Let Justice Roll!

By Philip Cardella 20-April-2026

Miami, FL

One of the first orders of business for me when I got off the plane after three weeks in California was to prepare for People Acting for Community Together's (PACT) biggest event of the year, the Nehemiah Action. PACT is an interfaith organization with member congregations including the oldest Jewish and Muslim houses of worship in Miami-Dade County. It is for this reason PACT chose to name its annual assembly after a scripture found in each Abrahamic faith tradition, Nehemiah. The book of Nehemiah tells the story of how a man named Nehemiah rebuilt the shattered walls of the city of Jerusalem by bringing the residents of the city together to accomplish a feat that many thought was impossible. The shared scripture, along with another scripture from the three traditions, Micah 6:8, is central to who PACT is and what unifies the member congregations of various faith traditions.

Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

From this passage comes PACT's rallying cry, "Let Justice Roll!"

The second PACT President, Fr. Jose Luis Menendez and the current PACT president, Rev. Sherlain Stevens both spoke about PACT's past in this video from the event.

People Acting for Community Together getting it done in 2026

So what great thing or things did PACT come together to accomplish in 2026?

Axios has a typically "just the facts" breakdown that came out today.

CBS Miami's Jim DeFede focused on the Nehemiah Assembly/Action in his popular Facing South Florida series:

I think its pretty cool that I was able to provide several of the clips in the video, which was produced and published by CBS Miami.

The Miami Herald's awesome Lauren Costantino was actually the first reporter to publish a story on the event.

Finally, a recap is available at WLRN. While the interview with Rev. Sherlain Stevens was conducted by reporter Joshua Ceballos, all of the content including the photos from the Nehemiah Assembly Action was provided by, well, me.

Miami leaders pledge to faith leaders more funding for mental health, boosting housing affordability

An interfaith coalition called Miami PACT pushed leaders from Miami-Dade County to pledge specific actions to tackle the needs of Miami’s low-income residents.

WLRNJoshua Ceballos

Here's the introduction to the email I sent the press after the event:

PACT's Nehemiah Assembly was a success on Monday April 13, 2026. Rabbi Jessica Jacobs of Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Florida summarized the preceding hour and a half assembly as an "inspiring evening."

She told the multi-faith congregation of approximately 800 gathered at Corpus Christi Catholic Church--a founding congregation of PACT in 1989, "What we've accomplished here tonight will greatly impact the Miami-community. You all have demonstrated that when the community shows up great things happen.

"We continue our push to keep families whole and communities representative of the people who live in them. We continue to push for the support services that Miami-Dade residents deserve. This progress would not have been possible if we didn't come together tonight and show our people power.

"Tonight, we got yeses across the board. From all in attendance with a six month edit from Commissioner Gilbert. Let Justice Roll."

At that, the PACT rallying cry, the congregation of hundreds of people from dozens of Miami-Dade Congregations including Catholic, protestant, Muslim, Jewish and universalist faith traditions, echoed the cry in a thunderous response of, "Let justice roll!"

The solutions that PACT demanded from Miami and Miami-Dade officials, Mayor Levine-Cava, Commissioner Gilbert, Commissioner Regalado included promises from the county mayor and commissioners Gilbert and Regalado and City of Miami commissioner Rosado to open and fund the Center for Mental Health and Recovery as a not-for-profit along the plan proposed by former Miami-Dade County Chief Justice Steve Leifman, lowering the way Area Median Income is calculated by the county when the county provides benefits to developers and providing a sliding scale for how those benefits are awarded based on the amount of work force housing the developer builds.

You can watch Rabbi Jacobs closing remarks in this video:

The Whole Assembly

For those who are interested, you can find my video of the entire event here.

Learn more about PACT

Want to learn more about PACT? Check out the new website that went live during the Nehemiah Action Assembly.

Miami PACT

Miami PACT

I did a lot of work for PACT because I love what PACT stands for and more importantly, I love the people in PACT. But, that means I donated countless hours to recording, editing and publishing the videos and photos from the event. If you appreciate the work, please send me a tip with the link below.

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