Politics & Society
US Politics
The Prerequisite for Real Change: Amending the Constitution and Getting Money Out of Politics
Prelude It has been clear for decades that there is an ongoing erosion of the ability and power of our citizenry to govern itself. I am an old and proud sixties warrior and have a vista that begins with McCarthyism …
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War & Peace
Negotiations Between Iran and the West: An Opportunity for Compromise or Prelude to War?
It feels like war against Iran grows incrementally closer each day. Yet websites like Israel Loves Iran, Facebook pages like Israelis Against the War, and Twitter accounts are filled with a message sorely discomfiting Israel’s leaders. How does American presidential politics feature in the run-up to war?
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Israel/Palestine
The Makings of a Center-Left Alliance For Israeli Settlement Boycotts?
During a plenary session at last week’s third annual J Street conference, Raleb Majadele, a Palestinian Israeli member of the Knesset from the Labor party, may have broken an Israeli law. Responding to a question about whether he supports boycotts …
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Activism
Moving Beyond Occupation into Presence: Decolonizing Our Minds, Hearts, and Spirits
We aren’t merely calling for a paradigm shift—we’re calling for an unsettling of the constant haze of distraction, dissatisfaction, and depression in our hearts and minds that denigrates our relationships with one another, the earth, and our most authentic selves.
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Activism
Nonviolence vs. “Diversity of Tactics” in the Occupy Movement
The question of whether Occupy should adopt a code of nonviolence has stirred contentious debates among activists since the movement began.
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Judaism
Tears I Don’t Have Anymore
When I spent time at my grandparents’ Brighton Beach apartment, I searched for Holocaust clues. “Grandma, tell me about the camps?” I begged between slurps of chicken soup.
“Not now. Eat tatehla. Eat.” Food had two functions in Grandma’s apartment: It was a symbol of freedom from Nazi oppression and served as a tasty muzzle for my invasive curiosity.
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Politics & Society
Random Violence and Our Single Garment of Destiny
Diffuse cultural values shape our choices in layered, contingent ways. This is especially true in the context of shocking human behavior, like we saw in Tucson. Attempts to account for specific human actions via sociology are, by definition, “half-baked,” but the patterns are not random.
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Education
Israel’s Education Dilemma: Reflections from a Former IDF Soldier in Hebron
As an American, an Israeli, and a Jew, hearing about a new OECD report that ranks Israel as the second most educated country in the world is reason to celebrate, but the true picture is far more complex.
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US Politics
Rick Santorum and Karl Marx: Examining Corporate Liberalism and Reaganomics Through the Lens of Social Stratification
The current Republican primary campaigns have repeatedly raised class issues, offering an opportunity to examine how the two main competing political ideologies in American politics—defined here as corporate liberalism and Reaganomics—respond to class-consciousness and address class interests.
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Gender & Sexuality
Embracing a Eunuch Identity
In addition to being Jewish, I am a member of a definable gender minority that has been conspicuous throughout history. I am a eunuch. Angels in the Torah are the Lord’s trusted messengers; the word angel comes from the Greek word angelos (messenger). In a similar way, eunuchs of biblical times were the emperors’ messengers and guardians. In gender-segregated cultures, our in-betweenness allows us to be able to transgress both worlds.
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Justice & Prisons
A Restorative Circle in the Wake of a Police Shooting
In Seattle, distance, anger, and pain remain from decades of command and control policing. The success of the Williams Restorative Circle fuels the promise that we can address that painful history, find mutual understanding, ensure accountability, and find a sense of well being and trust in agreed-upon actions moving forward.
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Politics & Society
Manhood and Violence
We want new men in our classes. We’re recruiting — like the marines — a few good men who’ll help build a movement of folks who see that being intimate, empathic, and warm is a better way to raise our kids and get along with each other.
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Activism
The Middle East Uprisings and Lessons from Che
This manifesto to Middle East revolutionaries is a congratulation, an aspiration, and a blessing that draws upon lessons from Che Guevara.
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Justice & Prisons
Twenty Years of Restorative Justice in New Zealand
It is not suitable in all cases, but with some principled support and seed funding, restorative justice could easily change the landscape of the criminal justice system in most common law jurisdictions.
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War & Peace
A Hope for Empathy
On 9/11 we had the brief fortifying message from folk around the planet, “We are all Americans now.” Not blessed with a president who knew how wisely to respond to that world outpouring of empathy, we catapulted into a “war” against terror from which we have scarcely recovered.
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