Amidst the intense calls for war and patriotism when 9/11 happened, I-SRV hosted an Interfaith Prayer Service at Oakhill Park.  When the Muslim Members of our community were asked if they felt safe, the answer was a deafening silence.

As Islamophobia and hate surfaced in the Valley, I-SRV held a series of Sulha Conversations.  This truth-telling and listening model nurtured the foundation of our relations.  For 18 months Muslim, Jewish and Christian friends gathered monthly to pray and learn about each other, our stories and how we could support each other.

Following 9/11, the Islamic Center wished to expand, requiring a rezoning vote by the San Ramon City Council.  The Islamic Center and City Council experienced a barrage of hateful rhetoric on surveys from business owners and residents regarding the expansion.  I-SRV stepped forward to provide sustained public support in the media and at City Council Meetings.  SRVIC eventually received the rezoning vote they needed.

I-SRV got involved in “A Just Harvest” Campaign for about 5 years in the Central Valley.  Every spiritual tradition has contradictions to struggle with:  The local Catholic Parish submitted to the influence of their 14 Landowner members who resisted requests for safe working conditions and living wages for Farmworkers who were also parish members.  Farmworker families were also experiencing serious health consequences from being sprayed with pesticides in the fields and their homes, which I-SRV members witnessed.   I-SRV clergy and rabbis offered spiritual comfort, marched at events, and participated in protests with Dolores Huerta.  The landowners threatened farmworkers and their families with deportation.   No positive results were achieved but as Dolores said, “Justice is long term work and even failure is a step in the next direction.  Spiritual work requires persistent commitment.”

In 2008 when Prop 8 passed banning same-sex marriage in California, the I-SRV Community was divided.  Some congregations were strong supporters while others were strongly opposed.  The tension reached a breaking point when the clergy of St. Timothy’s felt their church could no longer participate in I-SRV because judgments were placed on their Episcopal members restricting who they could love.  Rabbi Dan’s leadership brought the group to understand if we can stand together only when we agree, then we aren’t doing the work demanded of us.  In response to this situation, I-SRV held a Compassionate Listening event where people from both sides were invited to share their stories only.  No debate was allowed.  We discovered a way to stand together while feeling wounded instead of retreating into our own woundedness.

In the mid-90’s, the local community was embroiled in another painful conflict.  When the SRVUSD School Board adopted a positive policy related to diversity and sexual orientation, some of the evangelical churches reacted with intense push back demanding overturning or non-compliance with the policy.  The policy continued because it was state-mandated and the school district would have lost funding to repeal it.  However a teacher was outed in a very public, personal and demeaning way after starting the first Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) in the area.  Students who got involved were harassed and bullied.  They asked to speak to the School Board, but they were pushed off the agenda until the final meeting of the school year.  These kids shared heartbreaking stories about bullying, feeling isolated and alienated and the impact of these experience on their mental health, including suicide.  Parents also shared tragic stories regarding their children.  The School Board voted 3 – 2 against providing protection and sanctuary for these students.  I-SRV responded by forming its own “Sanctuary” for the protection of students and publicly promoted this Sanctuary.  We brought in the Anti-Defamation League to train empathetic teachers and administrators.  A couple schools then began to partner with existing organizations and create their own programs to protect their students.  Finally, the School District addressed the crisis and officially shut down the bullying and cyberbullying that was happening.

Indigenous representatives came from the Amazon of Ecuador to meet with Chevron leaders.  They asked for the clean up of the largest oil spill in the world and sought compensation for the health care crises of Tribal Members (Huorani, Cofan) who had been poisoned by all the toxic waste.  (Texaco originally caused the damage.  Chevron had acquired Texaco in a merger.)  I-SRV members provided hospitality for the visiting Indigenous Delegation.  I-SRV Members were then asked to travel to Ecuador on a Fact Finding Mission.  They met with Indigenous peoples whose forests, water, ways of life, and culture were being destroyed by the Amazonian Oil Spill. They also met with the leaders of the South American Council of Churches who regretted not knowing what was happening on their own continent and promised to get involved.  On their return Pastors Steve Harms and Margareta Dahlin Johansson, Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and union leader John Dalrymple spoke publicly about the ecological disaster they witnessed and the undermining of good faith mediation efforts in Ecuador.  A photo exhibit of the journey was hosted at the local Mudd’s Restaurant.  Years later, Indigenous and local I-SRV clergy spoke at a Chevron Shareholders Meeting.  There has never been a positive resolution.

When Beth Chaim’s Synagogue was seeking Permit Approval from the Town of Danville, neighbors attended the Town Council Meetings expressing their outrage about the congregation’s presence in their neighborhood.  They spoke of violent threats to congregants and how fearful the neighbors were because of likely bombings and shootings at the temple.  The neighbors forced an immensely expensive sound wall to be required in the approval process for their neighborhood “protection.”  At times the Town Council Meetings became an accusatory war zone.  I-SRV Members repeatedly spoke up in favor of Beth Chaim’s construction.  Eventually the approval was given.

Over the years swastikas and anti-Semitic hate have been used to target Beth Chaim, people’s homes, a Jewish bookstore and even the hillsides.  There has always been reflection and thoughtful discernment among I-SRV Members to decide on how best to respond.  The most recent event was Anti-Semitic flyers posted on the Iron Horse Trail in 2022.  I-SRV organized a March and Rally “We Choose Love”  just 10 days after the incident.  More than 300 people attended from all over the Bay Area.  I-SRV composed a Proclamation which all the Member Congregations signed expressing our commitment to stand with the people of all faith practices, cultures, and ethnicities in the San Ramon Valley.  The Mayor and former Mayor of Danville participated in the March and composed a Proclamation for the Town of Danville, too.