • Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove
  • Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue by Terrence L. Johnson and Jacques Berlinerblau*
  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
  • March by John Lewis (3-volume graphic novel)
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  • “The Activist Files” podcast (Centre for Constitutional Rights)
  • “The Unpacked Project” podcast challenging barriers to equity
  • “White Lies” podcast,  Season 1 (National Public Radio) investigating the murder of Rev. James Reeb in Selma, Alabama in 1965

Social Justice and Judaism

  • Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Social Justice edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Danya Ruttenberg*
  • Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Danya Ruttenberg*
  • There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice Through Jewish Law and Tradition by Rabbi Jill Jacobs*
  • The Social Justice Torah Commentary edited by Barry Block*