Tikkun Magazine - Current Thinking

Americans Need National Repentance and Atonement--here's how

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:22:00 -0700

A guide to a progressive spiritual practice that is needed by American society -- and most of the rest of the world as well. But when it comes to repentance and atonement, each of us has to take collective responsibility for our own ethnic, religious, national and spiritual communities -- and not divert the conversation to whether others are doing this as well as we are. Repentance and atonement can only be done for our own selves and our own communities -- and it's time that we stopped blaming others and started looking deeply at ourselves! Please share this with everyone you know. And please understand that we who are putting this forward recognize our own needs for repentance and atonement and do not approach this with an inch of higher-than-thou arrogance -- for we too are aware of the many sins for which we must also take personal and communal responsibility.

Should Israel be Boycotted? and meanwhile...the negotiations

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:11:59 -0700

First, Uri Avnery on the inner thoughts of Netanyahu, Abbas, and Obama as negotiations begin. Then...

Is it good or bad for the peace movement that a worldwide consensus seems to be building that would use BDS (boycotts, diverstment and sanctions) against Israel? Uri Avnery, leader of the Gush Shalom movement in Israel, warns us that the danger of not distinguishing between boycotting Israel and boycotting the settlements in the West Bank and those who empower the settlers may prove disastrous in Israel by reinforcing the most fearful elements in the Jewish psyche (a psyche which happens to have 200 atomic bombs should it ever get into a suicidal feeling and decide that rather than give up and act like victims who marched into the gaschambers of Auschwitz without a struggle (the mythology) that they will fight back an go down like Masada). Not smart and not really in the interests of Palestinian liberation either.

After Uri Avneri, we print a roundtable discussion on BDS that includes Jeremy Ben Ami and other peace activists, in a quite lively discussion which appeared in Tikkun's July/Aug 2010 edition.

What if they opposed a shul?

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:07:50 -0700

It's a slippery slope from opposing a mosque to imposing criteria for the building of any religious institution anywhere in the U.S. Many American families came to the US originally to escape a state that took sides in sayhing what religious communities could do what things and where. Now it's in danger of being shredded away by right wing anti-Muslim haters.

Is Israel an Apartheid Society?

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:37:58 -0700

It's important to know the arguments on all sides of this issue. We'd welcome a response from a serious scholar who disagrees with Ran Greenstein. Publishing either side by us does not imply agreement either with the content or belief that the question itself deserves the attention it is getting. But given that it is getting that attention, Tikkun wants to help our readers think through the issues and listen to those with whom we might disagree.

Lighting the Anti-Muslim Fuse

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:39:12 -0700

Anya Cordell , the recipient of the 2010 Spirit of Anne Frank Award, imagines what Anne Frank would say to the growing anti-Muslim sentiments in the U.S.

Should We Be Celebrating Israel/Palestine Negotiations in D.C.?

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:20:39 -0700

Should we be celebrating the restart of Israel/Palestinian negotiations in D.C. Sept 2., 2010?

Not everyone thinks so.

America "Refudiates" Rights When Used

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:40:11 -0700

The Muslims' mistake, says author Ed Rampell, was to believe that American "rights" also applied to them!

When Nations Demand Loyalty

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:41:23 -0700

No citizenship without loyalty--that's the latest demand of the Israeli right-wing, and it has ominous similarities to the demands made by Mussolini's Italy.

Obama Administration Attack on Progressives

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:27:06 -0700

The attack by the Obama Administration, through its official spokesperson Robert Gibbs, on “the professional Left,” has deep significance for those who have up till now maintained that Obama really was a progressive who would eventually reveal his true progressive colors. That perspective seems less plausible now after his spokesperson denounced as crazy and needing to be “drug tested” those who have compared the Obama Administration’s war policies (particularly the escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan), his capitulation to the corporate powers and the banks, and his attempt to prosecute those who revealed on WikiLeaks war crimes while refusing to prosecute those engaged in those war crimes and torture, to the Bush Administration. Congressman Keith Ellison called on Gibbs to resign in light of his attack on progressives. But as Lawrence Lessig points out, it is Obama, not Gibbs, to whom criticism is due. Lessig focuses on why progressives are right to be critical of Obama, not for failing to be a progressive, but for failing to take seriously the specific statements he made during his campaign which Lessig lists. We might also add that it is simply impossible to give credence to the notion that Gibbs, whose sole function is to be the official White House spokesperson, and who repeated his points later in the week, would be doing so without a full discussion of the points with Obama himself and his other key advisors.

We at Tikkun thought it would be useful to chronicle some of the subsequent discussion That began in mid-August 2010.

Israeli Settler Violence A Daily Reality

Rabbi Michael Lerner — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:16:53 -0700

[The author of this report is known to me, but wished to keep his identity unknown for reasons he states in the piece below. You can also read it online at www.tikkun.org. It should be noted that while settler violence against Palestinians, Israelis who identify with the need for Palestinian human rights to be observed, including Rabbis for Human Rights, and "internationals"--people who come to Israel to support Palestinian human rights-- is a daily occurrence, and is documented by B'tselem and other human rights groups, the vast majority of settlers on the West Bank do NOT participate in this violence, though many of them vote for political parties that incite hatred and violence and seek to appropriate all of the West Bank to a Jewish state, either with or without expelling Palestinians. Our point is that we don't condemn every settler or believe everyone of them to be a violent person, though the system of settlement of which they are a part is a system of stealing Palestinian land and employing force and violence to protect that theft. Those of us in the spiritual progressive world should be mounting a team like Christian Peacemakers Team, but composed of people from all faiths, who can similarly provide witness and some minimal protection to Palestinians, though as this piece reveals, such groups also become the targets of settler violence. Meanwhile, we continue our support for all those committed to non-violence and to non-demeaning of "the Other" whoever that "other" might be. And we salute with deep respect the Christianity evoked in this message as a beautiful example of the kind of forgiveness that is essential to all of us and which we must each strive to develop in our own lives and in the way we seek to bring healing and transformation (tikkun) to the world.--Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Tikkun]