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Catalyst to Coalition is a newly formed organization
dedicated to strengthening social change theory and activism by:
1) Supporting new thought on important yet little
analyzed aspects of oppression and resisting oppression.
2) Creating new connections within the large community of
those who care about and act to achieve social justice. CtoC is an
independent, grassroots organization.
In our Challenging Anti-Semitism program, we created the FACING A CHALLENGE
WITHIN national conference series and are developing an organization of
non-Jewish progressives in solidarity against anti-Semitism. CtoC is now
designing an Expanding Alliances Program to increase community and activist
connections between traditionally oppressed groups which have been
historically isolated from one another.
ADVISORY BOARD
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Deborah
J. Grenn |
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Deborah J.
Grenn, Ph.D. and kohenet is Core Faculty in New College of
California Women’s Spirituality MA Program. She is founder and
director of The Lilith Institute (www.lilithinstitute.com),
Voice of the Spirit, a women's spirituality/study circle and
series, and goddessrituals.org.
Dr. Grenn hosted "Honoring The Sacred Feminine," a bimonthly
segment on women and spirituality on KVON Radio, Napa, and
co-produces the annual Napa Women's Rites of Spring Festival
with Leilani Birely; she also teaches Comparative Religion and
Women’s Ethnic Heritage at Napa Valley College. Her current
research focuses on the religious/cultural identities, beliefs
and ritual practices among the Lemba and other African Diasporic
Jews & European-American Jewish women. Her publications include:
Lilith's Fire (Universal Publishers, 2000), “How Women Construct
And Are Formed By Spirit: She Who Is Everywhere In Women’s
Voices” in She Is Everywhere! edited by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
(2005) and “Connecting With Deity Through a Feminist Metaformic
Theology” in Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture (www.metaformia.com,
2005,) edited by Judy Grahn. |
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Christopher MacDonald-Dennis |
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Christopher MacDonald-Dennis, Ed.D. has been
a scholar-activist for more than fifteen years. He has been
involved with many social change and anti-oppression movements,
including the feminist movement, LGBT movement, and anti-racism.
A raised-working class biracial Jewish gay man, Chris has long
understood that all oppression is interconnected and that all
forms of oppression must be fought. He received his BA from
Framingham State College in Massachusetts, his MS from
Northeastern University and his Ed.D. in Social Justice
Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Originally from Boston, he currently lives in Philadelphia.
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Bob
Meola |
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Bob Meola has been a radical involved in
struggles for peace and justice since the 60s. He has worked to
end the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Central America, etc. , and has
been an organizer and peace and anti-draft and anti-nuclear
activist. He is a Gandhian pacifist, has been a non-violence
trainer and has committed numerous acts of civil disobedience.
He realized he was an anarchist when he realized his communist
comrades had forgotten about Marx's withering away of the state.
Bob was a founder of Southern California War Resisters' League
and Southern California War Tax Resistance. He is a long-time
member of WRL and of the National Lawyers Guild. He believes in
the right of the state of Israel to exist and is therefore a
Zionist and therefore feels isolated and alienated from the
current left. Bob has been a draft counselor, veterans'
counselor and volunteer on the G.I. Rights Hotline. He has a
B.A. from James Madison College at Michigan State University and
a J.D. from New College of California School of Law.
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Ruth
Phillips |
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Ruth
Phillips, MA, is the Program Director for the Berkeley Richmond
JCC. Prior to assuming this position in 2000, from l983-1999,
Ms. Phillips was the Director of the New Horizons Single Parent
Program, a
federally funded program for low income single mothers. She also
worked as a teacher and parent coordinator for Head Start.
Ms. Phillips is an active community member who has organizing
political programs, volunteered at Planned Parenthood, and,
while living in Phoenix served as the Reproductive Chairperson
of NOW.
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Conference Co-ordinator Judy Andreas
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Judy
Andreas, Director of Catalyst to Coalition, founded the
organization in 2004 to present the first FACING A CHALLENGE
WITHIN conference in Oakland, California. She is a lifelong
grassroots activist with experience in multicultural, feminist,
neighborhood, anti-oppression, disability rights, queer, and
environmental organizing. Her belief in solidarity across
differences in privilege has led her to use her privilege as a
secular Christian in confronting anti-Semitism, Islamophobia,
and prejudice against other traditionally oppressed groups.
For many years, Judy studied international history and culture
as an independent scholar while employed in blue collar service
positions. She is a member of Service Employees International
Union and is currently a doctoral candidate pursuing her Ph.D.
in the area of anti-Semitism and The Left. She sees anti-Jewish
bias once again being used to divide natural allies and weaken
the social justice/ social change movements of the U.S. and the
world.
* Please see below to clarify confusion about my
name on the world wide web. |
* In my work confronting anti-Semitism I've encountered many
attempts to demoralize me and others doing this work. There is now
an attempt to confuse the progressive public about "Judy Andreas."
A person or persons unknown to me has been blogging and
publishing under my name, and has even took out my name as a domaine
name. In an attempt to interfere with the work of fighting
anti-Semitism, they associate "Judy Andreas" with both Left and
extreme Right Wing ideologies condemning Jews and Israel. Please
contact me at the telephone number and email address on this site to
determine the validity of any writing or activity associated with
"Judy Andreas."
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FACING A CHALLENGE WITHIN: