Ever think you’d see Russell Simmons leading an organization side-by-side with…a rabbi? Well, that’s exactly what he does – as chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, where, as a rabbinical student at Yeshiva University in New York City, I am participating in a rabbinical fellowship. The foundation was founded in 1989, and is run by Rabbi Marc Schneier – spiritual leader of the Hampton and New York Synagogues – with Simmons, CEO of Rush Communications, at his side. Through the foundation, Schneier created forums for face-to-face dialogue between leaders and lay individuals of different ethnic communities in order to reduce bigotry and promote reconciliation and understanding.
I am privileged to work with the foundation on a unique project that will empower American voters with information about how their senators and representatives have voted – and most likely will vote, on issues of race and ethnicity. This unprecedented initiative, entitled Project Scorecard, will assess and grade how our politicians vote on life-changing race legislation.
This strategy has been used successfully in the past: for some years, the Sierra Club has kept track of a politician’s record on environmental issues and offered insights to the public on how he or she may handle these matters in future congressional sessions. This plays an important role in educating concerned voters and impacting their choice of elected officials. In the same way, Project Scorecard will provide crucial information to voters concerned with issues or race and ethnicity.
In order to achieve its goals, Project Scorecard will solicit the assistance of a major academic institution for statistical analysis and to help develop effective questions that will yield meaningful data. They’ll also be working in collaboration with the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Jewish Delegation and Asian Pacific American Caucus. With a major research institution providing the know-how for analysis, the Caucuses will provide the research tools to clarify the ambiguity that raw numbers can present. Meanwhile, I, along with the Foundation’s Executive Director, Lawrence Kopp, and the Congressional Outreach Director, LaKeitha Anderson, will work with the Foundation to better educate voters.
With a growing number of minority voters and with issues of race increasingly at the forefront of political debate, Project Scorecard couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. Institutions such as the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the services that they provide will promote a greater understanding and respect for people of different walks of life, as well as enhance their ability to share public places of school, work, play and interest. We look forward to sharing our findings with voters in the coming months, and personally, I look forward to informing the voting public of the foundation’s progress.
