Faith leaders come together to fight poverty at annual vigil

Faith and advocacy leaders from across the state gathered in the Rhode Island State House rotunda Jan. 4 for the “Fighting Poverty with Faith” vigil. More than 60 clergy joined hundreds of people for the annual event, sponsored by the RI Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty. 

They gathered to ask elected officials to govern with care, compassion and wisdom.

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser of Temple Sinai, Cranston, and chair of the Jewish Alliance’s Community Relations Council Social Justice Committee, delivered the keynote address. Gov. Gina Raimondo and Senate Pres. Teresa Paiva Weed offered greetings.

As at previous vigils, a shofar was blown as a call for the community to assemble. This year Abigail Sherwood and Doug Emanuel of Temple Beth-El, Providence; Max Jellinek Knight and Jared Silverman of Temple Habonim, Barrington; and Yasha Kanig, Samuel Gidron, Zoe Tyrrell and Nathan Tyrrell, of the Jewish Community Day School of RI, stood on the second floor of the State House to announce the vigil.

Maxine Richman, co-chair of the Coalition, called on Raimondo and Paiva Weed to provide the means for all children in the state to be able to succeed.

Both the governor and the senate president spoke of last year’s government successes, including an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit. They also agreed that more needs to be done, such as an increase in the minimum wage.

Goldwasser called attention to four priorities of the Coalition: Protecting the no-fare bus pass for low-income seniors and people with disabilities; helping struggling working families by raising the minimum wage and increasing the state earned income tax credit; supporting safe roads by allowing undocumented Rhode Islanders to obtain driver’s licenses; and expanding access to high-quality early childhood care and education.

He called on Rhode Islanders to be the “Storm of Change.”

“We should not think storms can only bring injustice and grief.” Goldwasser said. “We,” he went on, “who uphold the classical values of biblical righteousness – shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, care for the sick, freedom for the captive, dignity for the orphan and widow, comfort for the oppressed, love for the despised – we can be the storm and not just hapless victims to be blown about by somebody else’s ill winds. We can speak up, and speak out, to make righteousness the standard measure by which we weigh our laws and our direction as a state and as a nation. This is what we are fighting for, and we can only do it together.”

Throughout the keynote address, he stressed that it was imperative there be “liberty and justice for all,” not just a few.

“Liberty and justice for all means that your suffering is part of my suffering. My suffering is part of your suffering. It means that your freedom is my freedom, and my freedom is your freedom.”

To add a human face to the issues, Goldwasser told stories of three Rhode Islanders. Christine Tate, a low-income Rhode Islander with disabilities who relies on RIPTA’s no-fare bus pass. The no-fare bus pass that has been available for decades is set to end on Feb. 1, forcing Christine and many others in her situation to pay money that they don’t have for transportation needs. Rodrigo Pimentel, whose “family moved to the United States when he was 10 months old,” a current DACA recipient and a URI student with “a promising future ahead of him” who “worries constantly about his status and whether he will be allowed to stay in the U.S.” Ricky Mercado, a food service worker from Providence for whom “increasing the minimum wage would mean…that [his] girlfriend and [he] could save and move out of our basement apartment at her father’s place into a place we could call our own.”

MARTY COOPER is community relations director of the Jewish Alliance.