ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT: TAL BLOOM

Tal (left) with Lily Pazner, Workers Circle’s College Organizer at the Selma March 

My name is Tal Bloom and I’m a student at Barnard College of Columbia University. I study Human Rights and English, with minors in Urban Teaching and Spanish. I first became involved with the Workers Circle through the summit to Selma this spring, and I was so appreciative of the opportunity to engage in activism, conversation, and tool-building alongside Black Voters Matter. 

As an Athena Fellow at Barnard, I am researching the intersections of housing and educational inequities and justice in Harlem schools and communities. Within a public school I’m working in, I’m exploring restorative justice through art, newspaper-writing activities, and implementing literacy excitement outside of a test-taking focused curriculum. Working with Columbia’s Housing Equity Project and Barnard’s Office for Community Engagement and Inclusion, I’m creating a workshop and zine series for Barnard students to have a higher-level understanding of where they are in NYC, the history of displacement of Harlem neighborhoods by Columbia, and have an opportunity to be connected to further resources for learning and action, and connecting.

Being a counselor at Habonim Dror Camp Tavor, I am uniquely excited about the future of Jewish youth, education, and community. At Tavor, we lead educational programming every day in a unique, collaborative, problem-posing learning environment. These lessons dive into different topics in social justice and Jewish life (feminism, gender, consent, antiracism, the environment, Jewish traditions, play, panopticon, the Barbie movie etc), using a mix of methods, activities, and texts. We focus on topics that wouldn’t be explicitly covered in school, giving space to teach and learn about marginalized aspects of history and identity. We lead Kabbalat Shabbat services with poetry interspersed; we sit on the porch and read queer Jewish texts.

I look forward to more activism, community, and memories with the Workers Circle, integrating Jewish culture and values toward a more just future.