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JAC was honored and privileged to have Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) join us at JAC’s 2023 Power of Women Luncheon this week in the Chicago area. Thanks to our co-chairs, Jessica B. Cohen, Marisa Chez, and Marcy Zoller, more than 440 attended making this JAC’s largest event to date.

 

It’s surreal to write this, my final farewell, as I depart JACPAC after my time as the Senior Fellow. It’s easy to want to change the world. It’s a whole lot harder to find the tools to do it. JAC gave me the tools and then some.

 

Political violence, encouraged by hateful rhetoric, was thought to have reached a crescendo with the January 6th insurrection at the capitol. Yet that horrific day was not the end. Threats against Members of Congress are more than ten times as high as just five years ago. 

 

Current Members of Congress are contributing to this climate of violence. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) tweeted a video that included altered animation showing him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with a sword.

 

More than 3,600 children have died this year in gun-related incidents. In just five months, we have seen 19 school shootings, claiming the lives of numerous children and teens. Firearms are the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens.

 

We are now living in a country where it is not unusual for mothers to jump on top of their children to shield them from gun fire at anytime or anywhere. In the recent Texas mall shooting, a child survived after being pulled out from under his dead mother’s body.

 

Bookended by a day of remembrance for our departed ancestors and a day of celebration for the Jewish homeland, this week is considered by some the 'High Holidays of Israel.' This past Tuesday, we observed Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. We commemorated the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Wednesday. This coming Tuesday, we will remember Israel’s fallen military personnel on Yom Hazikaron. The following day, we will celebrate Israel’s independence on Yom Ha’atzmaut.

 

The Democrats are already gearing up to take on GOP candidates in 2024 and Adam Frisch (D-CO) is looking for a rematch with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). In 2022, he came within less than one percent of defeating her. Even after a mandatory recount, Boebert barely scraped by with a win. 

 

Now Frisch is ready to take her on again in 2024 and decisively win -- with JAC support and yours. DONATE HERE.

 

Seat belts became a federal requirement in every vehicle starting in 1968. As a result in 2012, the average vehicle’s fatality risk for drivers and passengers was 56 percent lower than in the 1960s.

 

Annual opioid deaths more than doubled between 2010 and 2017, presenting a very dire public health crisis. Americans were getting unnecessary and unregulated access to opioids, a highly addictive drug, that was causing thousands of deaths.

 

This is personal. 

 

This is our story about our friend Rep. Elissa Slotkin who is running for the Senate.

 

It was the summer of 2017 when we received a phone call from a new Michigan candidate from Michigan. She wanted to meet us for coffee to discuss her uphill race against a two-term Republican incumbent who was solidly entrenched in the district.

 

President Joe Biden signed his 108th Executive Order on Tuesday directing federal agencies to do all that they can to “pursue every legally available and appropriate action to reduce gun violence” by ensuring compliance with existing laws and procedures.

 

Specifically, the order instructs all appropriate governmental departments to swiftly begin intensifying the implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That historic legislation, signed by Biden, can save lives while we continue to work with Congress to ban assault weapons.