Justice scales superimposed on this image of a Torah parchment symbolises the reliance of the Institute and the Court on social justice principles found in the Torah

The Canadian Beth Din Institute at the Metivta of Ottawa is the parent organisation of the Jewish Court for Social Justice. This all sounds very grand, and it is: the Metivta and all it purports to be is located on a sprawling campus of 400 square feet that stretches between my living room and kitchen.

I’ve had probably ten emails from several correspondents questioning many aspects of the Court. Two questions are being asked repeatedly.

1. What are you doing (and who do you think you are)?

2. Why are you doing it (there is an established order for such things!)?

I’ll address “why” here and speak of “what” below.

I began planning the Jewish Court for Social Justice almost seven years ago. There has been ample time for a credible organisation to evolve before this, an organisation that speaks to Canadian social justice issues from a Jewish faith perspective, and nothing has happened in all that time.

Canadian values are espoused by the Canadian red maple leaf surrounded by the eternal values of the Torah

When the rabbis of Montreal were speaking favourably about the American invasion of Iraq, if they were speaking about it at all, I was speaking against it at an interfaith service in the Unitarian Universalist Church. It was then that I realised that no one was doing what I was doing in eastern Canada and that only one other rabbi in Canada was doing it all.

It was then that I realised that Canada needed a credible organisation to speak from a faith-based and centre-left perspective. There are several Christian organisations that do this. There has been no Jewish organisation doing so.

What I am doing is working with three or four other people to create what I hope will become a national,Jewish faith-based movement for social justice.

In the wisdom literature of Mishna Pirqei Avot (PA 2:5) we are told “in a place without a leader, strive to be leader.” No leader has emerged in the last seven years.

So I have.