by Rabbi Marla Feldman Director of Development, URJ
Several months ago, I received a panicked email from our contact at the International Medical Corps, one of the URJ's grant recipients from our Haiti Relief Fund. The URJ, along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), had funded a clinic in the underserved coastal region around Petit Goave, west of Port-au-Prince, as well as a mobile clinic - a boat - that provided medical services to nearby coastal villages that have been inaccessible since the earthquake. As the hurricane season approached and the seas became rougher, their boat was no longer sea-worthy. They had a lead on a used boat that could serve their purpose, but only if they acted quickly. The cost was $12,000. "Buy the boat!" I said. We already had authorization from our allocations committee for this project and ample funds remained within the designated allocation. Two days later, just as I was heading to Shabbat services, I received another urgent message - the used boat would not work out, but they found a new boat that could serve their needs. The cost was a bit more -- $19,000. Could they purchase the boat? "Buy the boat!" I said again in my final text before turning off my PDA for Shabbat.
With the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, so many memories from that time have come flooding back - and I know all of you who were close to that experience are also taking time to reflect.
I continue to be tremendously proud of the work that Jacobs Camp did. We were really out there making a difference in a time of tremendous need. We were blessed by the opportunity to provide shelter for more than 250 people in the days and weeks following the storm, and doubly-blessed by the opportunity to launch the Jacobs' Ladder Relief Project that brought 4 Million pounds of relief supplies, and hundreds of volunteers into the region - and helped shine the spotlight of the Reform Movement and the organized Jewish community on the Gulf Coast Region.
We felt the storm's wrath in other ways, too.
So many of our camp families experienced tremendous losses -- and some of them are still recovering. Thanks to the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the Habayita Fund was set up to help kids return to Jacobs in the summers of 2006 and 2007; but, between the families who took major financial hits, and the others who found relocating the only way to move forward, our camper registration took a hit. Our registration has recovered -- this summer we served the most campers we ever have &mdash but who knows when our New Orleans numbers will rebound to pre-Katrina levels.
[Editor's Note: for more on the Reform Movement's Gulf response efforts in the five years since Hurricane Katrina, visit our Katrina & New Orleans: 5 years later resource page.]
I arrived in the faith-based advocacy community in Washington, DC, fresh out of divinity school. I had moved to Washington to take an internship in the Public Life and Social Policy Office of the United Church of Christ - a public policy ministry that I was excited to join after three years of study and preparation. I had been told that I would be working on issues of domestic poverty and economic justice. My first day in the office was August 29, 2005.
The first day of a new job is always nerve-wracking, but this day was also tinged with the collective sadness of watching a tragedy unfold. The 24-hour news cycle blared the news of recent and impending hurricane landfalls and of inadequate evacuation plans. I remember sitting with my new colleagues that morning discussing the domestic poverty policy agenda for the coming session of Congress, when Hurricane Katrina came up. In that Monday morning meeting, a collective intake of breath seemed to still the room as we all contemplated what was happening at that very moment.
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That's me. Just so I cannot be accused of anything later...
On May 30, 1806, by Imperial and Royal Decree of Emperor Napoleon I, the Parisian Sanhedrin was convoked.
But wait, you say. How could the Sanhedrin, which was formally disbanded in 358 CE, be reconstituted by a non-Jewish Emperor of France?
It couldn't.
Napoleon first assembled a group of 112 prominent citizens. Known as the "Assembly of Jewish Notables," these gentlemen we handpicked by representatives of the French and Italian governments. Hm...sounds just a little suspicious. And if it doesn't sound kosher, it probably isn't. Once the "Assembly" had been given a list of twelve questions and had crafted their response, the "Great Sanhedrin" was summoned in order to ratify the answers. A good move on the part of Napoleon. By using an ancient symbol of Jewish authority, it lent an air of validity to the undertaking as well as ingratiate the Emperor to the local Jewish community. Moreover, it raised Messianic hopes in a people who were seeking salvation from (clearly) unlikely sources.
Our country is in deep distress. The economy continues to stumble. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and millions more fear for theirs. Our public discourse, prodded by trash-talking commentators and the Internet free-for-all, has sunk to new lows.
Faced with this crisis, our politicians have failed us. They offer minimal action and little hope.
This is religion's time. Yes, the claim will be made that religion is more a source of division than harmony. But I suggest that at this perilous moment, a grand coalition of religious voices can lift us out of our stupor and move us forward.
Let us take one example. The immigration issue is tearing this country apart. The emotions that it generates are so heated that our political parties refuse to act. In the meantime, anti-immigrant hysteria has reached new heights; the language used every day to describe the 12 million immigrants who are here illegally is vicious, hateful, and utterly shameful. Religious people, in particular, know that such language is wrong and that we are all brothers and sisters under the parenthood of God.
by Rabbi David Saperstein Director, Religious Action Center Reposted from Religion News Service
The most effective response America can give to the 9/11 terrorist attacks is to affirm our nation's core values of freedom and liberty for all--including the religious tolerance, freedom, and equality that the perpetrators so vividly repudiated.
The debate surrounding a planned Muslim community center and mosque, known as Cordoba House, two blocks from ground zero has been plagued by fear, intolerance and politics, reshaping it into something ugly.
The religious community--including the Jewish community, which isn't of one mind on the matter--has a special stake in putting forward this vision.
I am proud that most Jewish organizations have supported the right of this mosque to be built near the site of ground zero. We Jews, as the victims of religious extermination and persecution, know all too well the pain that comes from being told that our community and our houses of worship will be treated differently than others.
Many principles found in this week's parsha, Shoftim, form a key part of the ethical Jewish tradition. Shoftim outlines several commandments regarding the establishment of a system of justice in the land of Israel. Perhaps one the most famous and oft-cited biblical phrases is part of Shoftim: "tzedek, tzedek tirdof," "justice, justice, shall you pursue."
Most striking about this parsha is the way in which it makes clear that the means by which we pursue justice are as important as the end itself. For example, we learn in this parsha that a person may only be convicted of a capital offense based on the testimony of two witnesses. It is clear that the achievement of a just world must be pursued through proper methods.
So how does the Torah's vision of a just society compare with the American justice system? The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Nearly 2.5 million people, or 3.2% of all adults, were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008. Of course, a prison sentence can serve multiple purposes; it can impose punishment and serve as a deterrent. Ultimately, though, the goal is to make society safer, by incarcerating individuals who pose a threat to the public. Yet statistics tell an interesting story: within three years of release, 67% of former prisoners are rearrested and 52% are re-incarcerated. Are we more eager to lock people up than to make our society safer in the long term? Are we, as Shoftim reminds us, pursuing justice through just means?
As a word person, I am particularly struck by the opening word of this week's reading, which gives the parasha its name: Re-eh, See. We are accustomed to being told Shma, Listen, Obey. In this case, though, we begin with the visual rather than the auditory, See, not Hear. While Moses doesn't directly develop the idea of seeing as compared to hearing, he talks about things that can be better comprehended with the eyes than with the ears: the pagan altars which are to be torn down, the pillars that are to be smashed, the faces that are not to be gashed. But the emphasis on seeing rather than hearing is more mine than actually inherent in the text.
The parasha opens with a brief reminder that the people have a choice between the blessing and the curse, each attributed to a different mountain which the people can see as Moses speaks. Moses assumes, out of a sense of cockeyed optimism, that they will be smart enough to choose the blessing, and then sets out to tell them what that entails. The laws that are recapped in this sedrah fall into two broad categories: religious or ritual laws on the one hand, and civic or social laws on the other. I focus here on God's demand for a single place of worship after the people have entered the Land.
That shall be your fringe, look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. -Numbers 15:39
Three stories, no comment:
On Rosh Chodesh Tevet of this year (in December), the Women of the Wall held their monthly morning service at the Western Wall plaza. This service, ostensibly religious, also has obvious overtones of political protest, seeking to draw attention to the unequal status of women dictated by Orthodox control of an area which seems like it ought to belong to everyone. One young woman put on a tallit, which aroused the ire of some bystanders who called over the police (of whom there are always plenty at the Wall), who arrested the offender and held her for several hours "for questioning" at the local station before releasing her. This past week on Rosh Chodesh Av, Anat Hoffman of the Center for Religious Pluralism was arrested for carrying a Torah.
Later this month I will be leading a group of visitors around the Old City of Jerusalem, and want to include the Temple Mount in our route. Not having been there for years, I decided I should make an advance review visit. So on a recent day when I was staying over in Jerusalem, I got up early and, on the way from my hotel to HUC, walked through the awakening alleyways of the Old City. This is a lovely time to walk there: the streets are mostly empty, the fragrance of fresh-baked bread wafts from the bakeries, shopkeepers are sweeping the pavement, kids are hurrying home with breakfast purchases from the local grocery, and religious Christians, Moslems, and Jews are on their way to and from morning prayers. I was first in line at the security gate to the Temple Mount, which opens for Jews at 7:30. After convincing the guard that this was an innocent visit and not a right-wing provocation, he waved me through with the warning: "Remember, no praying, and no entering the mosques; you walk around and you leave!" But the guy manning the x-ray machine studied the image of my backpack carefully, opened it, and pulled out a plastic bag. "What's this?" "A tallit." "Sorry, you have to leave it outside." "But I'm not going to pray." "Doesn't matter, you can't take it in." I tried to suggest I leave it with him until I finished my visit, but no way. So I missed my opportunity, on that morning, to tread on holy ground.
Several years ago, I helped chaperone a quartet of high school students from my home congregation to Washington, DC to attend a L'taken social justice seminar sponsored by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Although waaaay beyond high school myself, I learned a lot in those three and a half days in our nation's capital. The lesson that has stayed with me the longest, though, is this one: When standing on a river bank, if children begin to float by in the rapids, it is, of course, our duty to pluck them from the raging waters. Equally imperative, however, is our obligation to trek upstream and find out why they're falling in the water in the first place.
Yesterday, that two-part lesson slapped me in the face as I stood on the corner of Mercer and West Fourth streets in the West Village, handing out bananas to the men and women who flock to HUC-JIR each and every Monday evening for the meals provided by the College's two-decades-old, student-run soup kitchen. As I watched the members of this community--b'tzelem elohim, just like you and me--consume the sandwiches, and barter amongst themselves to accumulate a stash of milk, fruit and cookies for another meal, I was overcome by sadness. I'm sad for them, sad for the hand they've been dealt, and sad that the citizens (myself included) and lawmakers of my beloved country--the "America the Beautiful" we sang about just two weeks ago in synagogue--can't do better by them when it comes to "liberty and justice for all."
Editor's Note: Following the earthquake in Haiti, the International Medical Corps (IMC) established two medical clinics with funding from the Union for Reform Judaism and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Located in the Union's adopted community of Petit Goave, one clinic serves the local community while the other clinic is 'mobile' - a boat that makes its way along the coast serving communities that are difficult to reach by road. Underneath the idyllic palm trees of the coastal village of Platon, a man pulled out an empty, worn Ziploc bag from his pocket. He walked three hours from the mountains to get here, to this isolated village along Haiti's northwest coast, so that the bag could be refilled by a figure completely unknown to Platon just a few months ago - a psychiatrist.
I traveled out to Platon this week with psychiatrist Dr. Nick Rose and the doctors and nurses who make up International Medical Corps' boat clinic. Co-funded by URJ and AJJDC, the boat clinic team travels five days a week over smooth or choppy waters, rain or shine to bring medical and psychological care to hundreds of people living in three coastal villages.
In many ways, the small fishing village of Platon is a postcard of perfection with gently swaying palm trees, white sand beaches, and turquoise waters. But despite its untainted natural beauty, the residents of Platon are characteristic of Haiti's rural poor. Most of Platon's residents live in small shacks made of woven palm trees. Most are illiterate. There is no school, no running water or electricity.
Even by motorboat, these towns are more than one hour away from the closest town, Petit Goave. For the residents of Platon and the neighboring communities, this means that medical care was roughly an eight-hour walk away through the mountains or a four-hour canoe ride.
Former Union for Reform Judaism staff member Carrie Weinrobe is currently working at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti, one of the grantees of the Union's Haiti Relief fund.
At 3:30 every day, 20 girls aged 12 - 17 in Verettes, Haiti gather in a huddle at the soccer field to practice for the big regional tournament. This team, along with many others in the area, was created through a UN grant to provide economic stimulation and physical and social improvement to the Artibonite Valley. Three hours north of Port-au-Prince, this region received many of the displaced people from the capital after the earthquake. Today the girls are scrimmaging the boys team and there is much debate over who will win. To me it is clear that this once male-dominated territory has some new competition. These girls are fierce, strong, smart, and determined to win now that they have been given a chance to prove themselves.
The road to this point was not easy. Half of these girls moved up to the Artibonite Valley, where I have been working at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) for the past two months, after the January 12th earthquake destroyed their homes, families, schools and any sense of normalcy and security they once had. The team captain, Christine, is a local girl who shines both on the field and in school. As practice begins she takes charge leading the stretches and encouraging her teammates to run faster and be stronger. Here, far away from the crumbled buildings, the young girls from Port-au-Prince have formed a solid group with their new peers and are being taught the value of teamwork, friendship, and physical activity while being able to support each other through this difficult time both on and off the field. They have a nurturing coach who is also a survivor of the earthquake and is focused on providing them a safe space where they can continue with school and be independent and successful women.
Marie Louise
While these girls are perfecting their soccer technique, another group of girls are learning how to kick the same ball around with brand new legs. Marie Louise lost both her legs in the earthquake and quickly began walking with a gigantic smile and a determination to be the active teenager she was before January 12th. As part of her rehabilitation process she practices kicking the soccer ball to her new friend, Naomi, another amputee, who she met during the recovery process. Living together, the amputees at the hospital's newly formed prosthetic clinic have formed a tight-knit community where they can support each other physically in learning to walk and emotionally through empathy. In addition to having lost limbs, many also lost parents, siblings and friends.
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One month ago today, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the Louisiana coast, causing 11 tragic deaths (and some incredible stories of survival) and what may be the worst environmental disaster of our time. The news from the Gulf is mixed; oil continues gushing from the ocean floor, but has yet to decimate the Gulf coast as severely as some feared. Scientists remain hopeful that they can staunch the leak, despite the fact that initial figures on the amount of oil pouring daily from the sunken tanker were probably gross underestimates. As engineers and scientists continue to try everything from "top hats" to "junk shots" to stop the oil, you can keep up with updates from the US Climate Action Network and here on the RAC Blog. Or, if you prefer, Jon Stewart offers up this concise summary of cleanup efforts thus far.
There are many ways to help including donating time, energy, and resources to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast region. Jewish Funds for Justice opened their disaster relief fund immediately after the spill began and hopes to be disburse funds to local projects as soon as they are ready to get to work; if you are able, please donate today. You can also look for solidarity events in your community in the coming weeks. We'll post more opportunities to help here as they arise.
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by Kate Bigam Press Secretary, Religious Action Center Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and the RACBlog
Time for a quick history lesson: In 1655, the colony of New Amsterdam passed an ordinance forbidding Jewish residents to enlist in the colony's militia, ruling that Jews were instead required to pay a monthly contribution for this exemption from service. Insistent upon military service, Jewish colonist Asser Levy refused to pay and instead rallied others in petitioning for the right to enlist. Their petition, though initially rejected, was ultimately successful, and Levy and other Jewish residents were eventually permitted to serve alongside their fellow colonists. Levy, a proud veteran and prominent businessman, went on to become an advocate for religious equality and a defender of Jewish rights in the colony.
More than 350 years later, Jews worldwide continue to serve in the military in times of war and peace, risking - and sacrificing - their lives to protect their fellow countrymen. Thousands of Jews have been awarded medals for their wartime service; still thousands more have died in combat or been wounded. Jewish members of the United States Armed Forces fought in the Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. They continue to serve today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
by Linda K. Wertheimer Originally posted on Jewish Muse
Elena Kagan is giving me a guilt trip, but it has nothing to do with her nomination for the US Supreme Court. At age 12, Kagan fought for the right to chant from the Torah in her Orthodox shul to celebrate her coming of age as a bat mitzvah. In 2006, at age 41, I chanted from the Torah and led a prayer service to celebrate my bat mitzvah as an adult. I am chagrined as I write this: I have never chanted from the Torah again. Kagan's long-ago fight for equality on the bimah is a reminder. I could do more.
Kagan, according to articles in the New York Times and Jewish Week, asked her rabbi if she could read Torah on a Saturday morning to mark a bat mitzvah. The rabbi refused that request and allowed her to instead chant from the Book of Ruth on a Friday night and analyze it in a speech.
The feature includes examples of the ideas, conversations, and most significantly, the questions that have emerged through the various dialogue groups. As poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, we must "try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them."
On May 10th, President
Obama made his second nomination to the Supreme Court, tapping Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be
the 112th Supreme Court Justice. Just yesterday, Senator Patrick Leahy,
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that the hearings on the
nomination, a critical piece of the Senate's process of "advise and consent,"
will begin on June 28th.
In the coming weeks, the Religious
Action Center will review Solicitor General Kagan's record to learn more about
her judicial philosophy and temperament. As we have done for the last three
Supreme Court nominations, we have created a special web page to facilitate the
Reform Movement's involvement in this process - this means you! On www.AskElenaKagan.com,you can suggest questions that members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee should ask Solicitor General Kagan during her confirmation hearing.
"I'm a civil war" - this is how Israeli poet Chaim Gouri described himself. After the death of Rabbi David Forman last Tuesday, I thought that he might have recognized himself in those words, too: From his student days in America with the Freedom Riders in the segregated South, to his founding of Rabbis for Human Rights and his consistent pursuit of "justice, justice" ever since, Rabbi Forman did not once let up the fight.
It is no easy thing to come to Israel and work for social change, to keep your Judaism intact while not letting the Jewish state cause you to forget the rights and humanity of everyone else. Yet Rabbi Forman built and lived a life in Israel according to his ideals, all while battling the civil war within himself, the contradictory impulses one can't help but feel here. So how did Rabbi Forman keep his sanity all these years, remain focused and not give in to defeat? I think he did it in three ways.
First, he wrote. He described Israel's internal struggles for American readers, and by documenting what he saw, he controlled the extent to which such wars could destroy him. Israelis, he understood, were schizophrenic - "one 'I' pulls in one direction while another 'I' pulls in the opposite direction and then a third and fourth 'I' pull in yet other directions" (Forman, Jewish Schizophrenia in the Land of Israel).
Next, he took action. He was the founder and spirit of Rabbis for Human Rights, "the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel." He was also the architect of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY)-Israel program, creating the connection for countless numbers of young people between Judaism and Israel. While he could have chosen a different path, he lived by one of his favorite verses from Pirkei Avot: "Study is not the chief thing, but action." And he reminds us we need to keep up the work - "the Jewish state has yet to fulfill its historical and theological mission to become that 'holy nation:' a country based on the prophetic ideals of social justice and equality" (Forman, Fifty Ways to Be Jewish).
The third way: he loved his family. His wife, his daughters, their husbands, their families - and his seven grandchildren, Sivan, Binyamin, Yarden, Zohar, Tal, Shani and Nitai. "I pray, that as my grandchildren grow older, they will find their Jewish way in the world; and that their conduct will be determined by the historical traditions and practices of our people, which find their longevity and continued strength in a prophetic vision of social justice and equality, of personal commitment and collective responsibility, of familial respect and human dignity." His memory is a blessing.
Today we commemorate the 40th annual Earth Day, a cause for celebration but also a reminder that more work than ever remains to be done to protect our planet. As Rabbi Saperstein said today:
The environment we take for granted will not be here for our children and theirs if we fail to move swiftly away from fossil fuels that dirty our air and warm our planet. We have the resources and the willpower to move to a clean energy future, and as we celebrate this Earth Day we call on Congress and the President to lead the way.
We know we face great environmental challenges but also have incredible opportunities to do better, and protect people living in poverty, create green jobs, and encourage sustainable development worldwide in the process. (Read our full statement on the 40th annual Earth Day here.) read MORE
My feet hurt. So do my kids' feet. I'm guessing that there are about another 1,998 other pair of feet in Los Angeles that are still hurting right now.
That's what you get when you try to make a statement on a world-wide scale about morality and genocide. I suppose it is also what happens when you spend a morning Walking to End Genocide. Standing up to take a stand sometimes leaves you feeling your morals secure and your feet sore.
It all started this morning in Warner Center Park as about 2000 of us
gathered for Jewish World Watch's annual Walk to End Genocide. It was a
diverse group: adults and children, parents, grandparents and
grandchildren, teens from NFTY and USY, high schoolers from New Jewish
Community High School (among others), a bunch of college students from
Hillel. And members of Jewish synagogues from Orange County up through
Santa Barbara County. It was also an interfaith gathering: Jews,
Christians, Muslims and more came together to speak out. We all
gathered in the hot sun to make a statement, loudly but firmly: that
this world has no place, and we have absolutely no tolerance, for
genocide in any of its forms or mutations. read MORE
The 40th annual Earth Day is less than ten days away! Next week, millions of
people around the world will come together on April 22 to celebrate the steps
we've taken in the last 40 years to protect our environment, and evaluate our
goals for the years to come. We will - if all goes according to plan - be re-energizing
the fight to pass comprehensive climate legislation in the U.S. Senate this
year, and anticipating the launch of a major new Jewish energy campaign.
There are many
ways to make Earth Day matter. If you are in DC (or can hop on a free bus from
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland or West Virginia), join us on
the National Mall on April 25 at 11 A.M. for the Climate Rally. We'll be hearing
from leaders in the political, entertainment, and labor worlds on the importance
of passing climate legislation for our environment and our economy, and enjoy
music from the Roots and John Legend. The day kicks off with an interfaith
climate vigil featuring leaders from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim
communities discussing what the faith community is doing to bring about
environmental justice.
Not in the DC metro area? No problem. You can
find an Earth Day event near
you, or plan your
own with resources from the RAC and our partners at the Coalition on the
Environment and Jewish Life. We've got guides to hosting an environmental
Shabbat, programs on climate change, clean water and more, and action items on
offshore drilling and clean air to incorporate into your event.
And no
matter where you live you can do one simple thing (take public transportation
more often, use less water, or start a recycling program at our office,
synagogue, or school) to help the Earth Day Network generate "one billion acts of green"
around the world. Through one billion small steps, and millions of people
raising their voices for national and global action on climate change, we can
make this Earth Day a milestone for the movement toward a more sustainable
future.
So what will you do in the next ten days to make the 40th annual
Earth Day a success? Let us know, and have
an eventful Earth Day!
A group of Reform Jews from around New York spent yesterday in Albany as a part of the Reform Jewish Voice of New York State's annual Advocacy Day. From the Sages of the Talmud to leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, the Reform Jewish Movement has a long history of and commitment to Social Justice. While I wouldn't put myself in any category with sages or civil rights leaders, I am a member of the Steering Committee of the RJV, so at least I get a cool title.
Over the years we have worked in our congregations and our Nation's Capital to advocate for progress. So yesterday a bunch of us took our message to our State Capital. Joining forces with Interfaith Impact, RJV touched on issues of Marriage Equality, Reproductive Choice, the Role of Good Government and the always imperative pursuit of Economic Justice. You can read about our position papers online.
The event went well and we got to speak with allies, enemies and everyone in between. read MORE
You may have heard all about the famed Glenn Beck and his ongoing tirades. You may also have heard that he believes the language of social and economic justices are code for communism and Nazism. Our great friends over at Jewish Funds for Justice have sponsored a hilarious and simple little web activity in response to this brouhaha: Haik U, Glenn Beck! (.com!)
Three very interesting - and very different - stories in my inbox this morning remind me of the power of the story of the Israelites' journey from slavery to freedom. It is, as we are taught, a story for all times, and one that can inspire all peoples.
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This week, we witnessed history in the making. After a long, hard battle, Congress voted to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an historic piece of legislation that will bring our nation closer to necessary and long-overdue reform of our broken health insurance system.
So many Reform Movement activists took action through the Religious Action Center's website.You signed our petition to Congress, you joined the faith community's conference call with President Obama, and you wrote to your lawmakers to demand comprehensive reform. You took democracy into your own hands and told Congress that the status quo is unacceptable - that health care should be a right, not a privilege.
Passover is rich in social justice themes.
It is impossible to study the story of our redemption and not feel compelled to
eradicate injustice in the world today. If your family or congregation is
looking for a way to engage in social justice advocacy and awareness while
remembering the story of our slavery in Egypt, we've got a few suggestions for
you.
Is your synagogue already planning something creative and
social justice-themed? Leave a comment a let us know!
Webinar: Social Justice Perspectives on Home Seders Is participating in the Seder ritual a liberating
experience for you? Join us on March 23, 2010, from 3-4:00pm EDT, for a
Passover webinar, "The Long Road to the Promised Land: Social Justice
Perspectives on Home Seders." Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, URJ Worship
Specialist, and Naomi Abelson, URJ Social Action Specialist, will explore ideas
for deepening the experience and raising the consciousness of those gathered
around your Seder table. Learn
more and register now.
Host a Child Nutrition Seder Each year during the Seder we read, "Let all who are hungry come and eat." This
Pesach, the organized Jewish community -- including the Religious Action Center,
the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Mazon -- want to help you raise
anti-poverty and anti-hunger awareness during your traditional Passover Seder.
You can:
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In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of rain on my window, which is typical this time of year in Port-au-Prince. From the comfort of my warm bed, the sound of the rain on the window was pleasant and soothing. That is, until I woke up and remembered where I was and that all around me there lay thousands of families sleeping in tents that are ill-equipped to provide adequate shelter from rain, winds and floods sure to sweep through the region during the hurricane season.
These tent cities have emerged all across Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. They have sprung up in every inch of space available - empty lots, front lawns, sidewalks, parks and even in the streets blocking traffic. In some cases, these tent cities are well-funded. When driving through the city, you may notice an organized grid of strong, durable tents and sanitation systems, organized by NGOs (including UNICEF, UN Foundation or Feed the Children) through funds received by individual donors or organizations like ours. However, more often what you see when driving through the city is a series of make-shift tents, cobbled together with rope and sticks, tarps and bed sheets.
Believe it or not, the impetus for the creation
of the National School Lunch Program in 1946 was that malnourishment
was rendering large numbers of young men ineligible to join the
military. When President Truman signed the 1946 National School Lunch
Act, the preface said that
the creation of the program was a "measure of national security, to
safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children." (Can you
imagine anyone saying that today?). Today, Child Nutrition Programs are
a crucial financial safety net for over 31 million students who receive
breakfast, lunch, and an afterschool snack during the school year, as
well as during the summer. These programs all fall under the Child
Nutrition Reauthorization Bill, which is coming before Congress this
year to be reviewed and refunded.
The depth and breadth of hunger in the United States can be easily conveyed by statistics: 17.6 million food insecure households, making up 49.1 million people. A record of
nearly 38 million people relied on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly known as food stamps, at last count.
These numbers are even starker for children: the food insecurity rate
for households with children is nearly double the overall average.
Feeding America, which operates more than 200 food banks and soup
kitchens across the country, found that 38% of those they served were children under age 18, and four out of five food insecure families served have children under 18.
On February 28, 2010, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded
history of 8.8 magnitude struck Chile, killing hundreds, displacing
hundreds of thousands and causing widespread destruction of homes,
schools, hospitals, offices and infrastructure. Two million people are
impacted by the disaster.
The Union for Reform Judaism is part of the Jewish Coalition
for Disaster Relief, which is facilitated by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC). The Coalition has opened a fund for
relief efforts in Chile, leveraging the JDC's existing partnerships in
the region, including the local Chilean Jewish community.
My liberal Jewish guilt was really starting to bug me. In the wake of the 2008 presidential election, I reflected on how I perceived the nation was changing. In doing so, I faced a cold, hard truth; I hadn't done anything but vote. I hadn't pledged my time, volunteered to go door-to-door, lobbied friends and neighbors on a certain issue, or helped to register other voters. In essence, I hadn't done a single thing beyond showing up and casting my ballot. By saying that, I can already sense people recoiling. I can hear them saying, "But voting is the cornerstone of our society, and showing up in the first place is important!"
Yes, voting is of the utmost importance. Voting is the fuel that makes the engine of American government go. However, as Jews, we expect more of ourselves than simply electing leaders to fix problems. We demand that we, ourselves, fix the world's problems personally. Tikun olam is a great slogan, one easily slapped on a t-shirt and preached during a mitzvah day here and there. For me, however, tikun olam is much more about long-term involvement. It's about finding something so big and so wrong that it makes you want to tear your hair out. Then, after you've found that thing, changing it. So when I looked around on November 5th, 2008, I decided to do something, something bigger than anything I'd ever done to repair what I perceived as broken.
Applications for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's 2010-2011 Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Program are online now! Eisendrath Legislative Assistants, or LAs, are recent college grads who come to the RAC to advocate for Jewish values and social justice on behalf of the Reform Jewish Movement. Their responsibilities include monitoring legislative activity, developing synagogue social action programming, coordinating special events, creating educational materials, planning and staffing our L'Taken Social Justice Seminars for teens, and mobilizing the grassroots of American Jewry.
This one-year fellowship is a unique and exciting opportunity to work alongside advocates and policymakers in Washington and engage in the work of tikkun olam. Former LAs have gone on to become rabbis, congressional staffers, lawyers and advocates at progressive social justice organizations like the National Council of Jewish Women, the Human Rights Campaign and Interfaith Alliance. Learn more about this year's LAs (we'll put you in touch with any of them if you're thinking of applying and want to talk to someone who's been there); while you're at it, check out the story of former Legislative Assistant Ben Weyl's RAC experience in "Tales of a Former LA: Better Off for Having Been One." Apply now for the 2010-2011 program year at rac.org/la, or send the link along to a recent or soon-to-be grad who you would make a great LA. For more information, contact our Legislative Director Barbara Weinstein at 202.387.2800.
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it's been common practice for the First Lady to champion a cause: Lady Bird Johnson was a staunch environmentalist. Barbara Bush was a strong advocate for family literacy. Current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took on health care while her husband was in Office. Today, Michelle Obama unveiled her own project. Amid reports that suggest one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives and health care costs of obesity-related diseases may average $147 billion per year, the First Lady is taking on childhood obesity through Let's Move, a "comprehensive, collaborative, and community-oriented [campaign that] will include strategies to address the various factors that lead to childhood obesity." A big part of this movement, especially the healthy schools initiative, is reauthorizing the Child Nutrition programs for the next five years. These programs provide meals for over 31 million children throughout the year and must be robustly funded in order for the meals to reach the greatest number of students and contain the highest nutritional value possible. You can e-mail your Representatives in Congress asking them to fully fund Child Nutrition Programs here, in the RAC's Chai Impact Action Center.
The First Lady is not the only one noticing the need for a new way of looking at food: At last year's Biennial, Rabbi Eric Yoffie urged members of the URJ to seek ethical and healthier ways of eating. At the URJ's "Just Table, Green Table" website, you can find advice on how to get started in promoting healthy, sustainable, and ethical eating at your synagogue, alongside a study guide on how to think critically about the ethical implications of food choices and food systems. As Rabbi Yoffie said, as Jews, we are not exempt from thinking deeply about how our food affects our bodies. "Reform Jews are ethically aware, ecologically responsible, and sensitive to matters of physical and spiritual health," he said. "We know that our Jewish tradition speaks to these issues, and that our young people care about them. At such times, Reform Judaism does not remain silent."
by Adam Koons Member of Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD and Director of Relief & Humanitarian Assistance of International Relief & Development
(Dr. Koons' blog posts from Haiti were originally posted on the IRD blog. Visit the blog, Voices from the Field to see earlier posts)
On the streets of Port-au-Prince, everyone who has a few tomatoes to sell, or books of matches, or even cups of flavored shaved ice, is trying to sell them. The streets are alive and bustling with commerce. It sometimes seems like everyone is trying to sell something to everyone else. In tiny little quantities, that do not require much money, enough for today, or the moment. Spilling over into the street. Clogging the already traffic-jammed streets . To those of us who have spent time here before (I lived in Haiti for four years), it seems so very normal...almost.
Look a little closer and the façade is ruined. Behind, or nearby, or down the street, you will see crushed and ruined buildings. Businesses and homes. A great many of them in which people died. Some have not yet been extracted.
And look again a bit further beyond the commerce, a few feet further back into the chaos. We can see that many people have erected their "temporary" shelters there. They are now living just off the curb, beyond their micro street businesses, in open-sided structures that are lucky to have something partially resembling a roof. read MORE
This February marks the second annual Jewish Disability Awareness Month. Our mission is to unite Jewish communities and organizations for the purpose of raising awareness and supporting meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in every aspect of Jewish life.
The websites of both the Union for Reform Judaism and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism feature Jewish Disability Awareness Month pages that can serve as a resource to individuals and congregations and provide a forum for discussion on issues of inclusion of people with disabilities in Jewish life.
Also this month, on RJ.org and the RACblog, you will hear from people who have disabilities who have traveled those difficult roads and made it in to become valued members of congregations. You will hear from a bat mitzvah who found inclusion woven in her Torah portion and from someone who has adapted teaching to meet the challenging needs of learners. We'll also provide some food for thought as you go through Jewish Disability Awareness Month so that you leave February with plans for the other 11 months of the year.
I coined the term "Fun'Raisers" a few years ago when I began teaching Mah-jongg to congregants from my home at a cost of $5, donating every accumulated $100 increment we collected to Community Synagogue's committees on a rotating basis.
Since then, another congregant and I reinvented singing telegrams, which we titled Mitzvah Grams. For $72, congregants hire us to bring levity and surprise to an unknowing person having a celebration or recuperating from an illness. I've also taken advantage of promotional sales of off-Broadway shows, buying tickets in bulk to make a small profit for Community Synagogue while charging individual purchasers no more than $40 to attend a show.
In all, our Fun'Raisers have raised close to $5,000, having fun while financially supporting all of the social justice committees. Keeping the momentum going, my husband Dave and I felt that holding a Fun'Raiser for Haiti relief would be a good vehicle for collecting donations for earthquake victims. Watching television coverage of the disaster and bearing in mind that Dave's police officer friends were on the ground helping out in Haiti, we knew there must be a way for us to contribute to relief efforts, too.
by Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner is the rabbi of Temple Solel of Hollywood, FL. During Hurricane Katrina he was the rabbi of Northshore Jewish Congregation in Mandeville, LA, just outside of New Orleans. In the following reflection, Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner beautifully weaves together his experience during Hurricane Katrina, the Torah reading from last week ("Bo") and the crisis in Haiti, capturing what so many are feeling in the wake of the devastation.
There are always natural disasters in the world. But sometimes there is such a disaster so devastating that it touches our souls. Our information laden world with instantaneous transmission of human events has immunized us so often to the tragedies that are part of the human condition. But there are events that are so devastating that our desensitization is penetrated and we feel the impact of these events.
And at these times we ask ourselves, Where is God?
The Asian Tsunami was one such event.
Hurricane Katrina affected us because of the devastation of one of our own American cities and so many of us knew people or knew of people who experienced it. And there were those of us who DID experience it.
When I was 25, I wound up in a unique place, doing my best to help. In October, 1973, I visited Israel for the first time. I was staying with an aunt in Jerusalem, scheduled to return home after the High Holidays, and experiencing a Yom Kippur morning literally without a car on the road. Suddenly, sirens started wailing and cars quickly began to appear--at noon on Yom Kippur! The Yom Kippur War had begun and I got to see a country mobilize in a matter of hours. It was controlled chaos, and I was amazed how calm the Israelis stayed as hundreds of young men raced to collection points and sped away in army vehicles. It's a day I'll never forget.
The men were away at war and the kibbutzim needed workers to finish the harvest. Once the actual fighting ended, my plans laid aside, I headed to Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, in the far north, to do what I could to help.
I stayed for seven months, learned enough Hebrew to get by, worked where needed during the day and taught youngster basketball when school was out. And I learned how remarkable a people the Israelis are. There was a guest house at the kibbutz which the army used for R & R, and one of the things that struck me was how calm and mature the soldiers were. Here were guys my age, even younger, with the weight of the world on their shoulders, many with stories of brutal battle just two months behind them, but they kept their humor and gave you all the confidence in the world that Israel was safe during their watch. Their brashness came through, but so did their tenderness, and for all their poking fun at me for my American ways, they were genuinely pleased that someone would take the time to help -- and more than one of them told me that they wish they could have the same opportunity one day.
Imagine this: You're the only Jewish student at your suburban Ohio high
school of 2,000. The synagogue your family attends holds Shabbat
services only twice a month, because there aren't enough Jews in the
area to generate weekly interest. You became a bat mitzvah
like other young Jews do, but your ceremony was held at the local
country club because your tiny temple didn't have the capacity - or the
air conditioning! - to accommodate your large August service.
I
don't have to imagine it, because growing up, that was my life. Don't
get me wrong: I have always been and felt Jewish. My mother instilled
in me Jewish values from a very young age, even when we were
celebrating Christmas with my gentile father, and I've always felt
connected to my Jewish identity. My mom fed this connection by assuring
me that even if I didn't have the strong ties to the community that
others had - the youth group experience, the summer camping adventures
- that I had "a Jewish soul."
At age 20, following the death
of a close friend, I began attending a university near my hometown,
living with my mother and attending my childhood synagogue. As I
renewed my spiritual relationship with my rabbi during this emotionally
tumultuous time, my rabbi encouraged me to get away from Ohio for a bit
and do something new - including connecting with my Judaism.
read MORE
(Dr. Koons' blog posts from Haiti were originally posted on the IRD blog. Visit the blog, Voices from the Field to see earlier posts)
Today we traveled outside of Port-au-Prince and into ground zero. The town, and district, of Leogane, with about 150,000 residents was closest to the earthquake's epi-center. And it showed. Although, estimates we had heard of 90% destruction were easily visible, the mayor told us that 100% of the population were affected, since even those few whose homes were not destroyed were afraid to enter their still standing and damaged houses. The entire population was sleeping outside, in makeshift shelters of plastic and cloth, in spontaneous settlements within and outside the town center. The police were sitting outside of a damaged police station. When we found the mayor he was camped outside his broken house. Our visit was a "rapid assessment" to understand the emergency needs, gaps, and the types of activities that IRD would be best suited to provide. The mayor, in short, told us they need virtually everything because the population had lost virtually everything.
In one settlement we visited of around 230 families we met a group of young men who immediately approached our vehicle when we arrived. They explained that they were the self-appointed, volunteer, security committee, formed because even in such areas insecurity and theft are a huge problem and far beyond the capacity of the local police. Both the desperation of the population, which has caused mass looting and crime, and the escape of an estimated 4000 prisoners from the earthquake-damaged central prison, has made such community protection a necessity. It was a perfect opportunity for our IRD team to hand out a number of the wonderful solar charged Sunlight Solar Bogo-Light flashlights we were carrying just for such occasions. The flashlights will improve the group's ability to patrol at night and thereby the settlement's security. By working closely with the maker of the lights, that were donated, we ultimately hope to distribute thousands of them soon.
To donate to the URJ's Haiti disaster relief efforts and
to learn more about allocations, visit urj.org/relief.
In one week, the Reform Movement has raised more than $750,000 for Haiti disaster
relief efforts following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Based on our
communication with partner relief organizations, the following allocations will
be made to support emergency relief efforts including rescue work, emergency
medical care, temporary shelter and food and water distribution. In the coming
weeks, additional Union allocations will fund longer-term recovery efforts. read MORE
In the story of Exodus, Moses advocated for freedom for the Israelites from Egypt. As a shepherd, his repertoire was limited to his staff and the Lord's word. Not only was his trek treacherous, hiking through miles of desert, the first nine plagues failed to free the Jews. However, when the Israelites worked together and painted lamb's blood on their doorposts, the Pharaoh saw their power in numbers and released the enslaved people.
Ew, lamb's blood! Without sacrificing animals, how can we take action, advocate for civil liberties, spread awareness and build alliances? How can 21st century NFTYites build a contemporary social action toolkit? By using the Internet to collaborate, communicate, and share resources, our potential is limitless.
I have outlined some resources from my personal toolkit you can use with your youth group:
For Haiti: NFTY-MV's Campaign on the Plane
January 25, 2010
Sarah Korn and Ana Dodson of the North
American Federation of Temple Youth's Missouri Valley Region (NFTY-MV)
tell their story of raising more than $300 on a plane on the way to a
NFTY event. This post originally appeared on NFTY's Haiti relief site.
On Wednesday, January 13th, a massive earthquake and multiple
aftershocks struck Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. We
were both very affected emotionally by the devastation that struck the
people of the island.
We felt like we should do something about it, and so Sarah had
the great idea of holding a mini social action project within Colorado
NFTYites and raise money for the cause. On the plane to our regional
Winter Chavurah, we both got up and announced to the NFTYites on our plane (members of Friedman Club Temple Youth Group and Temple Sinai Youth Group) our idea, and quickly attracted the attention of the other hundred passengers on the plane.
With the help of the extremely supportive flight attendants, we gained
access to the loudspeaker and were able to tell the rest of the
passengers our idea, and asked them for anything they were willing to
donate, even if it was just a few dollars. We explained to them that
the noisy teenagers in the back of the plane were members of a large
Jewish youth group called NFTY; we also talked about the concept of tikkun olam and our adamant interest in helping to repair the world and give aid wherever it's needed.
This week's special election in Massachusetts - to fill the seat formerly occupied by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy - has shaken things up in the Senate. The voters of Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, a Republican, over Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, thus ending the Democrats' 60-seat majority and leaving Massachusetts residents - and the rest of the country - wondering: What's next for health care?
ZEEK: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture interviewed the Reform Movement's own Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of Just Congregations (the Union for Reform Judaism's community-based organizing initiative) about the future of health care reform in the United States. Rabbi Pesner, an ardent support of health care reform and a longtime activist. ZEEK writes, "In addition to being one of the nation's top Jewish resources on social justice issues, Pesner has an intimate knowledge of Massachusetts health care reform. A former rabbi of Boston's Temple Israel, Pesner also served as the chair of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, and spearheaded that group's successful effort to pass landmark health care reform in Massachusetts."
by Rabbi Ira Youdovin former ARZA Executive Director and current chair of ARZA's Rabbinic Cabinet
Televised images of Gaza, Israel's security barrier and alleged mistreatment of the Palestinians have undermined the Jewish State's standing in world opinion. CNN footage from Haiti tells a very different story, and reveals much about Israel's soul, and the circumstances under which Israelis live.
By last Thursday evening, only 48 hours after the devastating earthquake, Israel had assembled and sent airborne a flight loaded with military and civilian medical personnel, including 120 doctors and nurses, rescue teams, search dogs, and equipment and supplies for establishing a sophisticated field hospital capable of treating 500 patients daily. The hospital went operational in Port-au-Prince Friday afternoon, serving as the only facility in Haiti offering advanced treatment to the seriously wounded. "It came from halfway around the world", an astonished CNN's reporter notes. The United States, which lies only a few hundred miles north of Haiti, had yet to put its mission in place.
The sad aspect of this heroic story is that Israel was able to mobilize so quickly because its people have had much experience----too much experience--- in addressing emergencies in which human lives hang in the balance. The rapid response skills displayed in Haiti have been honed through years of rescuing critically wounded victims of suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism.
The aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti is still coming into focus. The daily news reports the devastation on the ground. We see the desperate lives of people fending for themselves, rummaging for food and shelter, and seeking medical help. It tears at our hearts and souls. Americans have responded generously with extraordinary amounts of goods and money. Troops, ships and planes are arriving with capable personnel and mass quantities of food, water, and medical supplies. The world has grown accustomed to America's commitment to serve humanity in times of natural disasters. What the world has not always known in times of natural disasters is the remarkable response of the people of Israel.
Surely, you have seen on the news or read in the paper about Israel's unprecedented level of aid to the people of Haiti. As of January 20th, only days after the earthquake, Israel set up field hospitals to serve various levels of medical care. In the very short time they have been in Haiti, it is reported that 367 patients have been cared for in Israel's field hospitals; 104 life-saving operations have been performed; 44 patients are currently hospitalized; and 7 babies have been born in the hospital. The description of the level of sophistication and readiness in the Israeli field hospitals is simply extraordinary.
My boss is on vacation for the rest of this week, which gives me a bit of a breather. As a result, I've been able to catch up on some long-term, back-burner projects that have been cluttering up my desk for far too long. I also spent some time today pitching in to help my colleagues in the Development Department process some of the hundreds and hundreds of checks that continue to pour in to the Union's Haiti Relief Fund.
In addition to the small financial contribution I made through the site last week, this is another teeny tiny, tangible thing I can do to mitigate the helplessness and hopelessness that I (and perhaps you, too?) feel in the face of last week's still unfathomable tragedy in the Caribbean.
Amid the swath of death and destruction that grips Haiti--and will for the foreseeable future--I especially appreciate the bright moments and the silver linings: the five-year old boy rescued alive after nearly a week in the rubble, the promise of new life embodied in the many babies born as the aftershocks continue to rumble, the role of Israel's IDF in bringing much needed healing to so many, and the indomitable and undaunted human spirit that rises again and again and again to partner with God in repairing our fractured world.
Some estimates of the death toll from the 7.0 earthquake that rattled Haiti last week have risen to 200,000, as American troops began air drops of food and water and the United Nations pledged an additional 2,000 peacekeepers "to protect Haiti's aid convoys from lawless gangs roaming the quake-hit streets." Despite help from around the world slowly arriving, many Haitians are attempting to flee the hard-hit capital, Port-au-Prince, as food, water and shelter are still hard to come by and gangs of looters have been prowling the rubble-strewn streets.
All of these reports from Haiti, including a 6.1 aftershock yesterday, underscore the need to not only get food, water and medical services into the hardest-hit areas immediately, but also to maintain a long-term presence in the country as they recover after the international news teams have left. The URJ has been collecting donations on its website and has raised over $500,000 so far (with help from being publicized in some media outlets). Nearly 100% of the money raised will go right back out the door - no overhead costs are retained except credit card processing fees. Please consider donating to the URJ Haiti Relief Fund here.
Two days ago, a severe earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter devastated Haiti - the most severe earthquake to hit the already-impoverished cuntry in 200 years. The epicenter was near Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, and according to the International Red Cross, as many as 3 million people have been affected by the quake. The death toll is anticipated to reach nearly 100,000, and the physical and emotional destruction caused by the earthquake is immeasurable.
In the wake of this horrific destruction in Haiti, the Union for Reform Judaism has opened its disaster relief fund to aid those devastated by the severe earthquake. With a still-unimaginable number of casualties, relief and support is being directed to help rescue and recovery efforts scale up rapidly. A number of our partner organizations are already on the ground or on their way to provide assistance.
The Reform Jewish community has a long history of generosity when natural disasters devastate communities around the world, enabling us to play a role in recovery efforts and bring healing and hope to those whose lives have been affected. Donations to the Union for Reform Judaism Haiti Relief Fund can be made online at www.urj.org/relief or by check (note: Haiti Relief in the memo section) to: Union for Reform Judaism, Attention: Development, 633 Third Avenue, 7th floor, New York, NY, 10017.
The Union for Reform Judaism retains no overhead expenses for disaster relief donations, other than direct costs of credit card fees. On-going updates regarding the disaster relief efforts and the allocations from this fund will be posted at www.urj.org/relief.
And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant He made on oath with your fathers...The Lord will ward off from you all sickness; He will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies. -Deuteronomy 7:12, 15
A recent trip to the regional specialty clinic in Haifa reminded me that for all the criticisms that it is possible to level at Israel for the gap between rich and poor, and for the inequalities in opportunities for different ethnic groups, one area in which we really have the right to be proud of our achievements is the health care system. First of all, it is important to point out that Israel has universal basic health care coverage. In return for a small monthly payroll deduction (waived for those who don't have a paycheck), every citizen can choose to enroll in one of several national HMOs. All normal, routine care and preventive care are covered, and there is a large "basket" of more expensive treatments, diagnostic tests, hospitalization, and medications that are included. Of course, the system is not infinite, and there is always controversy about what conditions or treatments are excluded from the "basket." Moreover, the limitations and inefficiencies that are probably inherent in any such system lead to class-based inequalities: those who can afford it buy supplemental insurance to cover what the system doesn't - and bypass the bureaucracy and waiting periods by paying for surgery privately. And at any given time there is a least one campaign being waged in the media to raise money for someone needing a hugely expensive treatment (e.g., organ transplant). The system clearly has its deficiencies. But it is a system that works. Everyone, regardless of religion or social class or ethnic group, can go to the doctor, can get a prescription for an expensive antibiotic, can have a CT scan, can see a top specialist - without stopping to wonder how to pay for it. Is the equality absolute? No, if you live in the periphery you'll have to spend time and money travelling to that regional specialty clinic; if you live in an unrecognized Bedouin village your local clinic may be limited in equipment (and in the hours it has electricity). If you are a foreign worker, you may be at the mercy of your labor contractor. We still have plenty to do; but it seems that the glass is way more than half full.
Some Color at the Kotel: Rosh Chodesh Tevet
December 21, 2009
(1 Comment)
Anat Hoffman is the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem. This post originally appeared as a message in IRAC's December 21, 2009 newsletter, The Pluralist. To sign up for updates from IRAC, visit www.irac.org. Last Friday, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 153 women found it in themselves to get up early on a wretched, rainy, and miserable morning and walk to the Kotel, for what could be - following Nofrat Frenkel's arrest one month prior - an unpredictable morning of prayer.
We were women of all ages and denominations, gathered together under a canopy of bright umbrellas that looked especially vibrant on a gray day. We stood at the back of the women's section to pray, and when it was time to read from the Torah we walked toward Robinson's Arch, singing as we went. We were joined by a couple dozen men who walked with us in solidarity, while others spit on us and threw potatoes and colorful insults.
by Rabbi David Saperstein, Rev. Geoffrey Black & Rev. Linda Jaramillo (Originally published by On Faith atwashingtonpost.com)
Many December holidays - Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa alike - involve the lighting of candles. This symbolizes the spirit of peace, hope, and new beginnings, illuminating the winter days and warming the soul.
The festive lights also recall for us the time, 20 years ago, when the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) and the National Interreligious Task Force on Criminal Justice (NITFCJ) launched a year-long campaign called "Lighting the Torch of Conscience." The purpose of the campaign, later joined by Amnesty International USA, was to mobilize faith communities and encourage local involvement in the collective effort to end capital punishment.
"Lighting the Torch of Conscience" began with a meeting at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Broad and diverse participants, including Presbyterians, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Southern Baptists, Quakers, Mennonites, Unitarians, and Methodists, signed a statement following the meeting, which read in part, "As we light this torch of conscience, we commit ourselves and our faith communities to do everything within our power to abolish the death penalty. We will use our moral leadership to change attitudes through education and engagement in faithful witness, service, and advocacy toward that end."
The Copenhagen talks are well underway, and we are excited to bring you a live update from the conference next Tuesday, December 15, at 3:30 p.m. EST. We hope you will join us to hear from David Waskow, Climate Change Program Director for Oxfam, who will provide up-to-the-minute news from Copenhagen. You'll also hear from Rabbi Warren Stone of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, MD, just days after his return from Copenhagen, about what the Jewish community is doing to get engaged. Register for the call to learn more about the progress at the climate talks, and for resources and ways for that you can get involved. The call is free, but lines are limited to the first 150 callers, so guarantee your space today!
Until then, read on for an update from Copenhagen from Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith, a sustainability consultant, long-time Jewish environmental activist, and a board member for Hazon and the American Friends of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership. You can follow all of Dr. Goldsmith's updates from the Copenhagen conference on her Green Strides Goes to Copenhagen blog, and read more of our blog posts from and about COP 15 here.
by Rabbi Warren Stone Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD
Sixty-six years ago, on October 2, 1943, when Jews were celebrating the High Holidays, Hitler ordered the arrest and deportation of Denmark's 8,000 Jews. Danish Christian citizens were outraged and courageously rescued almost the entire Jewish population. In an act of collective resistance, the Danes ferried their fellow Jewish citizens on small boats across the sea to safety in Sweden. Over 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust.
Thirty years ago, I went to the bank of the waters where Jews were rescued by Danes who transported them by sea from the Danish Island of Zealand over the Oresund Staits into Sweden. The moment brought tears to my eyes, particularly after traveling throughout Europe, visiting the camps and feeling acutely the demise of European Jewry.
Today just one day before the world Jewish celebration of Chanukah I returned to the port and remembered the story of the rescue of Danish Jewry. I gave an interview to Denmark's most popular Sunday radio station equivalent to our NPR thanking the Danish people for this act in 1943 and for their sponsoring the COP15 talks. Denmark has been a visionary leader in environmental activism.Today I will take a boat with UN delegates to visit one of their major wind farms. I will also take a moment in reflection and prayer to remember this gravely challenging time in our Jewish history and the courage of the Danish Christians in rescuing the Danish Jews.
The RAC's director, Rabbi David Saperstein, was one of three keynote speakers at the opening plenary of the Parliament of the World's Religions, a global conference held every five years. A video plenary highlights is online now, and an excerpt of Rabbi Saperstein's remarks on the importance of the religious voice in the struggle for peace begins at the 8:04 mark.
by Rabbi Warren Stone Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD (Also posted at Earthday Network)
COP15 Copenhagen has become a world stage as 192 nations and thousands converge upon this Danish city. I will be among them with a delegation from Earth Day Network. The question is on many minds: will a world agreement, a Copenhagen UN Treaty, be the next step for humanity's future?
As we wait and watch for the outcome of the Copenhagen proceedings as well as the fate of the current climate bill stalled in the United States Senate, each of us has a task beyond waiting and watching. Arguably, it is the most important task, for the real change that matters is cultural change and a shift in the way we live. Think back to the Civil Rights movement. Transformation was triggered not by slow-moving legislation but rather the many civil rights protests for the integration of America's schools and the massive march for voting rights in Selma. It was the popular voice and massive grass roots engagement on this moral issue that moved legislation, and with it, lasting change forward.
For the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to meet with Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) rabbis, congregational presidents, board members, youth and social action committees in Australia and New Zealand to discuss congregational social activism and Nothing But Nets. And what an incredible experience it has been -- both personally and professionally!
Through presentations, meetings and workshops, UPJ leadership learned about tools and resources available to help their congregation articulate and implement social action goals. During these gatherings, I shared the incredible work being done by URJ congregations in North America: Fain Award-winning projects, Just Congregations community organizing campaigns, RAC L'Taken seminars and Mitzvah Corps experiences.
In addition, I had the pleasure of speaking about Nothing But Nets, our campaign to combat the spread of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa by providing $10 bed nets to families living in refugee camps along the border of Sudan. UPJ congregations have been involved in Nothing But Nets since 2008 -- and it shows! From sanctuary displays to bar and bat mitzvah projects, from young adult trivia night benefits to challah bake fundraisers, it is clear that UPJ is well on its way to reaching its goal to raise $50,000 for Nothing But Nets.
The United Nation's COP 15 serves as the follow up to the 1997 Kyoto Conference. In 1997, I served as the Jewish NGO at the Climate UN Summit in Kyoto, Japan and as part of the UN session, blasted a Shofar in Kyoto's largest Buddhist Temple. The Shofar will go to Copenhagen as well, as we share our Jewish symbol of awakening to the dangers and challenges of climate change facing generations. I am excited to share our Jewish ecological wisdom and our movement's commitment to social justice.
The new issue of Reform Judaism magazine has an interesting article, Tikkun Olam: The Backstory, on the history of the phrase, now used as a synonym for the pursuit of social justice. The article describes some of the ideas of the great 16th century Jewish mystic Isaac Luria, including tikkun olam. And it explains how they quickly became a dominant influence in Jewish mysticism.
However there is also a "rest of the story," as Paul Harvey used to say. The phrase tikkun olam originally had nothing to do with the pursuit of social justice. In its first appearance, in the Aleinu prayer, the phrase l'taken olam, meaning literally "to mend the world" or "to perfect the world" appears in the context of the following sentence:
"We therefore put our hope in You, Lord our God, to soon behold the glory of Your might in banishing idolatry from the earth, and the false gods will be utterly exterminated to perfect the world as the kingdom of the Almighty." (based on Metsudah Siddur translation.)
A few months before I left to spend this year studying in Jerusalem at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, I brainstormed a list of all the things I was looking forward to enjoying once I arrived in Israel...most of which was food. Falafel, shwarma, shoko b'sakit (chocolate milk in a bag), chocolate bars filled with pop rocks, the fruits and vegetables of Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem's open-air market. So much of what I love about Israel is connected to its foods.
In the almost three months since I've been living in Jerusalem, the ways I connect to Eretz Yisrael through eating its food have moved beyond junk food and street food, to incorporating my Jewish social justice values in the way I cook and eat in Israel, through a CSA share (community-supported agriculture) and the Tav Chevrati.
Once a RAC LA, Always a RAC LA
November 6, 2009
Rebecca Blake Chaikin is a former RAC Legislative Assistant who now serves on the Union for Reform Judaism's Resolutions Committee.
Twenty-five years ago Larry Milder wrote, "Wherever you go, there's always someone Jewish." (See his Biennial performance of it below!) Being at Biennial, I feel that wherever I go, there's always a current or former RAC Legislative Assistant!
Whether serving on committees or the URJ Board, running NFTY programming, working on the URJ staff or presenting at learning sessions, former RAC LAs have a considerable presence here. It is a testament to the dedication to Reform Judaism fostered by the intense, challenging, and immeasurably rewarding Eisendrath Legislative Assistant program that being a RAC LA is so often only the beginning of an adult life spent in service to the Movement.
We're here in Toronto for the Union for Reform Judaism's 70th Biennial Convention, where, on Wednesday, the URJ's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to support the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Read our full statement here.
Tomorrow morning, the House of Representatives will convene a special Saturday session to vote on its version of the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This legislation would expand coverage to 96% of Americans, contains a "public option," expands Medicaid, includes subsidies to ensure that low-income Americans can afford coverage, and is projected to reduced budget deficits by $104 billion over 10 years.
Urge your Representative to vote tomorrow to support the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The Capitol Switchboard can be reached at 202.224.3121, or you can send a quick, prewritten email. You can also sign our petition to Congress at JewsForHealthCareReform.org.
Now is the time for Congress to enact affordable, accessible health care for all. Let's help make it happen.
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Shocking! All four resolutions passed without a soul grabbing the con microphone. I heard not even a whisper of opposition from among the 3000 delegates who voted on climate change and energy, the treatment of Israeli Arab citizens, special needs camping, and Reform day schools. What happened? This is in defiance of the Jewish maxim -- two Jews, three opinions! Well, there are two reasons, actually.
The first, as explained by the chair of the resolutions committee, Jennifer Kaufman, is that for the first time in Biennial history congregations received the resolutions sixty days in advance allowing for revisions in advance of the convention. So what comes before the delegates has few wrinkles and does not require an army of editors fighting over the placement of commas.
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Rebecca Katz is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
What do an American rabbi, a Canadian professor, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Game Show Network have in common? The answer is none other than an invested interest in the boiling health care debate. At Biennial this afternoon, Rabbi Jonah Pesner moderated a health care forum featuring panelists Rabbi William Cutter, Dr. Raisa Deber, David Goldhill.
As a legislative assistant at the Religious Action Center, I work with a variety of issues including health care and was thrilled at the opportunity to help with this session. Rabbi Cutter discussed how we as Jews can take a stance on health care using the Talmud rhetorically, and keeping in mind caring for the stranger, attending to our neighbors, and seeking healing of body and soul. Following him was Dr. Deber, professor of health policy at University of Toronto, who outlined dimensions and models of health systems and explained health practices in Canada in contrast to the United States. Last was David Goldhill, CEO of the Game Show Network and author of an essay published in Atlantic Monthly entitled "How American Health Care Killed my Father." Goldhill shared his father's story and spoke of the moral imperative of health care coverage and also treatment of health care as an industry. After listening to these three speakers, perhaps most compelling to me was the reaction of the forum attendees. Among the people who stepped up to the open microphone located in the center of the room were doctors, lawyers, nurses and activists, eager to share their perspectives and their experiences, and also their skepticisms about aspects of panelists' remarks.
Daphne Price is the executive assistant and adviser to Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
This afternoon, at the URJ Biennial Convention, I had the honor and pleasure to hear from Dr. Michael Meyer of HebrewUnionCollege. Dr. Meyer lectured on the topic of "American Orthodoxy." The description of the session read, "We shall discuss the history of Jewish Orthodoxy in the United States, the various shapes it assumes at present, its principles, its inner conflicts, and the direction in which it is moving. We shall then ask: Is there a common ground on which we, as Reform Jews, can build a relationship with our Orthodox brothers and sisters?"
Dr. Meyer described the growth of Orthodox Judaism in the United States - what Orthodoxy looked like in the early years, its "mushroom" Jews, the arrival of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik in the United States and his lasting influence as the founder of Modern Orthodoxy. He lectured on Charedi Jews and what it means to be an ultra-Orthodox Jew. He used Chabad as the most popular example, and spoke of the lasting impact of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who shaped the Chabad Movement when he was alive, and according to some, even more after his passing. He described Rabbi Norman Lamm's contribution to the Jewish community as the chancellor of YeshivaUniversity. In each case, Dr. Meyer described with vivid examples the great disparity and lack of cohesiveness within the Jewish community, placing Orthodoxy on the one side, and Conservative and Reform Judaism on the other. It felt like the disparity, as he described it, created a huge, unbridgeable chasm between the Reform and Orthodox worlds.
Women of Reform Judaism's 47th Assembly is well underway with committee and board meetings completed and our first round of workshops taking place this afternoon.
This first workshop block shows the diversity of the interests and the issues that are important to the women who make up Women of Reform Judaism. There are walking tours of Kensington Market and Toronto, as well as an introduction to assembly itself; what a thrill it must be to be attending for the first time!
WRJ is all about the bonds that women create and that is reflected in this workshop block. These bonds exist between each other ("Women Connecting with Other Women"), between themselves and the next generation ("The Special Bond of Sisterhood and Temple Youth") and between leadership ("For Sisterhood Presidents: A Conversation with Your Peers").
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by Rabbi Denise L. Eger (Originally published on the RACBlog)
Rabbi Erger 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.
Last week I was part of a very historic mission to Israel sponsored by our Los Angeles Consul General, Yaakov Dayan. It was his vision and leadership that brought together 18 of Los Angeles' most prominent rabbis representing Reform, Conservative and Orthodox congregations and communities in Los Angeles. We traveled to together for a whirlwind trip to Eretz Yisrael. We were in Israel for a very short time - 58 hours on the ground and almost as much time in the air!
The group of rabbis also included: Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Rabbi Robert Wexler, president of the American Jewish University; Rabbi David Wolpe of Temple Sinai; Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills; Rabbi Eli Herscher, Sr. Rabbi of Stephen S. Wise Temple; and Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City; Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of the Orthodox B'nai David-Judea congregation; Rabbi Stewart Vogel of Conservative congregation Temple Aliyah; Conservative rabbi Sharon Brous of Ikar and several others. Diverse indeed! But we came to Israel with one thing in mind - unity. We came in solidarity to show the Los Angeles Jewish community our commitment to Israel. We came in solidarity to show Israel that it is possible for rabbinic leaders of all stripes to join in dialogue and in spite of our differences, to show our commitment to the notion of Klal Yisrael - the peoplehood of the state of Israel is a sacred tenet that we all share.
This post originally appeared in the Washington Post's On Faith section, where Rabbi Saperstein is a regular panelist. It is reprinted with permission.
This week's On Faith question asks, "Congress is expected to expand federal hate crimes laws to add "sexual orientation" to a list that already includes "race, color, religion or national origin." Is this necessary? Should there be special laws against crimes motivated by intolerance, bigotry and hatred? Isn't a crime a crime?"
As the quintessential victims of religious persecution in the history of Western civilization, the Jewish community has long supported hate crime legislation. We know all too well that hate crimes are different from other crimes. They are more than mere acts of violence. They are more than individual murders, beatings, and assaults. Rather, they seek to terrorize entire groups of Americans. Hate crimes are nothing less than attacks on those values that are the pillars of our republic and the guarantors of our freedom. They erode our national well being. Those who commit these crimes do so fully intending to tear at the too-often frayed threads of diversity that bind us together and make us strong. They seek to divide and conquer. They seek to tear us apart from within, pitting American against American, fomenting violence and civil discord.
Today, more than 8,000 individuals and organizations in 120 countries will raise their voices together for the 2009 Blog Action Day on climate change. In what is becoming an annual tribute to the power of online media and social networking, Blog Action Day brings together diverse voices throughout the advocacy and activist communities to focus attention - from the grassroots to elected officials - on an urgent issue facing our global community.
The world, and specifically the community of Reform Judaism, lost a very special neshama with the death by enemy action in Afghanistan of Captain Benjamin Sklaver, US Army, 32, of Hamden, Conn.
Ben was a product of Mishkan Israel of Hamden, Vice President of NFTY-NE in 1994-95 and was a graduate of both Tufts and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
While employed at the Centers for Disease Control, he joined the Army Reserve in 2003 as a civil affairs expert and deployed to the Horn of Africa where he was touched by the high rates of child mortality linked to dirty drinking water. After his demobilization and return to civilian life, Ben founded ClearWater Initiative, an organization based in New Haven that sought to provide potable water in underdeveloped Ugandan villages. In northern Uganda, Ben was known as "Moses Ben." According to its Web site, ClearWater Initiative has constructed wells for more than 6,500 people since 2007.
by Rachel Cohen Senior Legislative Assistant, RAC (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah)
It is only a few days after Yom Kippur, and already another season is about to end. Not for us as Jews or North Americans, but for the earth. Today begins one of the most joyous weeks of the Jewish year as we celebrate the harvest, and mark the end of the agricultural season, with the festival of Sukkot. And just as Sukkot ends, on Shemini Atzeret, we pray for an abundant rainy season following the dry summer months and enjoy the gifts of the earth - fruit, grains, and water - with which we are blessed once again.
We call ourselves the "People of the Book," yet our calendar and our celebrations remind us that we have always been a people of the land. Greeting cards and gifts aside, the most important holidays in traditional Judaism have always been the three harvest festivals: Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. These holidays each mark not only an historical event (the Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the wandering of the Israelites through the desert) but also a pivotal point in the agricultural calendar (the beginning of spring, the new planting season, and the last harvest before the winter rains). Every year at these critical moments we stop to take stock of where we are - in relation to our earth above all else - give thanks for what we have, and carefully consider our next steps.
As a Reform Jew, you pursue social justice in your everyday life and participate in tikkun olam, the repair of our broken world, whenever possible. To recognize and celebrate these good deeds, we're launching Images of Justice, a Facebook-based contest that invites Reform Jews across North America to show us all how you're bettering the world through your personal pursuit of social justice. To participate, all you need is a camera (or a camera phone!), a Facebook account & a passion for putting your Jewish values into action - and you'll be entered to win great prizes from the Reform Movement! Here's how to enter:
Post a photo on our Facebook wall of you engaged in tikkun olam - a past or present photo of you doing anything from planting a tree to participating in a march, rally or protest to serving food at a soup kitchen. Be creative! Entry deadline is Friday, October 16, 2009, at 4pm Eastern.
The RAC staff will choose one grand prize winner based on effort, creativity and enthusiasm. The winner will receive a $118 gift certificate redeemable for any RAC-sponsored conference or event, along with a surprise bag packed with Reform Movement swag. Five runners up will receive prizes, too, & all submissions will appear in a blog post on the RACblog & RJ.org.
Spread the word, grab your camera & be the image of justice! We can't wait to see your submissions.
Earlier this month, I marked the completion of my seventh year of work with the Union for Reform Judaism. Ah-ha, I thought, time for a sabbatical!
And so it was that this past Wednesday, I boarded an Amtrak train in New York's Penn Station and headed to Washington DC to visit - for the first time -- the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Reform Movement's advocacy and lobbying arm.
Once outside Union Station, my first stop was the Rayburn House Office Building where, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the RAC was scheduled to testify at the House Education and Labor Committee's hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Long overdue and, it seems to me, a "no brainer," this legislation (H.R. 3017-S. 1584) would prohibit employers from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Unbelievable as it seems, even today, in more than two dozen states, discrimination based on sexual orientation and in more than three dozen states based on gender identity is still legal.
by Kate Bigam Press Secretary, RAC (Originally posted at RACblog)
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center, testified Wednesday morning before the House Education and Labor Committee in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a civil rights bill that would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, demote or fail to promote an employee based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
The full text of Rabbi Saperstein's submitted testimony is after the jump; you can also watch a webcast of it (his testimony begins at the 1:46:34 marker). You can make your voice heard in this civil rights debate by checking out our action alert to write to your Members of Congress asking them to support ENDA.
by Sophie Vener 2009-2010 NFTY Social Action Vice President
I arrived in Jerusalem on Monday, August 31st, to begin my year onShnat Netzer, the World Union for Progressive Judaism's gap year program in Israel. We spent the first week in the Beit Shmuel youth hostel for orientation, learning rules and regulations as well as getting acclimated to our new home in Jerusalem.
Included in the week of orientation was participating in the Israel Religious Action Center's program Keren B'Kavod, the progressive movement's response to poverty in Israel. One of the ways that Keren B'Kavod addresses poverty is through holiday food drives, in which people donate boxes of nutritionally balanced meals to hungry Israeli families. We were sent on a mission to Machane Yehuda, the Israeli outdoor marketplace also known as The Shuk, with 100 sheckels each to find and purchase food for a nutritionally insecure Israeli family. It was a powerful image to see 26 British and American Reform Jewish teenagers enthusiastically storm the streets of Jerusalem in an effort to provide food for families in need.
by Anat Hoffman (Originally published in IRAC's newsletter, The Pluralist)
Last Sunday, seven Israel Religious Action Center staff members and I boarded at the front of Bus No. 40, one of Jerusalem's segregated bus lines. After paying the fare, we sat down right behind the bus driver, which prompted shouts of "Women in the back, women in the back!" from the ultra-Orthodox men on board. Two men rushed to the front and complained to the driver; I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I did hear the driver say, "It's hard enough to drive a bus in Jerusalem traffic without having to deal with all this balagen [chaos]."
Our protest was part of a larger demonstration that day co-sponsored by IRAC and other organizations. Forty people, men and women, boarded several segregated buses around the city and sat together up front. None of the protestors sat next to ultra-Orthodox passengers or deliberately provoked them in any way other than our boarding and sitting in the front.
When you hear "Labor Day", what are the first things that come to mind? A recent survey of friends included responses such as: end of the summer, last weekend at the pool, last hurrah at the beach, beginning of school, and a reminder that the high holidays are just around the corner. Not one of them associated the Labor Day with the reason it was created - as a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
But what if we actually put the Labor back into Labor Day? How could we use the opportunity to reflect on the amazing achievements of American workers and at the same time on the challenges facing working people in our country today?
At Jews United for Justice, our answer to these questions is Labor on the Bimah: an opportunity for congregations to integrate Labor Day into their services by focusing on workers' rights issues from the Bimah through a sermon, a conversation, or even through music. This year nearly 50 synagogues and minyanim in the Washington area will be joining hundreds of churches, synagogues, and mosques around the country for Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar, a national program led by Interfaith Worker Justice and the AFL-CIO.
by Rabbi David Saperstein (Originally posted at RACblog)
In less than 100 days, diplomats, elected officials, environmental scientists, economists, and clergy from around the world will converge in Copenhagen, Denmark, for what world leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and world-renowned economist Nicholas Stern, are calling "the most important international gathering since the end of the Second World War."
December 7 is the opening day of the UN COP-15 conference, the stage on which world leaders will attempt to reach a deal to slash global greenhouse gas emissions and rebuild the global economy with green roots, all in an effort to mitigate catastrophic climate change. The event may seem distant - in time and place - but there is so much to be done in the next 100 days to get ready, and we hope you can help!
So over the next 100 days, what can you do? In just a few weeks, the Global Campaign for Climate Action, Oxfam, Religions for Peace and others will join together for Climate Week NYC. Take part in this grassroots mobilization around the September 22 UN General Assembly's day-long summit focused exclusively on how to forge an international deal on climate change. There are events going on throughout the city all week long, from movie premieres and concerts to forums and debates, and many ways to get involved remotely.
For more than 60 years, the fate of one political family has been interwoven with the history of Reform Judaism in America. That family is the Kennedys, now mourning the loss of Senator Ted Kennedy, the lion of the Senate and for nearly half a century, the most prominent champion of liberalism in American Life.
His brother John F. Kennedy was not, early on in his presidential quest, an automatic favorite of American Jewish voters. Their father, Joe, was an object of distrust, particularly because of his isolationism during much of the Nazi era, and Jack was viewed by many as an untested leader who had wimped out on Joe McCarthy. But by his 1960 campaign, his style, his optimism and his symbolizing of religious equality earned the support of many Jews, including Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, who condemned the anti-Catholic attacks on him, most keenly those by the renowned Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, challenging him to a debate on television on the propriety of religious discrimination in American political life. This began a special connection between the Reform Jewish Movement and the Kennedys, which only grew over the decades.
by Kate Bigam Press Secretary, RAC (Originally appeared at RACblog)
Today the country mourns the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, a giant for social justice. Sen. Kennedy served 47 years in the United States Senate, where he championed bills like the Voting Rights Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Known for his rare and impressive ability to work across party lines to progress much-needed legislation, Sen. Kennedy leaves behind a rich and meaningful legacy.
It's a legacy with particular significance to American Jewry, as well - especially to the Reform Movement, with whom Kennedy worked closely on a number of issues. He was close friends with the RAC's own Rabbi David Saperstein and was a longtime support of the Movement's social justice advocacy work, which Rabbi Saperstein spoke to in a statement today.
Now we want to hear your thoughts on Sen. Ted Kennedy's life and legacy. What did his work mean to you and your life? How will he be remembered? Leave your reflections on our Facebook wall at Facebook.com/TheRAC, and we'll compile them at the end of the week for a look back at the Reform Movement's remembrance of Sen. Kennedy. Zichronam livracha, may his name be for a blessing.
Godwin's Law is a rule of internet conversations, which says that the longer a discussion thread continues, the higher the probability that someone will mention Hitler or Nazis. A popular variation is that the first person to invoke Hitler or Nazis is considered to have lost the debate.
There is a lot of truth in both these variations. There is something about the conditions of the internet that unleashes the furies in many who post in forums. Fortunately, this name-calling is generally of little consequence.
However, this dreadful practice has migrated more and more to the television and face to face political events. The more personal and public the name-calling becomes, the more dangerous it is. In Pirkei Avot it is written that a person who shames another in public will "have no place in the world to come." The Hebrew phrase for public shaming is halbanat panim, which means literally "whitening the face" of the other person, causing the other person to blanche. And the sages said that as blood drains from the face of the person insulted, that halbanat panim is so grave a sin as being equivalent to bloodshed, because it often leads to bloodshed.
by Kate Bigam Press Secretary, RAC (Originally appeared at RACblog)
What were you doing last Sunday at 8:30 a.m.? That's when Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director of the Reform Movement's Just Congregations, appeared on CNN's "Faces of Faith" segment with host TJ Holmes and guest Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins of the 19th Street Baptist Church in DC. Together, Rabbi Pesner and Rev. Harkins presented a unified voice in support of health care reform, urging people of faith to get involved in the ongoing health care debate.
by Joanna Blotner Religion & Faith Program Coordinator, Human Rights Campaign Former Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the RAC (Originally appeared at RACblog)
Two weekends ago, a gunman attacked the Agudah LGBT community center in Tel Aviv, murdering two young, gay Israelis. When I first heard this news, I was shocked, horrified, angry, embarrassed, sad and instantaneously compelled to act. I was reacting not only to yet another hate crime perpetrated against the LGBT community but, more personally, I was reacting to a hate crime perpetrated in "my" Jewish community, as well. I was ashamed that Jewish teachings, culture and society played a role, likely a significant one (I say "likely" because the shooter has not yet been apprehended) in providing a motive for this atrocity.
In DC, a handful of young professional Jewish and LGBT community activists rallied to organize a vigil in remembrance of the victims and in solidarity with Israel to combat homophobia wherever it exists. Similar vigils also took place in the major cities across the country. Unfortunately, meaningful and well-meaning vigils alone do not affect the sustainable transformation in attitudes, beliefs, and actions that are needed in the Jewish community. The cadre of organizers I worked with to plan the DC vigil uniformly agreed that follow-up work was essential in combating homophobia, transphobia, ignorance, apathy and broad-ranging heteronormativity as they manifest themselves in our temples, community centers, camps, youth groups, political organizations, and other Jewish spaces.
But what exactly does that change look like?
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Congress is officially on recess, but it won't be an easy vacation - for them or for us. As Members of Congress gauge their constituents' views on a range of issues, from health care reform to climate change, we at the RAC are hard at work ensuring that you have the tools you need to make your voice heard.
If you've been following the news, you know that health care reform is the hot-button issue of the moment. Today, we're excited to increase the volume of our support for universal health care by launching JewsForHealthCareReform.org, a website that provides supporters of universal health care with the resources and tools necessary to add their voices to the growing chorus of people of faith speaking out for reform. The site includes fact sheets on the health care system, Jewish texts on health care mandates, and action alerts containing pre-written letters to Congress contact in support of reform.
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by Daphne Price Executive Assistant to Rabbi David Saperstein (Originally posted at RACblog)
I had a very clumsy week last week, and because of that clumsiness, I found myself covered in marks and bruises. I look like I could be (Gd forbid!) a battered wife. That's why, when I went to the mikva last night, I expected to be grilled by the mikva attendant, who no doubt would raise an eyebrow and comment at or question me about the bruises and welts on my body.
To be clear, this isn't a cry for help. My husband would never raise a hand to me. Each time I got hurt last week, my husband was nowhere near me, and I had witnesses to each incident. The fist-sized bruise on my upper thigh appeared after I walked into a post in the parking lot of my local supermarket. An elderly man saw it happen, and said "Wow, that's gotta hurt." Oh, you betcha. The bruises on my toes appeared shortly after I pulled some cookie sheets out of their cabinet - despite my kids' nanny's best effort to prevent it, one fell and landed across my foot. And the burn mark on my stomach came from my falling into one of those cookie sheets just after it came out of the oven - my sister-in-law saw that one coming!
by Rabbi Marla J. Feldman Director of Development, Union for Reform Judaism First posted on RACblog
I admit it's a bit gimmicky - a group of rabbis and cantors joining together for a 'rolling fast' to bring attention to the continuing crisis in Sudan. My day was yesterday. To be honest, I doubt that my skipping a few meals will actually make a difference in the ongoing struggle to end the campaign of terror against the people of Darfur. After five years of rallies and petitions and letters to elected officials and world leaders, countless documentaries and star-powered events, divestment campaigns and shareholder activism - one wonders if anything can really make a difference. I've done my share of speaking and demonstrating, donated to relief funds and the Save Darfur Coalition, and even went to Africa with Nothing But Nets to deliver mosquito nets to protect refugees from malaria. And yet the atrocities continue. So why bother fasting if it won't make a difference?
by Jill Zimmerman
Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center
(Originally published on the RACBlog)
As Congress is working to reconfigure our country's health care system, many are pointing to health systems overseas as examples. Israel has one of the most advanced health care systems in the world, and rivals the United States on everything from quality to cost to coverage.
I recently listened to a podcast by the Israel Project in which Dr. Rafi Cayam (Leumit Director of Medicine for the Jerusalem District) and Professor Shlomo Mor Yosef (Director-General, Hadassah Medical Organization) explained how Israel's health care system works.
You're sitting in your temple's social hall contemplating the meaning of the week's Torah portion or synagogue office proof reading the newsletter or sanctuary harmonizing in Adon Alom. You take a minute to think: who will be contemplating the Torah here, five years from now? Who will proof read the newsletter in ten? Who will lead my congregation twenty years from now? Fifty?
Your answer: the youth. Those wild kids who eat too much pizza and hand out goldfish at the Purim carnival are the future of American Reform Jewry. URJ President Rabbi Eric Yoffie stated the work that adults have to do: We must offer our teenagers inspiration and direction, learning and worship, teachers and role models who will amplify for them the heartbeat of our precious heritage so that it can be heard above the noisy rhythms of modern life.
by Amy R. Kaplan Director of Government Relations for the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland and Vice Chair of the URJ's Board of Trustees (Originally posted on the RACBlog)
The normally relaxing nature of summer came to a brief, if temporary, end for me last week when President Barack Obama paid a visit to my town of Shaker Heights, Ohio. As some of you may know, on July 23, 2009, the President held a town hall rally focused on health care reform, an issue that has become his highest domestic priority. Held at Shaker Heights High School, the event galvanized our community for the 72 hours we had to prepare for it. It turns out that the White House doesn't provide much notice between selecting the site (Monday) and hosting the event (Thursday)!
by Eliza Scheffler Participant in the RAC's Machon Kaplan summer program for college students. (Originally posted on the RACBlog)
Equal Rights Amendment: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
Well, duh. Right?
Well... not duh. Technically, the equal protection of all people, regardless of sex, is not written into the United States Constitution.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), authored by Alice Paul, was first introduced in Congress in 1923. After it was passed in 1972, it was sent to the states for ratification. Only 35 states ratified the ERA by the deadline, 3 short of the needed 38 to adopt an amendment. Since 1982, the ERA has been reintroduced in every session of Congress. Yesterday, it was reintroduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney.
In the days after we returned from our honeymoon the questions turned from "how was your trip" to "when should we expect kids?" With the whiplash of the wedding weekend only partly wearing off, neither of us was ready to strap ourselves in for these neck cracking questions. While not in the near future (10 years mom), kids are definitely part of our plan. We both want them and we both want to be as ready as possible for the huge responsibility that comes with that bundle of joy.
When I'm called upon to prepare divrei Torah, my usual procedure is to look at the parasha and try to extract a message that will establish its relevance to my hearers or readers. But for this foray into Biblical explication, the procedure had to be recalibrated. I was invited to the bimah this past Shabbat to talk about the work of my congregation's Just Congregations Healthcare Team, and had to work backwards from its message to the sedrah.
Fortunately, the parasha was Pinchas, so the quandary dissipated. Pinchas not only deals directly with healthcare, beginning as it does with the end of a plague that has killed 24,000 Israelites, but it also stands out as a manifesto for taking action and standing up for one's rights, along with other parallels to our work as a Just Congregation. Now, since other Reform congregations and other faith communities share our concern, I invite others to latch onto our cause on its merits, if not on its connection to Pinchas.
by Rachel Cohen Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center (Originally published on the RACBlog)
Have you ever thought about taking action on climate change and wondered, "does my voice really matter?" If so, then today is your day! Congress is about to vote on the most important piece of climate and energy legislation in years, and many members of the House of Representatives (especially the "Blue Dog" Democrats) remain undecided. Despite weeks of drafts and compromises to bring the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) to this point, much uncertainty about the bill and its fate remains. Many of our own partners in the faith community are unsatisfied with the aid provided to the most vulnerable developing nations to adapt to climate change, and some of the most progressive environmental groups claim that targets for emissions reductions and renewable energy are insufficient to the challenge we face. And of course, there are still those who refuse to take any action on climate and energy.
by Rabbi David Saperstein (Originally posted on the RACBlog)
Today I find myself once again fasting for Darfur. My first fast for Darfur, which I did only a few days after being arrested with Representative John Lewis, four other members of Congress, and leaders of Darfur advocacy groups, was undertaken to underline the urgency of the suffering in the internally displaced persons camps in Darfur after President Bashir had expelled over a dozen aid groups from the region.
Now, though, three months later, as I take up the same fast again, the situation has not materially improved. Aid groups report that while they have covered some gaps, their efforts are neither sustainable nor sufficient. Food and other supplies have been unable to be pre-positioned before the rainy season in necessary amounts. Aid groups report that hunger and water-borne diseases will spread in the rainy season, with feared results of mass migration. Children are disproportionately susceptible to the results of insufficient sanitation, food and medical supplies. Families in other parts of Sudan also suffer as aid groups were pushed out.
The poet Marcia Falk adapted a poem ascribed only to the name Zelda, called "Each of Us Has a Name," which reads in part:
Each of us has a name given by the source of life and given by our parents
Each of us has a name given by our stature and our smile and given by what we wear
Each of us has a name given by our enemies and given by our love
[On Sunday, May 31st] in Wichita, KS, a man whose name is known to many in the political, social action, and medical communities was shot and killed in his church. He was serving as an usher, handing out programs much like our Shabbat greeters do here at Temple Sinai. His wife was singing in the choir when a man walked in, shot and killed Dr. George Tiller, and ran away.
Check out Patheos' page on the Obama speech, where you can watch video responses from Rabbi Saperstein and from Eboo Patel, Director of the Interfaith Youth Core. Responses have also been posted from religious leaders across the country representing various faiths. Here's Rabbi Saperstein's take:
So, we have a nominee in the pipeline. Now what? The confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice does not happen overnight. In fact, it takes an average of 72 days for a nominee to go from being named to being confirmed. (If your knowledge on the judicial nominations process is a bit rusty, check out the RAC's one page summary of the nominations process and the ways that you can have an impact.)
The next major landmark in the process will be the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Judge Sotomayor's nomination.
by Mark J. Pelavin (Originally published on the RACBlog)
Today's speech by President Obama laying out his plan for closing the detainee center at Guantanamo Bay was a masterful example of the power of political theatre, in all the best senses of that term. I was honored to be in the Rotunda of the National Archives to hear the President speak.
As at any theatre performance, even before the performers take the stage, you take note of the set. By choosing to speak at the National Archives, flanked by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the President's embrace of the rule of law was dramatically reciprocated; he was, in turn, embraced by our most fundamental laws.
by Mark J. Pelavin
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Mark J. Pelavin is Associate Director of the Religious Action Center as well as Director of the Commission on Interreligious Affairs of Reform Judaism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Washington this week for his first meetings with President Obama. The meetings will kick off a major diplomatic campaign for the President, who will welcome the Prime Minster, President Mubarak of Egypt and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority between now and the end of the month. According to the White House, "With each of them, the President will discuss ways the United States can strengthen and deepen our partnerships, as well as the steps all parties should take to help achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab states."
There is lots of interesting advance commentary about the meeting in this weekend's papers. Here are some of the best "curtain raisers:"
by Rachel Cohen
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Rachel Cohen is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
It's always an exciting moment when the four main streams of American Judaism - not to mention a dozen other national Jewish organizations from the JCC Association to the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education - join together as part a single unified initiative. That is exactly what happened when the RAC's Rabbi David Saperstein, Jesse Paikin of the URJ Camps Department and I represented the URJ this week at a meeting of more than 40 leaders from across the broad spectrum of the organized American Jewish community for the first national Jewish Sustainability Conference.
by Rabbi David Jay Kaufman
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Rabbi David Jay Kaufman is the rabbi at Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa. All views expressed are his own.
There is a false perception that somehow an organization of the political right. Anti-Israel groups have worked hard to give people that false impression. Many in the Jewish community see AIPAC also (wrongly) as an advocate for the Israeli political right. In many ways, Jewish peace groups are responsible for that falsity. One need only look at the depth and breadth of the AIPAC Policy Conference to see the dramatic error in those false conceptions of AIPAC.
by Micaela Hellman-Tincher
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Micaela Hellman-Tincher is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
Special thanks to Legislative Assistant Rachel Cohen for her contributions to this post.
This weekend, you can help set a world record AND build a more equitable and environmentally sustainable global economy simply by taking a coffee break. A Fair Trade coffee break, that is. On and around May 9th, join activists and concerned global citizens to celebrate World Fair Trade Day by indulging in a cup of Fair Trade coffee, chomping on a Fair Trade chocolate bar, or giving Fair Trade flowers to a loved one. To learn more about the World's Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break, check out their website for tips on planning an event (even tips on making sure that your event- like Fair Trade coffee- is environmentally conscious) or finding one near you.
by Jason Fenster
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Jason Fenster is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
Last week the Crack the Disparity Coalition held its second annual (and last) lobby day seeking to reform the egregious crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity.
The lobby day was a very exciting experience. We kicked off the day with speeches from Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), the lead sponsor one of the legislative options, Hilary Shelton of the NAACP, and Rabbi Saperstein, who delivered an inspirational and rousing speech that can be found here. There were people from across the country: community leaders, clergy, educators, and concerned citizens. They came and spoke to their Senators and Representatives about a foolish drug policy that has been a blemish on the American criminal justice system for over two decades.
By Barbara Lerman-Golomb
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Barbara Lerman-Golomb is a member of the Commission on Social Action and the Northeast Camp Commission. She is the Director of Education and Outreach for Hazon and an author, environmental activist and experiential educator. All views expressed are her own.
There's no question about it, "green" is in and not just on Tu B'Shvat and Earth Day. For me, this is taking some getting used to since it's been out for so long. But while "green" may be in, according to a Pew Research Center poll taken a week before the inauguration, global warming ranks dead last on the public's list of concerns.
I first started talking publicly about global warming over 15 years ago, before it became the issue du jour - when it was still called "global warming" and not the more accurate "global climate change." Common sense and public health idrew me to it. I'm also predisposed to having a penchant for underdog causes, which to borrow a phrase from Al Vorspan, Director Emeritus of the Commission on Social Action, is what being a nudnick for social justice is all about.
Our Jewish texts and sources say little about the Jewish responsibility to build affordable housing. We have no biblical command that mandates, "Thou shall build affordable housing for the needy in your community." Yet, we have texts that instruct us to share our bread with the hungry, to welcome the poor into our homes, and to clothe the naked (Isaiah 58:6-7). Our people and our tradition are well aware of the problems of poverty and homelessness. The challenge for us, as American and as Jews, is to broaden the scope of our thinking about housing beyond the homeless and poorest of the poor.
We must ask ourselves a few questions: How do we consider the needs of those who have housing but whose housing is insufficient? How do we advocate for those who are working one, two, or three jobs but cannot afford to live in neighborhoods that nourish their children's lives? How do we respond to the needs of the elderly - whose mobility may have decreased, whose income is fixed, and who cannot afford to sell their homes and move to corridors that have access to food, healthcare, and public transportation?
The solution of mankind's most vexing problem will not be found in renouncing technical civilization, but in attaining some degree of independence of it. In regard to external gifts, to outward possessions, there is only one proper attitude - to have them and to be able to do without them. On the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization: we abstain primarily from any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things of space. Man's royal privilege to conquer nature is suspended on the seventh day. - Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (1951)
American immigrants here always used to joke about how the new developments and cultural fads of Europe and North America generally took a decade or two to find their way into our mainstream. Often we had the sense of living in a state of delayed development. We were still carrying reusable baskets and even refillable bottles to the market when America had long changed to disposables; we were still mostly riding the buses when everyone in America had a car. Now, however, the time lag has shrunk considerably, probably to zero. Indeed, I think we were even ahead of America in the use of ATMs and later, of cell phones. So now, the world-wide fad in environmentalism has arrived here pretty much simultaneously with its flowering elsewhere. We too now recycle plastic bottles (though only the 1.5 liter ones); we too now use cloth bags instead of plastic at the supermarket; the elites are even buying hybrid cars and installing solar panels.
We will dress you in a dress of cement and mortar; We will spread for you carpets of gardens; On the soil of your redeemed fields The grain will sing out like bells.
Through the desert we will carve a road; The swamps - we'll dry them all up. What more we can give you, we will, What haven't we given that we still can give? -Nathan Alterman, from "Morning Song" 1934
Originally written for a Keren Hayesod (European UJA) fundraising film, this song by perhaps the most popular and prolific Israeli poet and songwriter of the pre-state and early state period was sung by generations of school children until it fell out of favor in recent years. The song's disappearance from popular culture is a striking indicator of the change in consciousness that has occurred and is occurring regarding our relationship to the land of Israel. For decades we lived on the myth that Israel had once, long ago, been a fruitful, green land - in the years when we were sovereign here and cultivated and cared for the soil. But then, when we left, the land fell into disrepair and was abused - armies cut down the trees, goats ate the new growth, silt plugged up the streams - leaving the dismal and pathetic combination of swamp and desert that the Zionist pioneers found when they returned.
by Jill Zimmerman (First posted on the RACblog) Jill Zimmerman is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. A new report released Monday by D.C. health officials says that at least 3% of residents in our nation's capital are living with HIV or AIDS, a 22% increase from the nearly 12,500 reported in 2006. And since research indicates that one-third to one-half of infected people are unaware, the real number is almost certainly higher.
That makes the D.C. AIDS epidemic worse than West Africa's.
Reflections from visit to refugee camps at Dadaab, Kenya by Rabbi Marla J. Feldman (This is the fourth in a series of posts from Rabbi Marla Feldman's recent trip to Kenya to deliver insecticide-treated bed nets purchased through the Reform Movement'sNothing But Nets campaign, which is underwritten by the U.N. Foundation.)
Traveling back from Kenya we were struck by the number of lines we had to go through at the airport. There was a security line to enter the terminal, another line to check in, another security line into the gate area and no less than two security lines to get into the gate itself. Lines, lines, lines.
So too, we saw many lines when we were at the refugee camps at Dadaab. Upon my return, I was asked whether the refugees ever became hostile or rebellious in the face of the abominable conditions in which they live. My response was that most seemed beaten down by the daily rigors of their existence... miles of walking from one line to the next in equatorial desert heat, hours upon hours of waiting for each service for which they depend for their sustenance, cultural norms that keep women and children silent and subservient, and the world's indifference to the plight of the most long-suffering refugees in Africa.
By Stephanie Garry
(This is the third in a series of posts from Rabbi Marla Feldman's recent trip to Kenya to deliver insecticide-treated bed nets purchased through the Reform Movement's Nothing But Nets campaign, which is underwritten by the U.N. Foundation.)
I had no idea what to expect--traveling to Kenya to visit refugee camps in Dadaab. I had been on safari to Kenya 14 years ago with my husband and son and so loved the air of the land and the romance of the sky---and the vistas of animals on our planet.
While I knew this trip would be of a different nature--I could not have prepared myself for the overwhelming experience I was about to have.
By Rachel Cohen
(First posted on the RACblog)
Rachel Cohen is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
Today I joined our Legislative Director, Barbara Weinstein, as she delivered testimony before the EPA on a critical set of greenhouse gas emissions regulations for cars and trucks. Though the hearing room was packed and speakers included dozens of experts from environmental, public health, consumer advocacy and auto industry groups, ours was the only faith voice in the room. And I am proud to say that we were there, speaking out for policies to protect our environment, our public health, and our national security today and in the future.
by Rabbi Marla Feldman Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism (This is the second in a series of posts from Rabbi Feldman's recent trip to Kenya to deliver insecticide-treated bed nets purchased through the Reform Movement's Nothing But Nets campaign, which is underwritten by the U.N. Foundation.)
Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, is a living hell. Situated on the equator, it is demonly hot, parched and barren. The soil ranges from sand to red manure-laden dirt that turns to snake-invested mud during the rainy season. Bits of scrub provide twigs to make the refugees' small huts and sustain the goats that some of the refugees have been able to bring with them or that they have purchased with funds from relatives who have made it to the promised land of other countries. Though built nearly 20 years ago to house 90,000, there are now a quarter of a million people who dwell in this hell-hole. They have little to do - other than a small market run by their Kenyan neighbors, there is no industry permitted by the host country lest others be encouraged to come. That does not stop the 5,000 additional refugees from coming each week. Most children attend some school, but with the need for multiple shifts there is a lot of free time for them with none of the typical youthful entertainment available - no balls, games, or television. Girls have a particularly difficult life as they are obligated for household chores and the care of younger siblings, while their mothers have one child after another as long as their bodies can endure.
By Kate Bigam
(Originally posted on the RACblog)
Kate Bigam is the Press Secretary at the Religious Action Center.
If you're like most of the RAC staff, you've got enough blogs plugged into your Google Reader to keep you busy for hours at a time just reading through daily posts. But here's one piece of reading you should make sure you get to today - Rabbi David Saperstein, the RAC's director, has a piece up today on Huffington Post about the significance of the judiciary!
In "Our Rights in Peril: The Future of the Courts," Rabbi Saperstein discusses the importance of the judiciary in making crucial decisions that affect our everyday lives, even when we feel far removed from the court process - and details the potential dangers of a future Supreme Court that leans more conservatively than the present. For both these reasons, he encourages progressive religious organizations to follow the Reform Movement's lead in "creating formal processes for considering whether to oppose and support judicial nominees." Rabbi Saperstein writes:
by Rabbi Marla Feldman Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya along with Nancy Solomon and Stephanie Garry, board members of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Adrianna Logalbo, Nothing But Nets coordinator for the United Nations Foundation. Our mission was to witness and take part in the delivery of insecticide-treated bed nets to help stem the tide of malaria that rages in refugee camps throughout Africa. To date, the Union for Reform Judaism and its affiliates have raised nearly $300,000 towards the effort to cover refugee camps in Africa. That's 30,000 nets for 120,000 people who can sleep peacefully at night. These efforts have been made possible by a generous grant from the UN Foundation.
Flying over Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world with a quarter-million people, one gets a clear picture of just how stark life is in that equatorial desert of sand, red dirt and scrub. Three camps comprise this vast expanse of humanity - Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley - each with 70,000-100,000 refugees and each bursting with tens of thousands over capacity. Most of the refugees are from Somalia, and some from Ethiopia, Sudan and other troubled regions. Each day hundreds more find their way to the camp, adding 5,000 per week to the already overcrowded camps.
By Jeff Oakley (First posted on the RACblog) Jeff Oakley is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. Last month, Rabbi Joshua Davidson of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua, NY, wrote here about his synagogue's dialogue with members of the Upper Westchester Muslim Society. Rabbi Davidson described his effort, a part of the Muslim-Jewish dialogue sponsored by the Union for Reform Judaism and Islamic Society of North America, as 'planting a seed of hope' which helps show that "the act of sitting together and listening to each other and talking of a shared vision for the future is the only way toward peace."
"... this year as I sample the foods traditionally eaten at the Tu B'Shevat seder to commemorate springtime in Israel -- dates, almonds and figs, to name a few -- I'll not only be thinking about the farmers who planted them but the distance the foods traveled and the amount of greenhouse gases associated with their journey.
By Jason Fenster (First posted on the RACblog) Jason Fenster is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
As Jews, we are intimately familiar with feeling unwelcome and excluded. We have been strangers in Egypt, in Babylon, in Europe, and even in America, but it is this shared experience that compels us to open our doors to those who sit outside our community.
In Exodus 23:9 we read, "You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt." Being a grammar dork, I looked at the Hebrew and found something interesting in the different "yous" we find in this verse. The first "you" is singular. You shall not oppress a stranger. It is your obligation to make an person-to-person connection to ensure that this ger, this stranger, is a part of the community and is not forced to remain outside the walls of our synagogue. The "you" who knows in their hearts and souls what it means to be left out is plural; the "y'all" form of the verb. We not only have an individual mandate to make inclusion a reality, but also a communal obligation stemming from our shared history.
By Jill Zimmerman (First posted on the RACblog) Jill Zimmerman is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
"When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong. The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Leviticus 19:33-34)
Thirty-five times this principle is repeated in the Torah. Thirty-five times we are reminded of our own immigrant history. Thirty-five times we are commanded not only to welcome the stranger, but to "love them as yourself."
Today, we face the enormous task of fixing our nation's broken immigration system. Over 12 million undocumented immigrants live as "strangers" in our communities. U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids, such as the one in Postville, Iowa at the Agriprocessers kosher meatpacking plant, have torn apart immigrant families. Detention centers across the country leave thousands in legal limbo and offend our sense of humanity. It is time to tell Congress and the Administration to enact solutions.
By Rabbi Lynne Landsberg (First posted at RACblog) Rabbi Lynne Landsberg is the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's Senior Advisor on Disability Issues. She is a former Associate Director of the RAC and a former regional director of the URJ's Mid-Atlantic Council.
This month, February 2009, is the first annual Jewish Disability Awareness Month, recognized by all streams of Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist) and most, if not all, national Jewish agencies. Local synagogues, organizational chapters and federations are observing Jewish Disability Awareness Month with special programming to educate their members about people with all kinds of disabilities -- physical, intellectual, psychological and more.
We would never consciously do it, but are we putting a stumbling block before the blind? As Jews, we must understand that serving the community of individuals with disabilities means more than just constructing a ramp to the front door: We shut Jews out by not altering other physical barriers. We shut Jews out by continuing non-inclusive programming and religious education. We shut Jews out< by maintaining attitudes of discomfort and disdain.
by Albert Vorspan President Obama embodies the impossible dreams of generations of Americans. Indeed, he represents the golden harvest which we gather today, but it is the product of all those who planted the seeds in the hard, sometimes bloody, ground under constant duress for countless decades.
Obama has said that he stands on the shoulders of that great coalition of decency which prepared that soil and nurtured the faith. Central to that coalition was the alliance of blacks and Jews who marched, organized, did the heavy political lifting, provided their votes and streamed into jails to protest segregation. This Reform Jewish Movement, I can testify, played a central role in mobilizing the conscience of the Jewish community and partnering with the black leadership to transform America.
Tu BiSh'vat in the Age of Green
January 29, 2009
(9 Comments)
By Rachel Cohen, Eisendrath Legislative Assistant (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah) Each year, even as many of us struggle against the cold winter days of February, we engage in a celebration of nature's renewal with the ritual of Tu BiSh'vat. Just as Israeli farmers begin to see signs of spring, Jews worldwide celebrate an ancient tradition marking the age of trees. With the rise of the environmental movement, Tu BiSh'vat has been branded the "Jewish Earth Day" and transformed from a minor observance into a mainstay of the Jewish calendar. Tu BiSh'vat has taken on many meanings to many people: a celebration of natural wonders, a chance to recommit ourselves to environmental stewardship, and a day to reflect on our role in the complex ecosystem that is planet Earth.
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by Shira Kleinman Student at Muhelenberg College, Allentown, PA 1:30 am Tuesday morning I crawled out of bed and walked towards the performing arts center with five friends. We all huddled together for warmth while waiting for our buses to arrive. At about 2 am 250 students from Muhlenberg College loaded up 5 buses bound for Washington DC with the intention of witnessing history. I have spent many a rally on the Washington Mall, but never witnessed something like this. That Tuesday, the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, was the largest political gathering in history, and I was a part of it.
(First posted at RACblog) All weekend, Washington, DC was abuzz with a wide variety of inauguration-related festivities, culminating with the Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony and parade on the National Mall. Keep reading below the jump for inauguration reflections from several members of the RAC staff!
Shalom! I want to write tonight to all of our friends in America and around the world, to commemorate the inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, and the first African American president, as a very special event. I hope that Obama's administration will bring about positive change, embrace peace and security, and also promote economic stability to the world. Now it is our turn to be in support of you, and we have done so by raising the American flag in our preschools to show our love and solidarity. We all at Or Hadash wish Barack Obama and the American people good luck on this very historical day and in the coming four years. Mazal Tov!
by Russell Cohen (Originally published on Russell Cohen's blog Cafe Birkenreis) During the latter half of 2008, the WUPJ lent its support to two online petitions (e-petitions) on behalf of member unions. In both cases, the response from progressive Jews worldwide was less than rousing
In the first case, the IMPJ (Israel) attempted to gather signatures in support of the effort to achieve official recognition and a state salary for Rabbi Miri Gold, of Kibbutz Gezer in Israel. This is a potentially ground-breaking case, as a positive outcome would set the precedent for official recognition of progressive rabbis across Israel, and eventually lead to improved status for progressive Judaism as a whole.
By JanetheWriter We Jews have blessings for all occasions: for bread, for wine, for joyous times, for sad times, upon seeing a rainbow, for flowers and herbs, for social action... the list goes on.
Each morning we thank God for returning our souls to our bodies and for a host of other daily miracles: enabling us to distinguish day from night, opening our eyes, freeing the captive, lifting the fallen, and so on.
"This is the most extensive outreach and listening tour that I've ever seen a new administration take, and that is certainly true of their outreach to the faith community," said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who has worked with presidential transition teams going back to Jimmy Carter's.
It's a remarkable departure from the Bush administration's approach. As Tanya Clay House, director of public policy for People of the American Way said, "The old administration listened to just one side of the argument."
By Rabbi Norman Roman (First posted at RACblog)
Rabbi Norman Roman is the rabbi at Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, MI. This post is adapted from Rabbi Roman's message in the January 2009 Kol Ami bulletin.
Early in December, I was invited by Cardinal Adam Maida to attend a small gathering of Detroit area religious leaders, an urgent interfaith response to the economic crisis and the auto industry's needs. It was good for the 14 of us to be together (14 is, of course, a 'yad' - a helping hand, in Hebrew!), the news media reported on our meeting, some ideas were shared of what our various communities were doing in Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues to assist our members, and personal connections were made for future participation in "prayer, political action, and programming."
Several insights from this crisis are very clear to me, and others have been suggested for me (and you) to consider:
Thirty young Jewish adults took off for New Orleans, Louisiana this morning to help rebuild the city's 9th Ward, still damaged from 2005's Hurricane Katrina. These volunteers are participating in the Union for Reform Judaism's Tzevet Mitzvot: Young Adult Mitzvah Corps program, which combines five days of social action, worship and fun in the Big Easy.
Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of meeting over 500 high school students from across the country at the Religious Action Center's Bernard and Audre Rapoport L'Taken social justice seminars. Each four-day intensive learning program brings students from across the country to D.C. to learn about social justice and Jewish values (read what some of the participants had to say about their experience). The program culminates with a visit to Capitol Hill, where students meet with their Senators, Representatives and their staff to discuss the issues that matter most to them. As my fellow RAC staff and I led the participants past the Capitol and Supreme Court to their meetings, I got several interesting questions about my experiences on the Hill: "Oh, you must be here all the time, what's your favorite place to go eat?; Who is the most famous Senator/Member of Congress you have ever met?; Do you ever see the President??"
(First posted at RACblog) by Micaela Hellman-Tincher Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Over Chanukah, we all look for thoughtful, useful and interesting gifts for our family and friends. Amid the ads for watches, sweaters and digital cameras this winter, you might notice an ad for another kind of gift. A bed net. As part of our goal to deliver 50,000 nets abroad, the Union for Reform Judaism will be advertising Nothing But Nets in Jewish media around the country this winter.
While you may not know anyone who wants their bed covered in insecticide-treated mesh, there are people abroad to whom this gift won't simply be nice and thoughtful, but life-saving. A child dies from malaria every 30 seconds, and the use of a bed net can reduce disease transmission by up to 90%. The bed nets donated through the Union for Reform Judaism's Nothing But Nets initiative will go straight to refugees of conflict in Africa-one of the populations most vulnerable to malaria. It takes only $10 to send a net.
By dcc
Sound-out the title; it makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is the latest edition of movie-star outrage over California enshrining oppression in the State Constitution. A group of Hollywood illuminati got together to make Prop 8: The Musical. It is laugh out loud funny, well made and absolutely irrelevant.
By Gardening Grandma I sometimes suspect the urge to make the world a better place is part of the DNA of every Jew, yet I recognize that it runs in the veins of people of all persuasions, often when they're not even aware of their actions.
An obit of "H.M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac," appears on the front page of this morning's New York Times. After experimental brain surgery in 1953 to correct uncontrollable seizures, he lost the ability to form new memories. And, because he and his family were willing to be the object of intensive study, the world of modern neuroscience was born.
For 55 years, each time H.M. met a friend, each time he ate a meal,
each time he walked in the woods, it was as if for the first time.
God's world was created anew each day for him.
By Jeff Oakley
(First posted on the RACblog) Jeff Oakley is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
The Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, led by former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Jim Talent of Missouri, announced at a press conference earlier today the findings of their bipartisan panel. In a stark warning to the United States and the world, the commission found that "unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."
By Rabbi Eric Yoffie (Originally published in Reform Judaism magazine) No one can listen to CNN's Lou Dobbs without being struck by the thinly veiled contempt he expresses for the immigrants, legal and illegal, who make their way to America's shores.
Mr. Dobbs seems to think of immigrants as somehow less than human. Like Pat Buchanan, Tom Tancredo, and other anti-immigration ideologues, he speaks of them as if they were parasites who feed off the rest of us while destroying our economy and undermining our national identity.
It is true that we need a better immigration policy than the one we have--one with a more effective method of securing our borders, a system that will give illegal immigrants a way to earn citizenship, and a guest worker program that will provide the human resources our economy requires. But as important as these goals are for the next administration, it is even more important that our new president speak out against the disdain for other human beings that is at the heart of Mr. Dobbs' nativistic populism. Jews know from long experience that such attitudes usually have less to do with legitimate economic self-interest than with a petty, bigoted mindset that undermines American ideals.
Dr. Magda Peck is a member of the URJ Commission on Social Action and chairs its Task Force on Economic Justice, Women and Families. She is a member of Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska where she is a Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The views expressed below are, of course, her own.
When victory for Barack Obama was called just past 10 last Tuesday night, some remarkable things happened.
In the packed Omaha Hilton ballroom where usual Democrat diehards were outnumbered by fresh faces, shrieks of collective disbelief erupted. Deafening shouts of stunning joy filled room. Older Black women sunk into their seats, sobbing, palms raised high praising G-d. Gay couples openly embraced. Swarms of young folks locked arms and jumped up and down for a long, long time. My younger son David, a freshman at American in DC, called: "Ma! Barack Obama is MY President!" Sobbing and laughing, he kept shouting "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" From Omaha to the nation's capital and so many places in between: "shock and awe," redefined.
By JanetheWriter Yesterday during lunch, Naomi, one of my colleagues, told the following story:
Her father was a poll worker in Wisconsin on Election Day. An elderly African-American woman came in to vote. She was carrying with her a small package. The poll workers asked her what it was and she said, "I brought my ancestors with me." With that, she opened the package and took out pictures of several deceased relatives. The poll workers helped her set them up in the voting booth so they could be with her when she voted.
Naomi said that she's told the story three or four times and gets teary with each telling. She isn't the only one.
* * *
As always happens when I go to vote, I think about my grandparents. My grandfather died in March of 1986 and my grandmother in July of 1991. And, while I observe their yahrzeits at the appropriate season each year, I also think of Election Day as a pseudo-yahrzeit for each of them. In this, their adopted country, they savored the right to step up, to raise their voices, and to have them count. Never did either of them miss a trip to the polls on Election Day. Indeed, it is a most fitting tribute to their memories.
(First posted on the RACblog) The following is an e-mail letter from Doug Mishkin to his daughter Arielle and their very close friend Melanie Anenberg. Doug, a lawyer with the Washington Office of Patton Boggs, is a long time activist who developed a close friendship with Carolyn Goodman, mother of slain Civil Rights worker Andrew Goodman.
Arielle and Melanie:
I woke up today thinking of the two of you. In your first election, you'll get to vote for an African-American (if I ever learn that you did otherwise, well, it's a free country and you can do what you want, but don't bother coming home).
I can't resist taking note of this. Your parents wondered whether we would EVER get to do this. How did this happen? Well, it happened for lots of reasons. But you got to touch one of those reasons personally. We sat in Carolyn's house during that vacation (you know, the best Mishkin vacation ever because Melanie was with us) and she told you the story of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
By Rabbi Jonah Pesner (First posted on the RACblog) Rabbi Jonah Pesner is the Founding Director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Just Congregations.
Shortly before he began his presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama sat down for most of an afternoon with Mark Pelavin and me. We were struck at the time by the intensity with which he listened, and by the probing nature of his questions about Just Congregations. We were happily surprised that he had read the materials on our website (not every elected official does their homework for a routine meeting!). The Senator wanted to know not just about our mission and goals, but also about me. He wasn't satisfied with what; he wanted to know why. Why did I believe in the work I was doing?
I believe that Obama's inquisitiveness is directly related to his experience as a community organizer. Among the most critical qualities of an effective organizer is an authentic curiosity about others. When Obama was only twenty-four, he learned in organizing training that to be powerful in public life, a leader needs a strong, vast network of people who will follow him or her. Consequently, he knows that people only follow a leader if he or she understands them; their values, concerns, interests and motivations. (I received my own training as a community organizer from the same group that trained Obama: the Industrial Areas Foundation, founded by the late Saul Alinsky. In fact, Obama and I were both trained by the same organizer, Arnie Graf, who now mentors me in my role as Director of Just Congregations.)
By Rachel Cohen (First posted on the RACblog) With special thanks to Legislative Assistant Micaela Hellman-Tincher for her contributions to this post.
Last week, Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee unveiled the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a program designed to train young city residents to participate in green industry, which is rapidly expanding throughout California. While the program starts small by giving 40 young adults skills in green construction and solar panel installation, advocates hope that it will become a pilot for green jobs programs around the country. At a time when both jobs and new energy solutions are in high demand, there is clearly fertile ground for such initiatives. Weatherization programs, like the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program, have already provided 8,000 jobs weatherizing homes in low-income communities. These workers not only help communities reduce their carbon footprint, but they also help to lower the cost burden of heating and cooling by an average of 15% for low-income families.
By Rabbi Lynne Landsberg (First posted on the RACblog)
Rabbi Lynne Landsberg is the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's Senior Advisor on Disability Issues. She is a former Associate Director of the RAC and a former regional director of the URJ's Mid-Atlantic Council.
Earlier this month, I blogged about the Americans With Disabilities (ADA) Amendments Act and the work the Jewish Disability Network engaged in to see it passed this year. With one success under our belts, the coalition is now looking ahead to the future: Among our immediate priorities is making sure that the 37 million Americans with disabilities who are eligible to vote get to the polls on Election Day.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was followed by the National Voting Rights Act of 1965, ensuring that Americans of color were not prevented from voting. Although the original ADA guaranteed voting rights to individuals with disabilities, greater effort must be devoted to enforcement of the law.
By Kate Bigam (First posted on the RACBlog) Kate Bigam is the Press Secretary at the Religious Action Center.
The fight for marriage equality is heating up in California, Florida and Arizona, states that will see November ballot initiatives to amend their state constitutions to prohibit same-sex marriage. Here's a quick update on each state's grassroots campaign to oppose these dangerous and discriminatory initiatives (including a little help from Ellen DeGeneres!) and some insight into how Reform rabbis are helping out:
Arizonans voted no on a similar measure in 2006, and now they're up against the same thing this year. Now, Vote No on Prop. 102 is seeking volunteers to help spread the word about this dangerous initiative and offering $5.00 yard signs that advertise opposition to the amendment. Reform Rabbis Helen. T Cohn (Congregation Chaverim) and Thomas A. Louchheim (Congregation Or Chadash) joined an oppositional statement with other faith leaders, saying, "This amendment is morally, religiously, and financially divisive, and would be destructive to many Arizona families."
By Gardening Grandma A story in this morning's New York Times about the growing army of "eco-kids" not only grabbed my attention, it made me proud: "Pint-Size Eco-Police, Making Parents Proud and Sometimes Crazy" highlights how children are teaching their parents a lesson or two about caring for this earth, sometimes to the frustration of their parents.
While Judaism was not mentioned in the story, nothing could be closer to our hearts than protecting the earth and working to repair the damage we've created. As today's emailed Ten Minutes of Torah by Rabbi Marla Feldman notes, "to neglect our role in maintaining the fragile balance of nature is to default on our very first commitment in our covenant with God - our sacred duty to be stewards of God's Creation." She goes on to note that Sukkot is a perfect time to reinforce our connection to the natural world around us.
For more ideas about what to do this Sukkot, check out www.urj.org.
By Rabbi Lynne Landsberg (First posted on the RACblog) Rabbi Lynne Landsberg is the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's Senior Advisor on Disability Issues. She is a former Associate Director of the RAC and a former regional director of the URJ's Mid-Atlantic Council.
In 1999, I sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury when my Jeep skidded on a patch of black ice and wrapped around a tree. When I awoke from a six-week coma, I was unable to remember how to live. Through years of intensive rehabilitation, I re-learned how to walk, talk, concentrate, read and perform daily activities. Now, I walk with a cane, speak slowly and require assistance with minor tasks.
Dan and Steve first became domestic partners in 1995 and were one of the few couples personally married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom during the "Winter of Love" in 2004. (Steve is the Mayor's Chief of Staff.) They have shared a home in San Francisco for over 13 years and have two beautiful children, Katherine and Michael. But this September wedding was the first time the couple's commitment was legally sanctioned.
However, a California ballot initiative is threatening to take away the
right for couples like Dan and Steve to be married under California
state law. Proposition 8, which will be on California ballots November
4th, would amend the California State Constitution to say: "Only
marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in
California." Similar measures will be on the ballots in Florida and
Arizona, and one that would prevent gay couples from adopting children
will be on the ballots in Hawaii.
By Barbara Weinstein Legislative Director of the Religious Action Center I'm an I Love Lucy aficionado. I have seen every episode, can recite by heart the Vitametavegamin routine that ends with Lucy sloshed on the alcohol-laced health tonic, and know that the longest laugh the show recorded came when Lucy did the tango with a shirt stuffed full of raw eggs. But for m
Jewess.
Our country is in deep distress. The economy continues to stumble. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and millions more fear for theirs. Our public discourse, prodded by trash-talking commentators and the Internet free-for-all, has sunk to new lows.
In one settlement we visited of around 230 families we met a group of young men who immediately approached our vehicle when we arrived. They explained that they were the self-appointed, volunteer, security committee, formed because even in such areas insecurity and theft are a huge problem and far beyond the capacity of the local police. Both the desperation of the population, which has caused mass looting and crime, and the escape of an estimated 4000 prisoners from the earthquake-damaged central prison, has made such community protection a necessity. It was a perfect opportunity for our IRD team to hand out a number of the wonderful solar charged Sunlight Solar Bogo-Light flashlights we were carrying just for such occasions. The flashlights will improve the group's ability to patrol at night and thereby the settlement's security. By working closely with the maker of the lights, that were donated, we ultimately hope to distribute thousands of them soon. 
Sixty-six years ago, on October 2, 1943, when Jews were celebrating the High Holidays, Hitler ordered the arrest and deportation of Denmark's 8,000 Jews. Danish Christian citizens were outraged and courageously rescued almost the entire Jewish population. In an act of collective resistance, the Danes ferried their fellow Jewish citizens on small boats across the sea to safety in Sweden. Over 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust. 
COP15 Copenhagen has become a world stage as 192 nations and thousands converge upon this Danish city. I will be among them with a delegation from Earth Day Network. The question is on many minds: will a world agreement, a Copenhagen UN Treaty, be the next step for humanity's future?
Rabbi Harold L. Robinson, Rear Admiral CHC USN Ret, is the Director of 
Sophie Vener 
by Al Vorspan 
by Rabbi Marla J. Feldman 
You're sitting in your temple's social hall contemplating the meaning of the week's Torah portion or synagogue office proof reading the newsletter or sanctuary harmonizing in Adon Alom. You take a minute to think: who will be contemplating the Torah here, five years from now? Who will proof read the newsletter in ten? Who will lead my congregation twenty years from now? Fifty? 
Barbara Lerman-Golomb is a member of the 
Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, is a living hell. Situated on the equator, it is demonly hot, parched and barren. The soil ranges from sand to red manure-laden dirt that turns to snake-invested mud during the rainy season. Bits of scrub provide twigs to make the refugees' small huts and sustain the goats that some of the refugees have been able to bring with them or that they have purchased with funds from relatives who have made it to the promised land of other countries. Though built nearly 20 years ago to house 90,000, there are now a quarter of a million people who dwell in this hell-hole. They have little to do - other than a small market run by their Kenyan neighbors, there is no industry permitted by the host country lest others be encouraged to come. That does not stop the 5,000 additional refugees from coming each week. Most children attend some school, but with the need for multiple shifts there is a lot of free time for them with none of the typical youthful entertainment available - no balls, games, or television. Girls have a particularly difficult life as they are obligated for household chores and the care of younger siblings, while their mothers have one child after another as long as their bodies can endure. 
This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya along with Nancy Solomon and Stephanie Garry, board members of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Adrianna Logalbo, 
President Obama embodies the impossible dreams of generations of Americans. Indeed, he represents the golden harvest which we gather today, but it is the product of all those who planted the seeds in the hard, sometimes bloody, ground under constant duress for countless decades. 
Thirty young Jewish adults took off for New Orleans, Louisiana this morning to help rebuild the city's 9th Ward, still damaged from 2005's Hurricane Katrina. These volunteers are participating in the Union for Reform Judaism's 
by Rachel Cohen
I can't resist taking note of this. Your parents wondered whether we would EVER get to do this. How did this happen? Well, it happened for lots of reasons. But you got to touch one of those reasons personally. We sat in Carolyn's house during that vacation (you know, the best Mishkin vacation ever because Melanie was with us) and she told you the story of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. 