What does it mean to be part of the 99%? Or rather, what does it mean to be part of a whole?

Published on October 12, 2011 by Jordyn R

Prayer as Action.

I put off figuring out my Kol Nidre Yom Kippur plans for as long as I could this year. I, like many in my age group, face the same dilemma each year: I don't belong to a synagogue and my personal Jewish community is rooted less in observance and prayer and more in a shared lactose intolerance, a love of pointing out which celebrities are Jewish, and a commitment to volunteering.

When news of the Occupy Boston Kol Nidre service crossed my radar screen I jumped at the chance to be an observer in a moment of history. What I didn't expect was to find myself surrounded by men and women of all ages and all backgrounds, all swaying together, all chanting together, and all finding a new way to connect to their Judaism and each other.  I spoke with individuals who couldn't remember the last time they'd taken part in a Jewish service. I spoke with individuals who prayed daily. I saw men in suits, women in jeans, individuals with no shoes and everything in between. Yet, somehow this ragtag group went from a smattering of individuals struggling to hear and be heard, to a community of 100 Jews questioning their own definitions of responsibility and justice.

During the service we took a moment to confess our sins, both individually and as a community, as is traditional in a Yom Kippur service.

With an eye to the protesters camped out in tents we contemplated, as a group, what it means to be complacent in the face of our own injustices, and what it means to act. We atoned for not putting our own Jewish values into action and into the forefront of our thoughts on a daily basis.

As the coordinator for ReachOut!, the JCRC's young adult volunteer program in Boston, I ask participants to put their Jewish values into action on a daily basis. I see people of all walks of life, from bankers to teachers to the unemployed, from the 99% to the 1%, take time out of their week to work towards justice and give back to the community.

This, however, was different. It wasn't until I stood  shoulder to shoulder as a community in the middle of Occupy Boston that I saw prayer as action.

Jordyn Rozensky is the Social Justice Coordinator for Young Adults at the JCRC. She organizes the ReachOut! volunteer program for Jewish young professionals. She received her MPP and Masters in Jewish Leadership from Brandeis University, as well as a BA in Religion and Biblical Literature from Smith College. In her spare time she is an amateur TV critic, addicted to blogs about photography--and photography-- and continues to claim she is almost done writing a romance novel.