Letter from HealthSpark President & CEO Emma Hertz: Driving Action Towards Justice Together

Dear friends, 

My great-great grandfather lived in Russia in the late 1800’s when, as a Jew, it was legal for his neighbors to attack him. During this era, called the pogroms, the Russian government blamed Jews for the country’s problems and sanctioned violence against them in order to justify their restricted economic and political rights. Jewish businesses, neighborhoods, and families were regularly terrorized by neighbors and government actors as a means of punishment and control. Pogrom is a Yiddish word meaning “to wreak havoc,” and wreak havoc they did.  

One night, during a raid on his village, soldiers pulled my great-great grandfather and his eldest son out of their house and onto the street, and executed them in front of their terrified family.  

That same night, the rest of the family, including my young great-grandmother, fled the country. 

My family’s survival as Jews during the rise of Naziism across Europe in the ensuing years was a result of the solidarity of non-Jews around the world. Non-Jews helped them move across the borders, fed and clothed them, and fought for their rights and freedoms. Non-Jews shopped at their businesses, ate at their restaurants, and taught their children in school. My family survived because non-Jews refused to accept the weaponization of government against their neighbors.  

As we reflect this month on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and work, I’m reminded of how he called us all to join in the fight for freedom based on this same sense of interconnectivity. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” he wrote in Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”   

Solidarity was what called Dr. King to leave his church in Atlanta and lead the protests in the streets of Birmingham, despite being an “outsider” there. Solidarity was, in turn, Dr. King’s call to his fellow clergy to condemn segregation and join the civil rights movement led by Black churches. Solidarity was his call to whites to join in the resistance on behalf of their Black brothers and sisters.  

We are now living in a time that is reminiscent of the era my Jewish ancestors lived through, and that calls for acts of solidarity that Dr. King modeled and inspired. We see the same fingerprints of racism and authoritarianism soiling our democracy, where immigrants and other vulnerable populations are scapegoated, terrorized, and living in fear. We see our government implement policies and practices that erode free speech, due process, and separation of church and state. We witness our government sanction and commit violence. We read and hear the same rhetoric that dehumanizes, falsifies, and divides.  

Our solidarity- our inescapable network of mutuality, as Dr. King wrote- remains our call to action today. Like my Jewish ancestors experienced, the subjugation of a group does not happen without the consent of their neighbors. And like Dr. King preached, freedom from oppression can only be possible when “outsiders” become actors in the shared pursuit of a just world.  

Akshara, Jen, Janaa, the Board of Directors, and I have spent the winter reflecting on our own role in this era of history. We spent 2025 largely in a defensive posture- reacting to policy changes, funding freezes, and harmful rhetoric, and standing alongside our partners as they did the same.

But the wisdom gained from a year of experience calls for a new outlook, and a stronger stance.  

This year, our team is focused on amplifying our community’s voice, power, and ability to drive action towards justice. With the knowledge we’ve gained, we’re shedding our naivete about the cruel practices of the federal government. We’re entering the year clear-eyed, with pragmatism and anticipation of how authoritarianism moves and controls. We know that reactivity alone will never protect our neighbors or our democracy- it is our vocal solidarity, our willingness to be the “outsider” taking action, and our forward thinking that will preserve and protect the dreams of our ancestors and inalienable rights of our neighbors.  

For us at HealthSpark Foundation, this looks like:  

• Aligning nonprofit and community action towards immigrants' rights, focusing on meaningful, effective reforms and protections that will make a real difference in the safety and security of our immigrant neighbors. Our Immigrant Rights Action three-part series will launch in May, in collaboration with our immigrant-led nonprofit partners.

• Investing time and energy in creating positive, shared messaging on what truly ends homelessness and creates housing affordability, and tying our advocacy platform to real-life stories of people in our communities. Our Housing Justice Ecosystem Collaborative, composed of our current grantees under the Building Community Solutions Fund – Housing Justice, will ground and steer this work, with opportunities for engagement by broader partners at our Communities of Practice.

• Launching the Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund and Justice Fund in March. These grant programs have long addressed the exclusion of Black leaders, Black community-serving organizations, and other underrepresented groups, grounded in our commitment to racial and social justice. We’re excited to continue and expand this work alongside this year’s Community Action Team, recently established with volunteers who will inspire and guide us. 

• Continuing to grow our Local Impact Investing Initiative, with a commitment of $2 million – representing 5% of our endowment – by the end of 2027 into nonprofit and for-profit ventures that are fully aligned with and advance our mission and goals.

• Planning two of our signature events:

  • Network & Nurture – March 11 – Focusing on creating space for networking, connection and idea generation that advances the Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund, Justice Fund, and the Local Impact Investing Initiative.

  • Community of Practice: Building Community Solutions – April 17 – Spotlighting pressing community needs, including homelessness, the affordable housing crisis, and attacks on immigrant rights, with an emphasis on the importance of communities owning and shaping their narratives.   

Together, these initiatives represent meaningful, concrete steps – grounded in our values of courage, justice, integrity, and hope, and our commitment to building community power throughout Montgomery County. Grounded in our call for solidarity.  

Yours for the cause of Peace and Solidarity,  

Emma