Gabrielle Flaum, is a senior at Millburn High School and the Founder of S.O.S. Save Our Soldiers. She will be attending Johns Hopkins University in the fall.

In the summer of 2006 I traveled to Israel with 530 other teens on a NFTY trip. Sitting in a Bedouin Tent, my Israeli counselor informed us about the war, and told us his friend was one of the first people killed in the conflict. Immediately, I had been thrust into a world conflict without even comprehending the issue.

Continue reading "S.O.S. is not a ship’s distress call and certainly not a scouring pad." »

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It’s that time of year again, Graduation Season.  Across the country family and friends will sit in football stadiums and auditoriums as speakers both professional and student offer remarks which they hope will inspire the “next generation of leaders.”  With all of these speeches it is hard for such addresses to be original, better yet inspiring.

Yet, this past weekend I traveled to Syracuse University for the graduation of my brother (CONGRATS JACOB!) and heard a very original and yes, inspiring commencement address.

Continue reading "Graduation Inspiration: Bob Woodruff" »

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In an exciting and somewhat unusual turn of events, four of the leading progressive organizations on the national scene have teamed up to cut poverty in the United States in half within ten years. The campaign, appropriately named “Half in Ten,” is being spear-headed by the Center for American Progress (CAP), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) and is being chaired by former Senator John Edwards. At first glance, this is a motley crew.

Continue reading "Half in Ten" »

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Rabbi Elliott Kleinman is the Director of Programs for the Union for Reform Judaism.  Previously, he served as Director, North East Lakes Council of the Union.

This article appeared in today's Jerusalem Post; my dear friend Susie Weiss wrote it.  Her son Ari was killed in 2002. It is a very moving reflection on the current state of the Israeli mindset. 

Ari was an extraordinary young man who loved the country he served so well.  He was one of those young people who was mature beyond his years and kind beyond measure.  All who knew him miss him.

Continue reading "Getting Real" »

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In his terrific book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Eboo Patel talks about the major social justice movements of the recent past – the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Apartheid Movement, the Save Darfur Movement, and the anti-Vietnam War Movement. All of these, and many more, were identified in the public eye with the work of youth. The youth led the way. We are seeing a similar phenomena emerge today with our youth – the youth of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY). A few months ago, NFTY voted to have their study theme for the upcoming programmatic year be V'ahavta L'rei-acha Kamocha – Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself: NFTY Works to Open Dialogue Between Jewish and Muslim Youth. NFTYites are starting this work early, by catapulting themselves into honest and open conversations with youth of other religions to talk about their faith and how their faith motivates them to act in the world. Articulating beliefs and concepts that are hard for most adults to do much later in life, these youth are taking the first step in crossing the dividing line of religiously based mistrust and coming to understand one another as equals. In a podcast recently posted on NFTY’s website, Jessica Goodman, the President-Elect of NFTY, moderates a conversation between 8 high school students of four different faiths – Jewish, Catholic, Episcopalian, and Unificationist. The podcast, which was recorded as part of NFTY NAR’s Spring Kallah, touches on many issues, including how faith affects their views on homosexuality, abortion, tzedakah, and conversation. To listen to these conversation on NFTYCast click here.

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For the first time in my life, I agree with the National Rifle Association.

The Associated Press reports that 15 states are cracking down on fake firearms, attempting to impose restrictions on the production and possession of realistic-looking toy guns. The proposed bills are an effort to curb incidences of gun violence in which police react with a hail of gunfire directed toward individuals (oftentimes, to children) who display guns that too closely resemble the real thing.

Continue reading "Toy Guns: Regulated More Than the Real Thing?" »

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There is no question that the Jewish community has made ending the ongoing genocide in Darfur one of its most important policy priorities.  Not just here at the RAC, but throughout the Jewish community, Darfur is an issue which we work on everyday constantly looking for new ways to help bring about an end to the genocide and bring peace to the entire Sudan which is stuck in what feels more and more like a perpetual conflict.

However, it is dangerous to allow ourselves to become myopic in our human rights efforts -- to focus so much on the atrocity we know, that we forget to see the problems that we may simply be less familiar with.  For our community, the Reform Jewish community, I firmly believe one of these conflicts that is too often forgotten is the ongoing crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Continue reading "The Oft-Forgotten African Conflict: DR Congo" »

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The New York Times has a heart-wrenching, outrage-inducing story today on the opaque nature of the immigrant detention system—even after the person in custody dies. The article details how Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa suffered an unexplained brain fracture, became comatose and lay unconscious in a hospital for days before relatives were notified. “He died there four months later without ever waking up,” the reporter writes, “leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.”

Continue reading "Immigrants in Custody: Death in a Black Hole" »

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Tel Aviv officials have announced plans to construct a monument in honor of gay and lesbian Holocaust victims. The triangular monument, inscribed with victims' names, was designed by a member of the Tel Aviv Municipal City Council and will memorialize the thousands of homosexuals persecuted during the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Web site estimates that between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were imprisoned in concentration camps from 1933-1945.

Continue reading "Honoring Gay Holocaust Victims" »

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April has been an undeniably historic month for oil prices. But President Bush’s statement yesterday afternoon has me gravely concerned about the solutions to the climate and energy crises facing this nation. While our national CO2 emissions continue to skyrocket - jeopardizing the stability of oceans, weather, farm lands, and air quality - access to the fossil fuels helping perpetrate the climate crisis has become unaffordable for millions.

Continue reading "Fueling Controversy" »

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