Maplewood Native Discovers Jewish Social Justice in Summer Internship Program

From the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism:

This summer, Nathaniel Wolf’s passion for Judaism, social justice and advocacy brought him to Washington, D.C. for the Machon Kaplan program at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Machon Kaplan is a summer study-internship program that engages students on critical social justice issues from both an academic and practical viewpoint. Program participants, like Nathaniel, intern at a public policy organization, such as The Interfaith Alliance, the NAACP, Citizens for Global Solutions or AFL-CIO, seeing firsthand how groups pursue legislative advocacy, how policy is crafted and how interns can harness their own energy to make social change.

While in Washington, Wolf is working with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), whose goal is to mobilize people of faith to end torture in U.S. policy, practice and culture. In working with NRCAT, Wolf’s goal is to become more familiar with the professional working world, to expand his knowledge on new and different social justice issues that he would normally not focus on and, by doing this, become a more connected global citizen.

“My experience with my organization has been a very positive one so far,” Wolf said. “I have been able to contribute around the office as well as attend important events on behalf of the organization.”

A Maplewood native, Wolf is a rising junior studying Holocaust and genocide studies at Keene State College in Keene, N.H. With the experience and knowledge gained from his time at Keene and with NRCAT, Nathaniel hopes to engage other students on his campus.

In addition to their placements, students take specially designed academic courses that teach the application of Jewish values to current social justice issues such as the environment, civil rights, LGBT equality and church state separation, among others.

Most participants also live together, forming a residential community, participating in weekly programs that include exploring the city’s monuments and museums as well as studying various Jewish texts that connect to the contemporary policy issues that they are advocating for at their internships.

Further information is available through the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism website.

Photo courtesy of Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism