Staff
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Executive Director
Rabbi Jonathan Klein proudly serves as the Executive Director at CLUE-LA. Prior to his ordination in 1997 from Hebrew Union College, Jonathan served congregations in Flagstaff, Arizona and Rye, New York. Upon receiving his rabbinical degree, he served three years as Director of KESHER, the Reform Movement’s College Department and then eight years as the Allen and Ruth Ziegler Rabbinic Director of USC Hillel, in Los Angeles. He is a songleader, music enthusiast, and lover of Jewish mysticism. An ardent environmentalist, he promotes sustainability with his communal involvements as a member of the board of the Coalition on the Environment in Jewish Life (COEJL-SC), as a member of the Environmental Commission of Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass’ district, and by serving on the Environmental Initiatives Committee of the Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, and on the executive boards of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and Jews Against the War.
Prior to his role at CLUE-LA, Rabbi Klein served as the Development Director for Progressive Jewish Alliance, a result of his involvement as a lay leader there on its Economic Justice Working Group Steering Committee and as a member of its Los Angeles Regional Council. Prior to fundraising work, he is particularly proud of and nostalgic for his first job in the organization
as a Community Organizer!
Rabbi Klein is the proud father of thirteen year-old son, Rachmiel, eleven year-old daughter, Kinneret, and six year-old daughter, Zimra.
Pastor Bridie Roberts
Program Director
Pastor Bridie C. Roberts has been an activist and organizer for many years. Formerly she served as the Pastor of Pico Union Shalom Ministries, a progressive Shalom Zone Ministry of the United Methodist Church serving the heart of the inner city of Los Angeles in Pico Union. Under her leadership, this Spanish speaking/bilingual ministry focused on neighborhood peace building, free community education programs. It also worked on community organizing, homeless immigrant outreach, and the completion of a substantial affordable housing project for the neighborhood.
For the past eight years Ms. Roberts has also served with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles. Her work has included clergy organizing on multiple campaigns, the development and leadership of the Young Religious Leaders Project, and acting as Senior Organizer for the CLUE LA. She currently serves full time as Program Director. Recently, Ms. Roberts was honored to be chosen to participate in an interfaith study tour and delegation to Egypt and Syria in a program coordinated by the National Peace Organization and ISSNA, and funded by the State Department. It was a joy to take CLUE’s message of community organizing and concern for workers to the global community. Previously Ms. Roberts has worked as a community organizer around affordable housing issues, grass roots urban planning and community greening, and community poverty issues in New York City, NY, Seattle, Washington, and Des Moines, IA. Originally from Miami, Florida, Bridie has lived in many places in the US, and attended college at Grinnell College, in Grinnell, IA, graduating with a BA in Political Science. In 2006 Ms. Roberts graduated from the Claremont School of Theology with a Masters of Divinity, emphasis in Urban Ministries. She has studied and traveled in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. Pastor Roberts is currently affiliated with Hollywood United Methodist Church, where she serves as Ministerial Candidate.
Nicole Brown
Office Manager
Nicole is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico, but moved to Los Angeles when she was 18, to pursue a life outside what she had always known. Over the past ten years she has worked with UNITE HERE Local 11 & LAANE but has spent most of her time working for CLUE CA or CLUE LA as an Office Manager/Bookkeeper. She enjoys that her talents as an administrator can be put to use in such a good way. She is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
Elizabeth Russell
Organizer
Elizabeth has spent the last thirteen years working in education, devoted to all students’ fair access to education. She began as a special education teacher, but taught for the last four years Art History at the college level. Elizabeth received an MA in Art History and Gender Studies in 2008 and has used the object of art as a basis for understanding social injustice. Her work at CLUE LA allows her to take her belief of justice for all beyond the classroom into the community she inhabits and loves. She believes that the united struggle for social transformation – economic, racial, and otherwise – starts locally and reverberates outward to the global community. Additionally, Elizabeth believes that faith communities are uniquely situated as they speak from a place of ancient tradition rather than current political trends. This appeals to her because it moves away from a simplistic fight over American politics and shifts the debate to one about human dignity and worth.
Guillermo Torres
Organizer
Guillermo works at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with CLUE-LA’s clergy committees in the San Pedro, Wilmington, and Long Beach committees. Guillermo was CLUE-LA’s organizer during the living wage campaign in Long Beach, and continues to organize with hotel worker, ports truck drivers, and local clergy. After years as a Teamster, local businessman, and immigration rights activist, Guillermo comes to CLUE with a wealth of experience and a heart for the various communities we work in and with.
Christopher French
Organizer
Christopher recently completed his BA in Education and is now currently attending Claremont Lincoln for an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies looking at the intersection of Religion and Politics in social movements. He previously worked with Greenpeace for their global warming campaign and other issues around environmental justice. He was also a hotel front desk worker and a member of UNITE HERE Local 2 in the Bay Area. Christopher understands economic justice and his work at CLUE LA as integral to understanding his faith in praxis. When not working at CLUE LA and not in school-which is rare; he draws, paints, and watches too many movies.
David Mattis
Organizer
David came on board as CLUE LA’s faith-rooted organizer for West LA in November 2012. He has broad experience having been a student of Chinese, English teacher for immigrants, manager of screenwriters, and rabbinical student. One thread throughout has been language and communication. This is vital in organizing in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Los Angeles. Furthermore, workers’ and immigrants’ voices are often silenced; matching them to community members and leaders thereby enabling them to communicate can be a great support for building a fairer society.
A passion of his is interfaith dialogue and action having participated in InterSem, which brings together Jewish and Christian seminarians of many denominations, and NewGround: A Jewish-Muslim Partnership for Change, which brings together Jewish and Muslim young professionals for dialogue and community volunteering.
Born and raised in NY, David made his home in LA eight years ago and hasn’t looked back. The vast and variegated landscape of LA provides a wide array of challenges and opportunities, which certainly keeps life interesting.
Samuel Sukaton
Communications
Sam joined CLUE LA in August 2012 after a summer fellowship with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. He grew up in San Bernardino, CA and graduated from UCLA in 2011. After college, Sam performed civil disobedience at an Occupy encampment, organized unions with caregivers and public servants, built a digital media archive for a local healthcare workers’ union, and worked with youth in Chinatown and Lincoln Heights for community development and against Walmart’s entry into Chinatown. He writes CLUE-LA’s e-mails, manages this website, and tweets at @clueLA.
Off the clock, Sam tweets @spsook, organizes trade unionists for healthcare reform, plays saxophone, studies California history, and reads while riding public transit. You can usually find him on a bus somewhere.
[...] Rabbi Jonathan Klein proudly serves as the Executive Director at CLUE-LA (Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles). Prior to his ordination in 1997 from Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Klein served congregations in Flagstaff, Arizona and Rye, New York. Upon receiving his rabbinical degree, he served three years as Director of KESHER, the Reform Jewish Movement’s college outreach program and then eight years as the Allen and Ruth Ziegler Rabbinic Director of USC Hillel at the University of Southern California. After deep soul-searching and refllecting upon his experiences of bussing and memories of his family’s financial struggle, Rabbi Klein decided to unite the disparate experiences of his ILGWU-shop steward-grandmother Sophie Klein and his cantorial multigenerational ancestry into his work as a religious community organizer with CLUE-LA. [...]