Send Page to a Friend Jews take to Beacon Hill   By Ted Siefer The Jewish Advocate   Members of the Jewish community filled one of the main halls in the State House last week to press their legislators to take action on issues such as affordable housing and health care coverage as part of Advocacy Day, the Jewish Community Relations Council's annual lobbying event. "Advocacy Day is an important opportunity for all members of the Jewish community to make their voices heard," said JCRC Executive Director Nancy Kaufman. "Jewish tradition and teachings demand that we become advocates for the most vulnerable people in our communities." In addition to policies that would expand affordable housing and health insurance, speakers at the event underscored the importance of increasing the budget for programs for seniors and people with disabilities and a bill that would prevent life insurers from barring or restricting coverage based on travel to Israel. Rep. Jay Kaufman, Lexington, said that event was timely, given that Passover, with its themes of fighting against oppression, was approaching. "The work you do is sacred work," Kaufman told the audience, which mostly consisted of seniors and Russian immigrants. Other Jewish lawmakers in attendance included Frank Smizik, Brookline, Ruth Balser, Newton, David Linsky, Natick, Kathi-Anne Reinstien, Revere, and Alice Wolf, Cambridge. Speakers also highlighted legislative victories in the past year, including the passage of a bill that protects the privacy of genetic testing results and the pending passage of a comprehensive health insurance bill. Since it is an election year, a special workshop was held on mobilizing the Jewish vote. After the issues were outlined, participants separated into groups to lobby individual lawmakers.