This week I had the unexpected luck to be present for the unveiling of the "Future of Global Warming Legislation."  This was the title of an event hosted by the Center for American Progress in which Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, was the featured guest.  I went into the event under the impression that the congressman would have a variety of inspiring remarks relating to the impending votes on a landmark climate bill in the Senate and the scenarios for complementary House action. Instead, to my euphoric surprise, the Congressman introduced his own climate legislation that will indeed (out of necessity) be the future of America's climate and energy revolution.

Rep. Markey's bill, the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act, creatively branded as "iCAP" (the congressman is a big fan of technology in addition to fixing global warming), will reduce carbon emissions nationwide by 85% by 2050 and invest all self generated revenue from the bill in clean energy technologies and energy assistance for American citizens making less than $110,000.  This bill is truly revolutionary in that it actually meets the scientific need to reduce U.S. carbon emissions 80% and that it unapologetically punishes polluters by requiring them to pay for their wanton carbon dioxide emissions - no excuses.  Finally, a substantive bill that gets it!!!

With a bill like this - a bill that pushes the envelope of political possibilities - you would think it would be the talk of the town, right? Well oddly enough, with limited news coverage it appears that Rep. Markey's bill may be Too Hot to Touch, as CBS News put it.  Even the nation's leading environmental organizations, while they welcome this bill, seem to show hesitant enthusiasm for the legislation.

 

Monday evening the Senate will begin debates on America's Climate Security Act - a bill that will cap carbon emissions by 65%.  While I have lovingly supported this bill by reassuring myself that, "we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good," I am beginning to wonder if the reason for this statement was not due to the absence of the perfect bill but is instead because of the fear of revolutionary perfection too often cultivated in DC...

 

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As college graduates wrap up their celebrations, somewhere between packing boxes and popping champagne corks, many will also pause to consider the world into which they now venture. There will be those who view our country's status quo with consternation and others with worry, some with bright-eyed wonder and others with deep cynicism. But inevitably, all will have heard at least one speech over the course of numerous ceremonies that offers advice, and if they are really lucky, a nugget of worthy wisdom as well.
As graduates, with open possibilities and the responsibility of "running the world" looming on the horizon, it is valuable to recognize good guidance and to internalize it for the journey ahead. Though many keynote speakers at colleges and universities across the country and world no doubt delivered excellent addresses, those at the University of Pennsylvania's convocation were gifted by a particularly thoughtful and funny Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (of New York City). His commencement address spoke of leadership, a commitment to civic engagement and succeeding in making a difference. Recent graduate or not, it's worth a read as a reminder of the triumph that honor, dedication and innovation can bring.

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Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain are hard at work emphasizing the differences between and among themselves.  That, I suppose, is how it should be in a campaign. The focus on differences makes the "uncommon" (their word) joint statement they issued this week on Sudan all the more remarkable.
Here's the key paragraph:
 

... we wish to make clear to the Sudanese government that on this moral issue of tremendous importance, there is no divide between us. We stand united and demand that the genocide and violence in Darfur be brought to an end and that the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] be fully implemented. Even as we campaign for the presidency, we will use our standing as Senators to press for the steps needed to ensure that the United States honors, in practice and in deed, its commitment to the cause of peace and protection of Darfur's innocent citizenry. We will continue to keep a close watch on events in Sudan and speak out for its marginalized peoples. It would be a huge mistake for the Khartoum regime to think that it will benefit by running out the clock on the Bush Administration. If peace and security for the people of Sudan are not in place when one of us is inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009, we pledge that the next Administration will pursue these goals with unstinting resolve.

 

Our friends at the Save Darfur Coalition have put together a terrific on-line mechanism to send a "thank you" note to the three candidates. 

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Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman is Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester.

The Chappaqua Interfaith Council has always been a diverse group. Chaired by my senior rabbi, Rabbi Joshua Davidson, we have not only Protestants and Catholics, but Baha'i, Quakers, and Muslims, as well. With Rabbi Yoffie emphasizing Jewish-Muslim dialogue in his Biennial Address, and with Rabbi Davidson's relationship with the Upper Westchester Muslim Society, this year felt like a perfect time to bring Temple Beth El and the Upper Westchester Muslim Society together to begin some discussions.
On Tuesday, May 20, we had our first session. The dialogue was scheduled to begin at 8 PM, but before we could begin talking, one of the Muslim participants told us that at 8:10, it would be time for evening prayer. He wondered if there was a space they could use, and Rabbi Davidson realized this was an opportunity for us not just to talk about different faith traditions, but for members of Temple Beth El to see first-hand what another tradition's prayers might look like.

Just to make sure the Muslim participants would feel comfortable, he asked if it would be appropriate for us to watch the evening prayer. When the answer was, "Sure, that's fine," Rabbi Davidson smiled and made a rather unique suggestion: "How about you pray where we pray. Would you like to use the bimah?"

And so with the congregants and clergy of Temple Beth El sitting in the pews, six members of the Upper Westchester Muslim Society spread out their mat, turned northeast towards Mecca, knelt down and proclaimed, "Allah Hu Akbar." For fifteen minutes, we were transfixed as Arabic was chanted in front of both the Israeli flag and our ark, which has in Hebrew the words "Beit Ya'akov, l'chu v'neilchah b'or Adonai" - "O House of Jacob, come let us walk by the light of Adonai."

It was both surreal and inspiring at the same time, and yet it also felt like a way for us to live out the words inscribed on our ark doors - with one small change. It was no longer Beit Ya'akov - it was Beit Avraham. And as our Muslim friends proclaimed God's greatness, we could see a glimpse of the light of God, shining the way for us to walk together on the journey to a kinder and more just world.

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Rabbi Barry Block is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth El in San Antonio, TX.

Most things are not as simple as they seem.

In recent months, leadership of the American Jewish community was engaged in concerns about the United Methodist Church.  Often the matter was reduced to sound bytes.  “The Methodist Church is anti-Israel.”  “Here comes one more Mainline Protestant Church, a group of self-righteous liberals, using Israel as an excuse to be anti-Semitic.”  


These pithy statements were not only overly simplistic; they were false.  In the end, the United Methodist Church proved itself to be the fair-minded friend of the Jewish people that it has been for decades.  But telling the story will take a while.  Like most important things, it’s not as simple as it seems.  

It all started early this year, when one group of the Church published a very biased anti-Israel tract.  The United Methodist Church is a large and complex organization.  It has many arms that act rather autonomously.  Just because one United Methodist group does or says one thing does not mean that every Methodist Church, each Methodist individual, or the Church as an overall organization, agrees.  

The group in question is the Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries.  Funded by United Methodist Women in churches around the world, the Women’s Division possesses significant resources.  It is also seen by some Methodists as a far-left renegade.  Most United Methodist Women in local churches have no idea what is being done in their name and with their money.

The so-called “Mission Study” published by the Women’s Division called the establishment of the State of Israel the “original sin,” leading to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  It calls Israelis “terrorists,” and compares then to Nazis, even branding David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, as an “extremist,” rather ironic considering that Ben-Gurion was a socialist!  

No question about it:  The Women’s Division “Mission Study” drips with anti-Semitism, in the name of concern for the Palestinian people.

Word about the “Mission Study” began to get around, even more so when the American Jewish community learned that the Church as a whole would consider divestment from companies doing business in Israel.  Such an action, taken a few years ago by the Presbyterian Church (USA), and then rescinded, likens Israel to apartheid South Africa or to Sudan in its ethnic cleansing of Darfur.  The Jewish community began to mobilize.

When I first read about the concern, I was skeptical.  For almost a decade, I have been deeply involved in Methodist organizations in south Texas.  No organization does more good in our part of the state than Methodist Healthcare Ministries, even though few in our community know anything about it except for its half ownership of the Methodist Healthcare System.  Not long ago, a person hearing me introduced on a panel, with a bio listing all the Methodist Healthcare boards on which I serve, was moved to asked, “Is the Rabbi a Methodist?”  When it comes to health care, I’m a devout Methodist.

My contacts with Methodists, including our wonderful Bishop here in south Texas, Joel Martinez, led me to believe that the Church as a whole would not likely take strident anti-Israel action.  My Methodist friends have shared with me texts, including “Building Bridges.”  That magnificent document, adopted in the late 1990s, goes farther than any other church’s statement on Christian-Jewish relations.  The Methodist Church affirms that Jews have a permanent covenant with God.  It acknowledges the long and painful history of Christian anti-Semitism, including shared culpability for the Holocaust.  And the Methodist Church celebrates the Jewish State of Israel.

This Church would not, I believed, adopt the anti-Israel position for which some folks hoped.

Basically, anti-Israel forces that favor divestment as a strategy were ultimately beaten back by the Presbyterians, and then a variety of other churches have found ways to avoid major confrontations.  The Methodist Church offered seemingly fertile ground, only because it is so democratic.  Any Sunday School class, indeed any Methodist individual, can offer a resolution for consideration by the Church’s General Conference, which meets every four years.  The rubber would meet the road in Fort Worth, in ten days in April.

The Jewish community was ready.  The Jewish Council on Public Affairs, or JCPA, which is the umbrella organization for Community Relations Councils in San Antonio and elsewhere, took the lead, with the arms of Reform Judaism and the American Jewish Committee quite involved.  Rabbis and lay people across the country spoke one on one with delegates to the General Conference.

In San Antonio, we are blessed.  A man by the name of Byrd Bonner, a long-time friend of Rabbi Stahl’s and of our congregation’s, is a significant national leader of the Methodist Church.  He headed the panel that considered and utterly rejected each anti-Israel divestment resolution, keeping in touch with me and with JCPA throughout the Conference.  While parliamentary maneuvers were attempted within the Conference as a whole, Byrd Bonner and others managed to muster more than 90% of delegates to reject this anti-Israel strategy.  Despite the contemptible “Mission Study” from the Women’s Division, the United Methodist Church proved that it’s the furthest thing from an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Church.

I should emphasize that, while the Jewish community was mobilized, Methodists took the lead.  We are so proud of Byrd Bonner here in San Antonio, but he was not alone.  Christians for Fair Witness in the Middle East – an organization that shares our concerns for a safe and secure Israel, and also for the welfare of the Palestinian people – played an important role.  

Even more significantly, a major arm of the United Methodist Church, its General Board of Christian Unity and Interfaith Relations, took very positive steps in interfaith dialogue, entirely independent of the Israel matters.  At that group’s behest, the General Conference adopted a resolution calling for heightened awareness of the Holocaust and of Yom HaShoah, our Holocaust remembrance day.  The Conference also adopted a resolution specifically rejecting the notion of targeting Jews for conversion.  Indeed, the United Methodist Church is most friendly to Judaism and the Jewish people.

Like most relationships, ours with the United Methodist Church is not without its challenges.  That nefarious “Mission Study” is still out there.  Methodists and others do offer more fair analyses of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we can and will work to see that Methodist churches use those for teaching instead of the Women’s Division tract.  Also, in the final hours of the Conference, one highly problematic resolution about Israel was adopted.  Though the resolution lacks the force of something like divestment, it does unjustly blame Israel alone for the current situation.

The United Methodist Church, like most organisms, is made up of many parts, and it’s complicated, even to insiders.  Some arms of that Church, like any organization, may do some things we don’t like.  But who among us has any friend with whom we have never disagreed?  How many married people or others in long-term, loving relationships have partners who have disappointed them? You may be flawless in your grandparents’ eyes, but probably not in the sight of your parents, as much as they love you.

Most things in life are not as simple as they seem.  The relationship between the Jewish community and the United Methodist Church can be complicated at times.  And yet, events of recent months have permitted me and others to see that bond tested.  I am pleased to report:  When it comes to the Jewish people and the people of the United Methodist Church, the state of the union is strong.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled this week on a case that could give money a makeover. In American Council of the Blind v Paulson, the court ruled that United States’ paper currency is inherently discriminatory to the blind and those with impaired vision because all bills are the same size, regardless of value.

I, for one, will be the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of change (pun intended). But reading the stories of blind people who’ve been cheated or ripped off by cashiers who take advantage of their lack of sight – and of our homogenous currency – I’ll happily herald the court’s decision as a huge step in the right direction toward accommodating individuals with disabilities.

What will this mean for our wallets? Not sure yet. The Treasury Department is examining ways to differentiate denominations, whether by color, texture, size or shape, but it could be awhile before any concrete changes hit the mint.

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Just this afternoon, Huffington Post sleuth Sam Stein found audio footage of Pastor John Hagee describing the Holocaust as part of God's Plan for Israel and the Jews. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who had previously called for groups to stop working with the controversial pastor and zealous "supporter" of Israel today issued an open letter to Pastor Hagee asking for an explanation of these reported remarks. Read the entire letter after the jump.

Rabbi Yoffie's letter is below.  Pastor Hagee's staff, according to the Huffington Post has confirmed the remarks are accurate.  I think the line Hagee has that is most inflammatory is: "Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." 

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Dear Pastor Hagee,

I have received questions from many of my members who have read recent articles (The Huffington Post, IsraelENews, Talk2Action) about themes in your speeches and writings.  You have been quoted as suggesting that the Holocaust was part of God’s plan to force the Jews to go to Israel and that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by defying Herzl’s Zionist dream to have all Jews go to and settle in the land of Israel. 

I am deeply troubled by these quotations.  The Holocaust was the work of a deranged, bigoted, and anti-Semitic figure supported by a racist government.   To suggest otherwise is surely an affront to the 11 million individuals, 6 million of whom were Jews, who lost their lives in the ashes of what is unquestionably the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century.  To blame the victims for the Holocaust and to suggest that they brought it on themselves is a desecration of their name and their memory, and an insult to the survivors and their descendents who thankfully remain in our midst today.

I am aware of the work that you have done on behalf of the State of Israel, and for that reason I find your remarks especially troubling.  Please help me explain to the members of my movement the statements attributed to you.  Are these sentiments representative of your current feelings and perceptions of the Jewish people and the people of Israel?  Were they at one time representative?  Have you in some way been grossly misquoted?  Are these views which you have now repudiated?

As a Pastor to one of our nation’s largest churches, your influence is widely felt and your model of leadership is surely one that will influence many Americans.  I hope that you agree with me that justifying the Holocaust or blaming it on the Jews is anathema to all who repudiate group defamation and cherish tolerance and respect.  I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

/s/

Rabbi Eric Yoffie

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Sheldon Laskin is a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Baltimore, Maryland. He organized the temple's recent public discussion on rising global health concerns as a result of climate change. 

The BHC Green Team sponsored a public forum on “Global Climate Change: Public Health and Public Ethics” at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation on May 17, 2008 . Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH and Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin addressed over 100 people, including Delegates Dan Morhaim, MD and Dana Stein, following Shabbat Shelanu services. Dr. Patz is Professor of Environmental Studies & Population Health Sciences and Director of Global Environmental Health at the University of Wisconsin in Madison .  As a lead author for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Patz’ work contributed to the IPCC’s receipt of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with former Vice President Al Gore. Rabbi Cardin is the General Consultant for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) – a member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment – and Director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network (BJEN) at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Owings Mills, MD, which is dedicated to promoting environmental advocacy, ethics and behavior.

Dr. Patz spoke of the ethics of global climate change. He pointed out that the ethical issue has three aspects. The first is the ethics of humans adversely affecting other species through excess carbon , such as the threat to polar bear habitat due to global warming. The second aspect is the disparate health effects of global climate change throughout the world – the wealthy industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere produce vastly more carbon emissions than the much poorer Southern Hemisphere, yet it is the populations of the Southern Hemisphere that bear most of the health effects of increased carbon-related insect borne diseases such as malaria and carbon-related water runoff diarrheal diseases such as cholera. Over the past century, the United States has been by far the number one carbon emitter in the world. Although China recently surpassed this country as the leading annual carbon producer, the United States will continue to have the greatest cumulative impact on climate change for many years. The final aspect of climate change ethics is the vastly disproportionate effect on the health of children, who are not responsible for the decisions that cause excess carbon . For more information on Ecology and Public Health check out Dr. Patz's recent publication.

Rabbi Cardin spoke of the primacy of man’s role in the world as a steward of the Earth. She pointed out that this week’s Torah portion, Behar, Leviticus 25:1-26:2, mandates that the Jews are to leave their fields fallow every seven years, in order to allow the Land to rest in the sabbatical year, just as we are mandated to rest and reflect every Shabbat. The parshat reminds us that we are to respect the Land and not to take from it more than we require. The sabbatical year is a reminder that the Earth is Holy and that Man only exercises stewardship over the Land, not ownership. For more information on Jewish environmentalism visit COEJL's website.

The BHC Green Team is a group of Baltimore Hebrew congregants committed to making their household lives more environmentally friendly as part of the Congregation’s green initiative. To join the Green Team, a congregant must commit to at least three environmental actions on a regular basis, preferably one of which s/he has never done before.

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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.

With changes to the itinerary our trip continued and while sitting on a grassy spot near Jerusalem, the same counselor whose friend was killed, told us he needed to go to the reserves, and within an hour he went to serve in the war. I have never been confronted with this kind of fear; my new Israeli friend was about to be fighting a war. My experience made me realize how precious life is.

When I returned home I knew that I could not let the image of my counselor going to war, the image of new graves in Mount Hertzel cemetery, and the weeping of my Israeli friends when their town was hit by Kaytusha rockets go unnoticed.

This is why I formed S.O.S. Save Our Soldiers. S.O.S. is a teen group to advocate for and secure the release of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit.  This international youth movement also is dedicated to secure the return of five other Israeli MIA’s.  

In the past 16 months, S.O.S. has made incredible strides in hopes of freeing these soldiers.
We decided that our first course of action would be an attempt to pass a Resolution in the New Jersey State Legislature. We began contacting several members of the legislature in order to get their support.
In May 2007 on behalf of S.O.S. I testified in the both the Assembly and Senate. I urged my representatives to pass a resolution calling for the release of the soldiers mirroring U.N. Security Counsel Resolution 1701, which requires Hezbollah and Hamas to free the soldiers.

The week before I testified I had the privilege of meeting with Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of one of the soldiers. In my testimony I told our representatives her story and her unrelenting effort to free her husband and his comrades. Karnit’s, words served as a motivating force in all of our efforts. Her passion for freeing her husband made me understand the importance of S.O.S’s campaign. With her determination in mind I asked my representatives, representatives of the most powerful democratic country in the world to help me stand up for social justice and let the terrorists know that this abduction is wrong.

As a result of our efforts, the resolution was passed in June 2007 and New Jersey became the first state in what we hope will become a national plea, to bring these soldiers home.

On July 16, 2007 at the Free the Soldiers Rally in Dag Hammarksjold Plaza across from the United Nations I stood before 10,000 people shouting: “Free Them Now.”  I was on the podium standing beside Elie Wiesel, Karnit, Senator Tom Kean Jr., and other world leaders.  On behalf of S.O.S and all people supporting this cause, I read the petition addressed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon demanding that the U.N. implement Security Counsel Resolution 1701 to free the soldiers.

All I could see were the words of the petition and the smiling faces of my friends proud of what we were doing. I knew that together we could change the world. At this point I realized what S.O.S. was all about, building relationships, networks of advocacy and an unending commitment by my generation to accelerate peace in the Middle East.  

NFTY has launched an S.O.S. resource center on their national website. The message on the website continues to spread the support for the cause and encourages teens in North America to join with S.O.S. to advocate for the release of the soldiers.

One of the initiatives on the NFTY website is the empty chair campaign. I would like to thank our synagogue for being part of the many synagogues who, over the year, talked about the plight of the soldiers and participated in the Empty Chair Campaign.

Over the summer I was a counselor at Eisner Camp. S.O.S. was embraced by the camp community.  Eisner sent over 100 campers and staff to the rally, Eisner had services honoring the soldiers and Eisner’s international staff joined all our efforts.

Since the summer, S.O.S. has continued as an active advocacy group, from speaking across from the UN again in October, to lobbying our congressman on capital hill, to being active leaders in the Metrowest community, and serving as a role model to hundreds of Jewish teens and adults.

This project has given me and all of S.O.S.’s members a chance to stand up for justice, to stand up for what we believe in, and not be a silent generation.
 
Currently in Israel Kassan rockets, like those that I witnessed in the summer of 2006 are being launched into Sderot daily. Recently S.O.S. had the privilege to hosting a community meeting to learn from two survivors of these attacks. I am confused and deeply saddened to hear about what is happening in Sderot but also I am frustrated – how can this continue to happen to our people? I am a student of the Holocaust, my history is made up of survivors.  I am a student of Darfur, of Cambodia and Somalia – yet this is my fight.  I care about all people who are being murdered and being terrorized.  But I must stand up for my people.

It is an honor to be here tonight and share with my congregation the impact that Israel has had on my life. It has ignited in me a passion for Israel, a passion for social justice and most importantly a passion for the FREEDOM OF ALL PEOPLE!

"To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God," the late Union of the Reform Movement Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath observed: "To do justly, comes first."

These eight soldiers represent three sons, eight brothers, eight friends, but to me they also represent all people who are being held captive in the world.
 
S.O.S. is my distress call to the world, together we CAN FREE THEM NOW!!

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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.

In his speech Bob Woodruff, an ABC News anchor who was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq, did not focus just on motivational advice because, he joked, he didn’t remember the speech given by Ted Koppel at his graduation twenty-five years earlier.  Woodruff also took the time in his speech to connect his personal story to a major political issue of our day in a non-partisan way.  Specifically, he discussed the war in Iraq reminding the students that regardless of how they felt about the war – they needed to make sure that our veterans are treated with respect when they return.  On the eve of Congress considering continued war funding, Woodruff bravely reminded us,

“In this war it is not clear how many are injured. Mine was obvious, but others are not. A recent report by Rand Corporation found that more than 300,000 soldiers are suffering from some kind of brain injury. That includes physical injuries or mental stress from combat. Some of them have obvious wounds; scars that mark them as brain injured, but others are more hidden from the outside, in a way, invisible.

As you probably know most of these soldiers are around your age. They wake up every day wondering if this is going to be the day they get hit by a sniper bullet or stumble on an IED [improvised explosive device] in the dirt on the side of the road or under the body of a dead dog.

Whether you are for or against this war, on the right or on the left, this is not a political issue. I believe that veterans deserve to be treated with dignity when they return home. It is simply the right thing to do.”

I hope that the graduates took to heart Woodruff’s advice to “seize it, suck it up, [and] go after your dreams,” but more importantly I hope that the 20,000 people sitting in the Carrier Dome on Sunday are inspired by his message that protecting veterans must be a renewed priority. 

 

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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.

These four organizations, while all well known and progressive, usually do quite different work. CAP is primarily a think-tank and producer of policy papers; LCCR is a coalition of organizations (including the URJ) that works to protect people’s civil rights; ACORN does community-organizing, usually at the local level; and CHN is a loose coalition of organizations (including the RAC) that promote policies at the federal level to help low-income Americans.

That these organizations have come together says something about the changing dynamic of the progressive movement. It shows that the gears are finally churning in unison. Look at the goals of the campaign:

(1) Elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today

(2) Build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility

(3) Advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families

Educate people by putting the issue in the spotlight; build a grassroots movement of people now knowledgeable and committed to the campaign; use this people-powered movement to push for legislation that will cut poverty in half in ten years. Together, these four organizations bring to the table the different qualities necessary to make this campaign work.

Now what would this legislation look like? Is there public policy that actually could cut poverty in half within ten years?

CAP thinks so. They produced a report last year called “From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half.”

The 12 key steps of their plan (omitting the details of each, which are in the report):

1. Raise and index the minimum wage to half the average hourly wage.

2. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

3. Promote unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.

4. Guarantee child care assistance to low-income families and promote early education for all.

5. Create 2 million new “opportunity” housing vouchers, and promote equitable development in and around central cities.

6. Connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth with school and work.

7. Simplify and expand Pell Grants and make higher education accessible to residents of each state.

8. Help former prisoners find stable employment and reintegrate into their communities.

9. Ensure equity for low-wage workers in the Unemployment Insurance system.

10. Modernize means-tested benefits programs to develop a coordinated system that helps workers and families.

11. Reduce the high costs of being poor and increase access to financial services.

12. Expand and simplify the Saver’s Credit to encourage saving for education, homeownership, and retirement.

One aspect of the Half in Ten campaign may give one pause, however: its chairman. As the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in 2004 and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, John Edwards is by no means a non-partisan actor. In many ways, he is a great pick. He made poverty the centerpiece of his 2008 campaign (and somewhat less so in his 2004 run); between campaigns, he headed the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Regardless of the accusations of hypocrisy that he faced in his 2008 run, the man is clearly associated with the cause of ending poverty. Finally, he’s got name recognition. But he is a Democrat through and through, which hurts the non-partisan credibility of the campaign. That said, CAP is also strongly associated with the Democratic Party and no one would accuse the other organizations of being bastions of conservatism, so perhaps it does not matter.

What does matter is that this campaign is a-brewing. Hopefully in ten years poverty will be cut in half. And then a new campaign can begin to cut poverty in half. And then another. And another…

If you want to get involved, sign up to get email updates from the campaign; if your congregation wants to get involved, contact one of the organizations leading the campaign, or the RAC—we’ll be keeping an eye on this.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

But this weekend a 5-year-old Indiana boy shot and killed his 4-year-old sister with a semiautomatic handgun that was the real thing; no fake-gun law in the country will address that.

So where does the NRA come in? Typically in opposition to all forms of gun control, the country’s leading gun lobby spoke out against bills that address toy guns, citing their failure to significantly address gun violence: “It doesn't deal with issues of crime,” says NRA spokesman Ashley Varner. “It won't eradicate the human element of the crime. It doesn’t target getting criminals off the street.”

Let’s be clear: the NRA doesn’t support anti-toy gun legislation or any other gun control legislation; I, unlike the NRA, support both. But Varner got it right when she said that outlawing toy guns won’t do nearly enough to solve this country’s larger problems of gun violence or to significantly relieve our soaring rates of gun-related deaths (30,000 per year, in case you were curious). Banning toy guns will target a tiny percentage of the problem, but it won’t address real weapons in the hands of children or dangerous criminals. What would do that? For starters: banning assault weapons, increasing firearms traceability, prohibiting unregulated gun show sales and strengthening the National Instant Check System.

Bottom line? I’m interested in saving as many lives as possible, and all the anti-toy gun legislation in the world isn’t going to do that if we don’t pass anti-real gun legislation, too.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

As a word of background, the DR Congo is a massive country which borders other conflict stricken countries such as Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda.  Since 1996, according to the ENOUGH Project, a leading advocacy organization which works on African conflict headed by John Prendergast, “more than 4 million people have died from the ravaging effects of war and its aftermath.”  The Economist this week tells of the equally shocking fact in an article titled “Atrocities Beyond Words” that there were 4,500 documented cases of sexual violence in the first six months of 2007 in the South Kivu region alone, and experts believe that as many as ten or twenty times that many have gone unreported.  In other words, in six months in one region of the country their easily could have been between 45,000 and 90,000 individual acts of sexual violence.

Like with the conflict in Darfur, asking the question of what the United States can actually do in the region is a difficult and complex one.  It is certainly important for the United States to support the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC), the largest peacekeeping force in the world, but it is also important that we support both local and international means to bring to justice the perpetrators of these killings and systematic rape.  But, before we can begin to engage in advocacy we must commit to educating Americans, and in particular those who have already become familiar with the atrocities in Darfur, about other conflicts in Africa.  People who know about these conflicts want to help – but in the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo too few people even know that problems exist.

Let me be clear: I am not advocating that we choose to work on issues in the DR Congo over Darfur.  Our advocacy to help the troubled people of the world should never be an either/or choice.  Quite to the contrary, our advocacy is incomplete if it is not focused on comprehensive solutions to regional problems.  I just hope that we can avoid the temptation to look at problems narrowly as opposed to using the extended grassroots base we have created around Darfur to help those who need it the most – in this case the people of the Congo.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.”

The Times notes that the questions surrounding immigrant deaths in detention far exceed those of other types of imprisonment:

“Death is a reality in any jail, and the medical neglect of inmates is a perennial issue. But far more than in the criminal justice system, immigration detainees and their families lack basic ways to get answers when things go wrong.

No government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance.

Federal officials say deaths are reviewed internally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reports them to its inspector general and decides which ones warrant investigation. Officials say they notify the detainee’s next of kin or consulate, and report the deaths to local medical authorities, who may conduct autopsies. In Mr. Bah’s case, a review before his death found no evidence of foul play, an immigration spokesman said, though after later inquiries from The Times, he said a full review of the death was under way.

But critics, including many in Congress, say this piecemeal process leaves too much to the agency’s discretion, allowing some deaths to be swept under the rug while potential witnesses are transferred or deported. They say it also obscures underlying complaints about medical care, abusive conditions or inadequate suicide prevention.”

The story goes on to detail unspeakable neglect and callousness—by prison guards in their treatment of Bah after suffering his injury, and by local authorities in their treatment of Bah’s family and friends who are still trying to discover just what happened to their loved one. Regardless of how one thinks immigration reform should be pursued, all should agree that what happened to Boubacar Bah—and to many others—has no place in a humane society. Go read the whole thing.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

In a country where gay pride parades are still heavily protested, this memorial bears special significance by showing public respect for the dead and the victimized, regardless of sexual orientation. Similar memorials already exist in Denmark, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands -- good for Israel for joining the pack.

Posted by Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)