David Fishback's Blog: Intent and Impact

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Intent and Impact

On April 15, my son Mike was our guest speaker at Temple Emanuel's Kulanu Shabbat Service. Mike is an educator who specializes in helping middle school students understand social systems and how our various identities impact our interactions and conflicts. His perceptive remarks at the service are posted here. You can also view materials from his curriculum here.

(The mission of the Kulanu Committee is to support Temple Emanuel’s increasingly diverse community as we seek to welcome, celebrate, and honor each other’s identities. Kulanu was formed initially to advocate for the inclusion of LGBT Jews, same-sex couples, and families with same-sex parents. Over time, its mission has expanded to encompass the range of diversity in our community, including family structure, race and ethnicity, religious background, familiarity with Judaism, age, economic circumstances, political views, and physical and mental health.)

2 comments:

David S. FishbackJune 3, 2021 at 8:08 PM
Mike's remarks at Temple Emanuel may now be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/mikefishback/on-race/intent-and-impact?authuser=0
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David S. FishbackSeptember 6, 2022 at 8:22 PM
Materials from Mike's curriculum may now be found here: https://sites.google.com/a/potomacschool.org/frameworksofidentity/
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David S. Fishback, a retired attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, is Advocacy Chair for the Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). His involvement in social justice efforts began as a college student in the 1960s, when he ran a tutoring program in Washington, DC. Following a year as a VISTA volunteer at a prison in Memphis, TN, he went to Harvard Law School and worked on Democratic Party reform issues.

After graduation, he joined the Office of General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. In 1983, David went to the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, where he litigated environmental tort matters, most notably the government's successful defense against lawsuits brought by asbestos product and Agent Orange manufacturers, who were seeking to shift their tort liability to the federal taxpayers.

In 1984, David became co-president of the PTA at a magnet integration primary school in Silver Spring, MD, beginning his efforts as an education activist in Montgomery County. He began advocating for LGBTQ youth in 2002 when he was appointed to the County Board of Education's Citizens Advisory Committee on sexuality education issues. During his time as chair of that committee and later through PFLAG, he was integrally involved in the ultimately successful effort to bring intelligent discussion of LGBTQ topics into the secondary school health curriculum and guidance offices.

A past member of the Temple Emanuel of Kensington MD Board of Trustees, David and his wife Bobbi co-founded and co-chaired (from 2002 to 2019) the Temple's Kulanu Committee for LGBTQ outreach. He is also a long-time member of the Temple's Social Action Council. In 2020, David was appointed to the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.