"I want to be able to say, ‘Let’s do something about that,’" Tepperman told a group of 120 representatives from Montclair churches and synagogues and other area congregations this past Sunday, when clergy members gathered at Immaculate Conception R.C. Church to identify issues of concern at the founding meeting of New Jersey Together at Montclair.

"We were really looking for ways to come together to address some of the issues that affect some of the members of our congregations, but issues that we can’t address by ourselves," said Tepperman, rabbi of Bnai Keshet synagogue who is helping lead the group.

"We felt that we needed to get together with a greater number of people rather than just the individuals of a single congregation."

During the table meeting, discussions led clergy members to identify top critical issues: the need for affordable housing, a better health care system, improvement of public schools, youth services, and promotion of diversity in the community.

It was also the kickoff to the group’s next step: a Listening Campaign in which various congregations will develop an agenda of local issues. A strategy and training session will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 7, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 40 South Fullerton Ave.

"The hope is that, while we do a broader and deeper Listening Campaign within congregations, the issues that are most pressing and important for members will become clearer and sharper," said Tepperman. "I don’t want to offer spiritual counseling to the couple whose family is being torn apart as they try to make the mortgage payments. I want folks to have affordable housing," he told the crowd, capturing the ears of local clergy including Monsignor Timothy Shugrue of Immaculate Conception, the Rev. Charlie Ortman and Johanna Foster of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, the Rev. Stephanie Weiner of Union Congregational Church, the Rev. Allen Shelton from Trinity Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Eva Foster of Union Baptist Church and the Rev. Ann Ralosky of First Congregational Church.

"It was really exciting to see it coming together and see folks from so many different faith backgrounds, [as well as] economic, racial and generational, really representing what Montclair is about," Ralosky said.

"Community organizing is really about power … it is really the ability to act. And that’s what [Sunday] was about – harnessing those issues and learning how to act on them."

"We can’t change most of our circumstances by ourselves, but when we have the support of the community with us, things can happen. There is a lot of passion in Montclair for change."

That passion came to fruition about two years ago, when a group of residents started meeting with members of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a national, nonpartisan organization that works with volunteer institutions to help repair frayed social fabric.

Members of Montclair’s Bnai Keshet Synagogue and local volunteers helped develop clusters in nearby areas. New Jersey together is in the works in Paterson, Hoboken, Jersey City and Mahwah, Tepperman said.

Montclair’s Union Baptist Church was the first church to step on board with Bnai Keshet. As a result, both congregations earlier this year held interfaith services, inviting each other to the Baptist church and the Jewish synagogue so that members from both congregations could deepen their understandings and relationships while working together, Tepperman said.

Members of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair and Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield also attended Sunday’s meeting, as well as members from Montclair’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Central Presbyterian Church. Montclair African American Clergy Association President the Rev. Elizabeth Campbell, who also is pastor of Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church, also attended.

"It was a good start," Tepperman said. "When we come together, we are so much more diverse than when we are apart. It also helps us, in a deeper way, to experience the presence of God."

Contact Tanya Drobness at drobness@montclairtimes.com.