• The Constitution and Me-Perfect Together by Jocelyn Block
• President's Message by Shelly Komito
• News from Israel by Seth Goren, BA's Foreign Correspondent
• UAHC to Change Name-Hurrah!
• Sukkot 2003
• Inside the Board Room

Excerpted from her speech on Rosh Hashanah.

The reason I particularly wanted to speak today is because of the Freedom Rings for Everyone campaign. Why me? Well, because I think this is the perfect place and the perfect time for me to come out. I'm going to say the "L" word in public. Some of you may know this about me. Some may have only suspected. But it's time for me to say this in public, with pride: I am…a lawyer.

Now, all law students study constitutional law, or "con law." The stuff we learned in con law was soul-stirring: the First Amendment, equal protection, due process, the right to privacy. The case of Griswold v. Connecticut: that was Justice Douglas writing for the majority. What Justice Douglas found in Griswold v. Connecticut was that there was an implied right to privacy in the Constitution, and the way he phrased it was "the penumbra and emanations." This case was decided around 1968 and it permitted unmarried people to avail themselves of birth control. Prior to that time, if you were in Connecticut, you had to be married before you could buy birth control. In Roe v. Wade, Justice Blackmun, writing for the majority, decided that women could make the decision for themselves about whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. That was in 1973. Just three months ago, in Lawrence v. Texas, with Justice Kennedy writing for the majority--I'm sure you're all familiar with the outcome in that case-the Court held that the same right to privacy which led to the holdings in Griswold and Roe v. Wade compelled the Court to strike down all remaining sodomy statutes in the United States, thus legitimizing gay relationships in every state and territory in this country for the first time in history.

You're going to hear, during the Freedom Rings campaign, about five First Amendment rights and the right to vote. But I'd like to direct your attention, this morning, to some of the ones I deal with on a daily basis. There's the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment says that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, homes, papers and effects against un-reasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. Very important, because this is the amendment that says the police can't just bust into your home, they can't just stop you on the street, they can't just grab you, search you, violate your rights, and this is very, very important. This is the check on the power of the police. Then, there's the Fifth Amendment. That gives you the right to an indictment, the right against double jeopardy, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to due process. Then there are the Sixth Amendment rights. That gives you the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to a jury trial, the right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against you, the right to subpoena witnesses favorable to you, and the right to have the assistance of counsel for your defense.

The Constitution is not an abstraction to me. My job, my specific job, is to explain to my clients their constitutional rights. While this isn't court, and you aren't my clients, I want you to know what your constitutional rights are. I want you to know how lucky we are to live in this country, where we have a Constitution, which allows us to be here, at the National Constitution Center, not just Jews worshipping on Rosh Hashanah, but gay, lesbian and bisexual Jews worshipping on Rosh Hashanah. You don't have to be constitutional scholars. You don't have to be lawyers. You do have to be educated citizens, because with rights come responsibilities. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that our government not be permitted to take our rights away, and I'm not speaking about the anti-gay marriage amendment, because my personal opinion is that's not going to go anywhere. Those of you who remember the Equal Rights Amendment know how very hard it is to get an amendment ratified. I'm speaking about the Patriot Act and all the extremely frightening legislation that was passed in the wake of September 11th. We all want to be safe, but we can't be safe if the government has unlimited authority to arrest people and detain them indefinitely without charging them, and to do basically whatever they feel like in the name of national security. That's the very opposite of security, and if we become complacent, we lose the freedom which is the bedrock of America.

I hope you've all had a chance to see the Freedom Rings for Everyone brochure we distributed with your prayer books. In it, we outline what the campaign hopes to achieve, and one thing which isn't explicitly stated-but is implicit---is the role that I hope BA will have in educating, not only our immediate community, but the broader community.

There's a quote on the bottom of the brochure, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." As we embark on a new year, and with it, the start of this campaign, join BA is embracing our responsibility to ensure our continued liberty.

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