A major rift has developed between Rabbi Alan Lew and Mayor Willie Brown over proposed legislation that Lew claims would victimize the homeless.
At issue: the mayor’s proposal to ban sitting, standing or lying on median strips — the favored spot for what he calls “drive-by panhandling.” A first offense would command a fine of $100. Second and third offenses would call for $200 and $250 fines.
Lew, the spiritual leader of San Francisco’s Conservative Congregation Beth Sholom, is an outspoken advocate for the homeless.
The mayor’s office said the proposal is only part of a larger program to reverse a surge in pedestrian deaths, which have doubled in the past year, according to police records.
Lew disputes that approach.
“The mayor talks about pedestrian deaths, but if you look closely at police records you can see most are caused by red-light jumpers. This is just another tactic of blaming the victims,” Lew said.
“No it’s not, it’s pedestrian safety,” said Brown’s spokesperson Kandace Bender. “Basically it’s all part of the mayor’s “Safety in the Streets” campaign. The median strips are no place to do business. They are no place to distribute campaign literature, no place to sell flowers, no place to sell newspapers. It’s dangerous.”
In fact, this week, Supervisor Amos Brown proposed expanding the measure to include those panhandling near the entrances to stores and other businesses, “not to victimize anyone, but…to preserve civility” in the city.
That Lew would spend time poring over public records in addition to rabbinic literature is nothing new. In fact, his high-profile social-action activities have a spiritual genesis, he explained.
“When I am called upon to speak at these rallies [for the homeless], I inevitably find myself using something from last week’s Torah portion or commentary, because our liturgy is just so full of references to this issue,” he said. “We stand at Yom Kippur and the prophet Isaiah says, ‘You call this a fast? Housing the homeless is a fast.’ In the Torah and in the rabbinic literature it is made clear to us we have an obligation to take care of those in need. It is stressed time and time again.”
Lew, who was arrested in April with 47 others at a demonstration in front of San Francisco’s City Hall, said he and Religious Witness for Homeless People, an advocacy group, have had to abandon working with the mayor to effect policy change. The approach has proved fruitless, he said.
“This is kind of our official break with Brown,” Lew said.
Last year, Brown met with Lew and other members of Religious Witness to discuss their proposal to use vacant housing in the Presidio to house the homeless, The upshot, Measure L , was passed on the November ballot by 95,000 San Francisco voters.
“We gave him the leverage of Measure L and he’s not using it,” Lew said. “He didn’t implement Measure L after we spent thousands of dollars and six months of our lives, and 95,000 San Franciscans voted it into law.”
The National Park Service now controls the land. Brown has said he has virtually no authority to decide how the Presidio is used.
Although Lew said he is the only “mainstream rabbi” in the leadership of Religious Witness, “a large number of Jews are very involved” in its activities, including Rabbi Zari Weiss, now the East Bay community rabbi; members of Berkeley’s Kehilla Community Synagogue, which she previously served; many of Lew’s own congregants; “and lots of unaffiliated Jews.”
Lew doesn’t back away from challenging other clergy, although “it is critical to me that we always, always keep the dialogue dignified.”
Beyond the issue of how the Presidio is used, Lew said the mayor has “continued his campaign of harassment of the homeless, usually in the name of his closest ally, Supervisor Amos Brown.”
Amos Brown, the minister at San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, has advised Religious Witness that the group should cast a wider net, saying, “The Presidio is not the only place where there are buildings.”
Mara Raider of San Francisco’s Homeless Coalition said she respects Lew’s activities. “Our organizations support each other and I’m very familiar with his work. The people from his temple are amazing.”
Raider called the mayor’s proposal “still another mean-spirited attempt to remove homeless people from public view so he can better campaign for re-election.”
An Examiner-KTVU poll of “frequent voters” last week revealed 71 percent dissatisfied with Brown’s job, up from 59 percent in September. Three out of four criticized his handling of the homeless.