The Concerns and Causes of Wally Marks
The many organizations and causes that Wally Marks supported with his money and his energy comprise a living tribute to him. We invite you to browse this website's evolving showcase of grass roots groups and historic institutions dedicated to peace; healthcare, environmentalism and human relations. Wally Marks devoted his life to these causes and we hope, with this site, to continue his work.
American Civil Liberties Union - www.aclu.org
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) - The Middle East Peace Education Program is a source for balanced information and resources on the region and its issues. www.mepeacela.org
Americans for Peace Now (APN) - is the premier address for those who support a politically negotiated solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the Middle East. In partnership with Peace Now in Israel, APN informs and involves supporters and community leaders in Southern California and throughout the United States. www.peacenow.org/socal
Breast Cancer Care & Research Fund (BCCRF) - mission is to educate and to promote clinical research, access to quality health care for all and advocacy for women with breast cancer and their supporters. We will be planting and dedicating a tree to Wally. www.breastcancercare.org
California Clean Money Campaign - builds statewide support for public funding of election campaigns. We are the sponsor of the California Fair Elections Act on the June 2010 ballot ? it will allows elected officials to get out of the money game and focus on solving California's problems. www.CAclean.org
Center for the Study of Political Graphics - collects, preserves, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change. Through its varied programs, CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to inspire people to action. www.politicalgraphics.org/home.html
Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) - Our mission is to champion cultural understanding by encouraging curiosity about our diverse world through the universal lens of art. CAFAM’s guided by the conviction that its programming should bridge local and global cultures, and inspire a sense of inquiry and creativity within all people. www.cafam.org
California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) - founded in 1972, is a statewide non-profit organization working to uncover threats to public health and well-being, promote consumer protection, advance campaign reform, and encourage a fair economy. With public debate dominated by special interests pursuing their own agenda, CALPIRG offers an independent voice on behalf of all Californians. www.calpirg.org
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA) - engages imams, ministers, priests, rabbis and diverse clergy to advocate for justice in the workplace for low-wage workers and those struggling to make a living in Los Angeles” www.cluela.org
Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) - We are a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the Salvadoran people’s struggle for self-determination and social and economic justice. www.cispes.org
Consumer Watchdog - provides a voice for taxpayers and consumers in an era when special interests dominate public discourse, government and politics. Consumer Watchdog has some of the nation's most effective public interest advocates and lawyers working on health care, insurance rates, gas prices, legal rights, corporate reform and political accountability. Douglas Heller, Executive Director, Consumer Watchdog [formerly The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights] www.consumerwatchdog.org
Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS) - is to support, educate, and empower those who are striving for proportionality in sentencing and fairness and justice in the criminal justice system by building a movement based in the communities and families most affected by California’s Three Strikes law. www.facts1.net
HaMifgash (The Encounter) - is a 501c3 educational foundation dedicated to teaching social justice. We are also proud to be hosting www.HighMarksJustice.org, a living tribute to Wally Marks that will engage people in the concerns Wally Marks embodied most -- especially peacemaking in the Middle East. www.JewsOnFirst.org
Harry Bridges Project - We present the life and ideas of Harry Bridges, an extraordinary labor leader and social visionary, and his impact on our lives today. His life encompassed immigration, the depression, red-scares, McCarthyism, the cold war, labor issues and globalization. His story provides a springboard into understanding so many similar issues today. www.theharrybridgesproject.org
Health Care for All-California - Health Care for All-California is a grassroots organization that advocates for universal, comprehensive and affordable health care. Wally Marks was the principal supporter of our work to pass the nation’s first single-payer legislation, SB 840 (Kuehl). SB 810 “CaliforniaOneCare” (Leno) is now in the California Senate. Links: www.healthcareforall.org; www.californiaonecare.org
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion - The nation's oldest academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism. With campuses in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals. www.huc.edu
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) - is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a New Economy. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and broad-based community organizing, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment for everyone. www.laane.org
LA Jews for Peace - is a group of Jewish Americans committed to peace in the Middle East through a negotiated settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and opposition to American militarism, imperialism, and exceptionalism. www.LAJewsforPeace.org
Liberty Hill Foundation - www.libertyhill.org
Leo Baeck Temple - is a URJ affiliated (Union for Reform Judaism) Reform Temple located in West Los Angeles between the areas of Bel Air and Brentwood, directly across from the Getty Center entrance. We bear a rich history of social action and continue to move forward on issues of contemporary concern with a view to the future. www.leobaecktemple.org/information.html
Levantine Cultural Center - in Los Angeles is a contemporary cultural arts center for the Middle East and North Africa. Our mission is to present literary, performing and visual arts programs to diverse audiences, in the context of dialogue and discovery. Our activities seek to inform both the general public and the media about the Arab/Muslim world not through the lens of conflict and war, but through its wealth of culture, history, creative production and intellectual achievement. www.levantinecenter.org
Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) - helps people dealing with poverty create & discover opportunities, while serving as a vehicle to ensure they have voice, power & opinion in the decisions that are directly affecting them. www.cangress.org
Midnight Special Bookstore - This was an LA-based bookstore and community gathering place that Wally helped create, it is no longer open. Reflections from Margie Ghiz.
Military Religious Freedom Foundation - is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org
NACOEJ - is a grassroots, 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1982 with four mandates: to help Ethiopian Jews survive in Ethiopia; to assist them in reaching Israel; to aid in their absorption in Israel; and to help preserve their unique and ancient culture. www.nacoej.org
National Radio Project / International Media Project - is a non-profit radio producers of the “Making Contact” series. National Radio Project heightens public consciousness, broadens debate on social issues and encourages civic participation, by training community members, collaborating with community groups, and by giving voice to diverse perspectives underrepresented in the mass media. www.radioproject.org/about/
NewGround - is a joint project of Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) that engages diverse groups of Muslim and Jewish Angelenos in an innovative community-building process of intra- and inter-faith education and reflection, leadership training, and civic engagement. www.newgroundproject.org
New Israel Fund (NIF) - works to strengthen Israel's democracy and to promote freedom, justice and equality for all Israel's citizens through providing financial and technical support to over 800 national and community-based organizations. NIF's focus is on fighting for civil and human rights, promoting religious tolerance and pluralism and closing economic and social gaps in Israeli society. www.nif.org
Office of the Americas - is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of international justice and peace through broad based educational programs. Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, the Office of the Americas is a recognized source of documentation and analysis of current international events with a focus on the foreign policy of the United States. www.officeoftheamericas.org
Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) - is a network of housing and services that provides assistance to low-income and homeless youth, adults and families, battered women and their children, at-risk youth, and people living with mental illness. www.opcc.org
OPICA Adult Day Care and Caregiver Support Center - provides stimulating and therapeutic cognitive and sensory programs to activity engage the minds of our members with Alzheimer’s Disease or related dementias, and other conditions that effect cognition. www.opica.org
OUR HOUSE - Grief Support Center recognizes that people are often not prepared for the intensity and duration of the grief process. OUR HOUSE was founded in 1993 on the premise that grievers need understanding, support, and connection. OUR HOUSE conducts groups in over 50 schools serving children in low-income, underserved areas of Los Angeles County. OUR HOUSE also offers grief education programs for medical and mental health professionals, clergy, and educators. www.ourhouse-grief.org
Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA) - brings together health professionals and the diverse communities of Southern California to protect public health from threats related to nuclear weapons and environmental toxins. www.psrla.org
Planned Parenthood - delivers vital health care services, sex education, and sexual health information to millions of women, men, and young people. For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about sex, health, and family planning. www.plannedparenthood.org/los-angeles/index.html
Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation - promotes conflict resolution training and innovative educational methods aimed at building bridges while nurturing the minds of souls of Jewish and Arab children living under the chronic stress of conflict. www.ssefoundation.org
Sholem Community of Los Angeles -www.sholem.org
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics - designs and facilitates interfaith and inter-cultural programming that serves to foster a culture of peace. Its humanitarian programs are aimed at community building and the resolution of conflicts based on the foundational values of equity, justice, compassion and mutual respect. www.RaoulWallenbergInstitute.org
Venice Family Clinic - is the largest free clinic in the country. With the help of over 1,500 volunteers, including nearly 500 volunteer physicians, it provides a medical home to more than 23,500 low-income and uninsured patients annually through eight sites in Venice , Santa Monica , Mar Vista and Culver City. www.venicefamilyclinic.org
Walking with Wally in the West Bank - Ed Gaffney and Alicia Dwyer made a documentary film about peacemakers in Israel and Palestine, called "Holy Land: Common Ground." Ed and Rebekah Wingert-Jabi are now in preproduction on a new film about homes, schools and neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Contacts:edgaffneyjr@gmail.com , bekahw73@gmail.com