Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

February 8, 2010

Davos Shabbos

I must admit, I've always kind of wanted to go to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  The sessions are amazing, the location lovely, and all the coolest kids (Nicolas Sarkozy, Muhammad Yunus, Bill Clinton) are there.

I never really thought much about the Jewish side of Davos, or even that there is a Jewish side.  Perhaps that's why I enjoyed Daniel Gross' great report on a memorable Shabbat dinner at Davos. (It was published on Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life, an interesting new(ish) website where I find something interesting nearly every time I look at it.) Gross writes:

My table represented something of a cross section of Davos: the editor of Foreign Policy, two venture capitalists, a London-based executive at Google, the head of a large French industrial concern, a young management consultant. One table over was what I called the adult table--the head of one of the world's largest private equity firms, an undersecretary of state, one of the best-known Jewish philanthropists. In many ways, it was a typical Davos event--high-level chattering, the exchanging of business cards.

Read the whole piece here. Next year maybe I'll bring the challah....

Movements Collaborate to Raise Disability Awareness

JDAM logo_small.jpgShelly Christensen is the Chair of the Disability Task Force and Program Manager of the Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities, a program of the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis.

Almost nine years ago, when I began my career in the field of Jewish disability advocacy, I called a local synagogue to tell them about my program, the Minneapolis Jewish Community Program for People with Disabilities. I wanted to schedule an appointment with the rabbi to talk about my program and to discuss the kinds of challenges his congregation had. When I explained my purpose, the administrator on the other end chuckled, and said, "Well, that's wonderful, but you see, we have no people with disabilities."

Would it surprise you to learn that I am speaking next Shabbat to that congregation for Jewish Disability Awareness Month?

At some point, everyone comes to the realization that there are Jews with disabilities. It takes some longer than others, but the conditions are almost always the same: A congregant has disclosed a disability, and the congregation isn't sure how to deal with it.

But the truth is that we don't have to have all the answers, and we don't have to "fix" a situation. Somehow, we have acquired the notion that it's rude or impolite to ask the person what we could do to provide access - as if asking the person with a disability how to do that would offend them. There is the small matter of asking someone what they need; most likely, they will tell you.

Continue reading "Movements Collaborate to Raise Disability Awareness" »

Yes, It is Time to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Eger.jpg

Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood's Reform Synagogue. She is the first female president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and is also president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. This post originally appeared on her blog and is republished with permission.

Even the Washington Post is calling for the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy. In last week's op-ed section, the Post articulately urges Congress to do away with this heinous policy of expulsion of openly gay and lesbian soldiers. Put into place during the Clinton years, DADT has done tremendous harm to the armed forces, to our country's military readiness and to the almost 14,000 soldiers and sailors that have been expelled from the military.

Here our country is fighting two wars-Iraq and Afghanistan now for more than eight years! Plus there are numerous places around the globe and here at home where our service men and women are serving are country and in the interests of peace-making. (Yes, it is weirdly ironic that soldiers, trained as deadly fighters, are peace-makers). But in an all-volunteer military,14,000 highly trained soldiers and officers matter. Especially in a time of war. They were expelled because of a draconian policy that continues the uptight sexually repressed Victorian thinking of the hyper macho military-industrial complex. For 16 years this policy has destroyed lives, destroyed careers and weakened our military readiness.


Continue reading "Yes, It is Time to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"" »

Learn the Truth: New Attack on Democracy

Rarely have I been so disturbed as when I learned that my good friend Naomi Chazan, chairwoman of the New Israel Fund, had become the personal target of a hate campaign launched last week by a group called Im Tirtzu. It's important you know the truth about this organization, whose members purport to be leaders of the "second Zionist revolution", but whose main activities consist of silencing dissent and slandering someone's good character. Even the Anti Defamation League has called their work a strike against democracy.

In response to the attack against Naomi Chazan and the New Israel Fund, I wrote an open letter of support that has also been published in The Jerusalem Post.

Please read my letter below and forward it to your friends. And take some time to read through this week's articles, which tell a fascinating - albeit troubling - story.

Continue reading "Learn the Truth: New Attack on Democracy" »

February 7, 2010

"On balance, we have taken a small step backward"

Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, is a church/state lawyer's church/state lawyer. I cannot tell you how often I rely on his counsel, or how often I steal his insights (and even his jokes).  He has a great overview  of the past decade in religious liberty up on the BJC's home page, reviewing the Supreme Court's decisions in Establishment Clause and Free Exercise cases, as well as Religion in Public Life and Religious Liberty Abroad.

If only the news Brent has to report were better!  His conclusion:

In terms of religious liberty and church-state relations, however, it has been a mixed bag -- some good news, some bad. When compared to the state of religious liberty internationally, we continue to do reasonably well in the United States.

 

February 5, 2010

A Native-American Friendly Budget

BudgetLogo.jpgFollow our specially tagged blog posts throughout the week for more on how the proposed budget affects many of the priority issues for our Movement.

While Americans prepare to privatize the moon and the Department of Defense embraces vintage helicopters, many groups have reason to cheer the Obama Administration's pared down, but thoughtfully allocated budget for fiscal year 2011. Among them are Native Americans who have received increased monies toward governance, education, law enforcement and health care. 

The most promising appropriation is an additional $9 million in funding Native American schools from the elementary level through to tribal colleges and universities. This financial boost comes at a welcome time when Indian educators are pushing for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is on this year's legislative agenda. Creating high-level federal Indian education positions, fostering language and cultural learning, and increasing funding for Indian serving institutions are priorities of the National Indian Education Association, which has reached out to retiring Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to request that he focus increased energy on Indian education in his last year in Congress.

Continue reading "A Native-American Friendly Budget" »

Kudos to Yitro: Ten Interfaith Resources

Our Torah portion this week is Parshat Yitro, named for Moses' father-in-law, a man with whom the Jewish people had an exemplary interfaith relationship. In this parsha, God instructs us, "V'atem tihiyu li mamlechet cohanim v'goi kadosh - You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," (Exodus 19:6). The "You" in this verse is decidedly plural. God is not just speaking to Moses or even a select few individuals. Each and every Jew belongs to this holy nation and is a "priest," - a leader in his or her own way. 

Moses himself learns this important lesson in a governance suggestion from Yitro. In his wisdom, Yitro recognized that Moses would not be able to endure as the leader of the Jewish people if he continued to be the sole arbiter of each and every dispute that arose in the community.

Continue reading "Kudos to Yitro: Ten Interfaith Resources" »

O'Connor on Indpendence

courtdaylogo.pngFormer Supreme Court Justice O'Connor has made headlines in the past week in the wake of the Citizens United campaign finance case. Her comments are notable both because the recent ruling overturned a decision in favor of imposing limits on corporate spending for which O'Connor was a key vote just a few years ago and because the decision has a direct impact on the major cause that she champions-- judicial independence.

Continue reading "O'Connor on Indpendence" »

February 4, 2010

Human Trafficking in Post-Earthquake Haiti

As aid flows to the victims of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti, we cannot forget that those suffering the effects of this disaster will not be affected equally. Some will be shaken from lives of prosperity into poverty; others, those already vulnerable in this poorest of western hemisphere nations, will face some of the worst and most desperate circumstances in the world.

Circumstances such as these directly enable trafficking in persons - modern slavery. After the 2004 tsunami which wreaked terrible devastation across coastal Southeast Asia, human trafficking rates spiked in Sri Lanka and Indonesia (see page 18), with women and orphans in particular at the highest risk for being kidnapped or coerced into slavery. Southeast Asia's human trafficking rates dropped only when the Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Indian and Thai governments created information campaigns and worked to step up enforcement and prosecution.

Continue reading "Human Trafficking in Post-Earthquake Haiti" »

A Budget for All Climates

BudgetLogo.jpgFollow our specially tagged blog posts throughout the week for more on how the proposed budget affects many of the priority issues for our Movement.

The Obama Administration published its Fiscal Year 2011 budget request on Monday (hard to believe it's already time for the 2011 budget process to begin, I know!), and everyone is asking if the President is putting his money where his mouth is on key issues like health care, national security, and economic justice. When it comes to energy and the environment, the budget sends a clear, moral message: we must remain dedicated to developing a clean energy economy at home and honoring our commitment to lead the global fight against climate change.

The Administration's "whole of government" approach to addressing climate and energy - with efforts at agencies from the Department of Energy to US AID - echoes a belief that we in the Reform Movement share: the budget is fundamentally a moral document that outlines our priorities and our aspirations as a nation.

Continue reading "A Budget for All Climates" »