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Economic Diversity and Legal Ethics: Center City Lunch & Learn
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In this six-session class, taught by Maria Pulzetti and Rabbi Adam Zeff, we will look at how Jewish law and American law affect working-class people and people living in poverty. And in the American context, we will also look at racial inequities in poverty. Topics will include hunger, health, income, incarceration, and housing. Sessions run from 12:30-1:30 PM on December 2, January 13, February 3, March 3, April 7, and May 5.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit for PA lawyers is available through S. Freedman and Company, Inc. for an additional $35 per credit hour. If you are requesting CLE credit for this course, please print out the following documents: Attorney Affirmation and Evaluation Form. You will see entries for course codes in the Attorney Affirmation; these codes will be announced at some point during the course sessions so that you can record them in your documents. These documents are to be returned via email to S. Freedman and Company, Inc. at the end of the course. CLE questions can be emailed to Susan Freedman at susanfreedman@comcast.net.
About the teachers:
Maria Pulzetti is a Supervising Attorney in the Health & Independence Unit at Community Legal Services. Her practice includes direct representation of clients for food stamps, cash assistance, Medicaid, and Social Security, and systemic advocacy initiatives to expand and protect access to these essential public benefits. Maria believes civil rights lawyers have a sacred obligation to advocate for equal justice and dignity for those who face systemic discrimination and oppression. Maria formerly worked as an Assistant Federal Defender at the Federal Community Defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, handling capital habeas cases and federal criminal appeals. She was the founding executive director of the Moscow-based Russian Justice Initiative, which represents victims of human rights violations at the European Court of Human Rights. During college, she co-founded the Day of Silence, a student-led day of action against the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ people in schools. Maria received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Rabbi Adam Zeffhas served as Rabbi at Germantown Jewish Centre since 2010, after previously serving as Assistant Rabbi (2007-2010) and Student Rabbi (2002-2007). He received a B.A. in Anthropology from Yale University in 1990, a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in 2007. Rabbi Zeff is active in religious dialogue with Christian and Muslim clergy and is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia. As someone who grew up Reform, experimented with Orthodoxy in college, studied at a Reconstructionist seminary, and is a member of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Zeff is comfortable in a wide variety of Jewish settings and modes of worship and practice. His core conviction is that diversity in Jewish life and in the wider world is the truest expression of the divine.