Stephanie Kolin '01 always knew she was interested in becoming a rabbi. However, she did not predict that her involvement in Jewish community building would lead to a career in political advocacy.
"I knew that I lived in a broken world that is incredibly unfair, but I didn't know I was going to get the chance to work inside of a system that allows us to change those things," Kolin said.
Kolin is a rabbi and leader of the Reform Jewish community who, upon teaming up with other social justice organizations, recently scored a victory with the passage of the Trust Act, a law that limits local law enforcement's ability to detain peopel for dpeortation signed by California Governor Jerry Brown.
As a Sociology and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies double major, she recalled two classes in particular that impacted her future. One was "The Sociology of Birth and Death;" She enjoyed the class so much she became the teaching assistant to the professor for two years after taking the class. Taught by former professor Maury Stein, the class focused on "the connections between human beings and the imagination of our world as a web of relationships, ... a vision of the world that has never left me," Kolin said. The class "influenced my life, my heart and most definitely my rabbinate," she said.
Kolin was also personally affected by a Jewish liturgy class taught by Prof. Reuven Kimelman (NEJS). The class focused on the Amidah, a prayer Kolin described as, "the central backbone of Jewish prayer." The way Kimelman taught the class, "totally changed my relationship with prayer and affected my world view," Kolin said.
While at Brandeis, Kolin was a major participant in the Brandeis Reform Chavurah. As vice president, Kolin was involved with a new part of the program. "We would take the leftover food from Shabbat dinner and deliver it to a local food bank ... which became a great way to weave justice into the ritual parts of Shabbat," she said.
After graduating from Brandeis in 2001, Kolin went on to rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, the first year of which she spent in Israel before completing her final four years in New York.
Following rabbinical school, she became the rabbi of Temple Israel of Boston. Four years later, Kolin moved to California, where she has been for the past three and a half years. She is a co-director of Just Congregations, a community-organizing program of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Kolin is also the lead organizer of Reform California, a partnership between the Union for Reform Judaism's Just Congregations, the Religious Action Center and the central Conference of American Rabbis Peace and Justice Committee. She described it as a "campaign of the California Reform Movement to work together, in partnership across lines of race, class and faith, on issues of social justice toward systemic change in California."
Most recently, Reform CA has focused its efforts on the passage Trust Act, a piece of state legislation that was passed and implemented at the start of this year. It prevents the detention of people, mainly immigrants, who are not violent felons. The legislation would counteract Secure Communities, which according to Kolin, "was intended to apply only to people who have committed violent and serious crimes; but the effect has been that it is a net for anyone who comes into contact with local law enforcement."
Kolin explained that the Trust Act protects those who could be deported under Secure Communities for lesser crimes or no crimes at all. Some of the reasons one's fingerprints might be taken include reporting abuse, reporting a crime, having a broken taillight and selling food without a license. "Should something small like that lead to an adult or parent being torn away from their family?" Kolin said.
Kolin said that immigration issues are deeply connected to the Jewish narrative. "We are strangers everywhere that we've been. It wasn't that many generations ago that we were strangers in this country," Kolin said.
"For the most part, the people working in these organizations were Latino or Asian American. To bring a Jewish voice to this conversation was something different and new."
Kolin and Reform CA have already begun the process of finding a new cause to which to devote their time. They are careful about choosing how to apply their efforts. "If we were to participate, we actually want to have an impact. We want to find that campaign where it could pass, it will be a tough fight, and if we're in that fight, we can be a value added in that campaign," Kolin said.
The most rewarding part of the work for Kolin is the change she observes within others. "It's the moments where people find their voice, they find that they are not alone, and they find that if they take action as part of a community that they too can act powerfully-that changes someone's life," Kolin said. "I feel really grateful that my job allows me to encounter moments like that all the time."