Evan Glass to speak at Temple Emanuel Kulanu Shabbat Service, June 11 (Zoom Service)

In recognition of Pride Month, Temple Emanuel’s annual Kulanu Service will be held on Friday evening, June 11, at 6:30 p.m.

Our featured speaker this year will be Montgomery County Council At-Large Member Evan Glass, whose achievements include the authorship and passage of the Montgomery County LGBTQ Bill of Rights, which fills in gaps in our existing legal protections, including protections of seniors’ access to health care, HIV status, and gender expression. His topic will be My Journey, Our Journeys, and Using the Poltical Process to Achieve Progress. Evan, a former CNN producer and community activist, lives with his husband in Silver Spring.

We also will be noting the launch of the Temple Board of Trustees’ new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative. Please join us after the Zoom service for a discussion with Evan, followed by the Kulanu Committee’s first LGBTQ and Allies Happy Hour. Contact the Temple Office at 301-942-2000 or at office@templeemanuelmd.org for Zoom login information. 

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 LGBTQ 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.

The future of Roe v. Wade before a Supreme Court majority not reflective of the popular will.

On June 29, 1992, the Supreme Court decided Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upholding its ruling 20 years earlier in Roe v. Wade. Both decisions rested on the proposition that there is a constitutional right to privacy. Yesterday,the Court agreed to hear a case that coukd lead to a reversal of those precedents. In the nearly 30 years since Casey was decided polling has shown consistently that a majority of Americans believe that those two cases were correctly decided. In the nearly 30 years since, the issue of reproductive rights has increasingly split along political party lines, Democrats largely in favor, Republicans largely against. In the nearly 30 years since, we have had eight Presidential elections. The Democrat has won the popular vote in seven of those eight elections. In the nearly 30 years since, eight of the nine justices of the Supreme Court have replaced retired or deceased justices: only Justice Thomas was on the Court when Casey was decided, and he dissented. Three of the eight were appointed by Democrats, five by Republicans. In each instance, the question of Roe and Casey loomed over the confirmation proceedings. Over a century ago, the satirist Finley Peter Dunne's fictional bartender Mr. Dooley observed that the Supreme Court ultimately “followed the illiction [sic] returns.” While this was intended as a cynical comment, it also reflected the concept that, over time, the Supreme Court was not as anti-democratic as it could, in the abstract, be. The relationship of the Court to the elected branches of government was, in theory, tempered by the fact that its members were nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. For many decades, most Americans have been basically satisfied with Roe and Casey, and this approval has been reflected in the popular vote for President. But now we are seeing that the Constitutional defect of the malapportioned Electoral College and Senate is catching up with us.