A ‘Moment’ for our Movement: The Work of Creating a More Perfect Union in 2017

Following the now-famed Women’s March on the day after President Trump’s inauguration, speculation mounted about whether we were seeing a real “movement” or simply a “moment” of reaction from an outraged electorate. Since that day, there’s been no dearth of citizens speaking up, in town halls, airports and on city streets. People who never imagined themselves “protesters” have seized the reins of citizenship suggesting that surely something is galvanizing America. But the question is an important one, does this yet qualify as a movement?

Humor From Tikkun

Wikileaks (or perhaps, electronic espionage experts acting on behalf of the “Deep State” that subtly, covertly directs the course of governance in the U.S.) recently hacked into Trump’s TV feed, seamlessly substituting audio streams from PBS, NPR, MSNBC and Al Jazeera America into what he’s viewing, while the images remain those of the likes of Steve Doocy, Dana Perino, Wolf Blitzer, Ann Coulter—and even Nancy Grace.

The Miracles of Christmukah!

Christmas and Chanukah periodically coincide and do so again beginning on Christmas Eve 2016, the first night of Chanukah 5777. Some are calling it Christmukah. Some are calling it another miracle!

On Turning Sixty: Counsel From My Inner Wisdom on How to Live

Trust that your sustained presence will take care of the fruits. Work in a relaxed yet alert way, knowing that insights are gifts bestowed when you let go and align. Meet challenges with possibilities. Realize that in most cases, less is more, and quality trumps quantity. Decide whether inner criteria or outer requirements will determine when the work is finished. Celebrate your accomplishments, acknowledging they ultimately derive from the Wellspring. Bless your life and the Giver of life.

The Practice

Find it in the most unreasonable of places—from your sweaty mat to dirty street corners, in meditation and in the midst of violent gangs, from the criminally wealthy estates of Beverly Hills to remote villages with no running water. Find it in injustice, find it in unfairness, in the hungry child and the obese fairground-goer, in the deranged and the selfish, the sick and the wanting, the helpless, the hopeless, the homeless and feared. Find it in those who buy their way out of guilt, yell their way out of shame, drug their way out of compassion. For those who condemn you, for those who cherish you, for those who cut you off and those who embrace you—find love.

One Year Sick & Then Not: On the Social Construction of Homosexuality as "Disease"

In a piece written in honor of LGBTIQ Pride Month, Blumenfeld recalls an moment in the Gay Rights movement. In the past century, some members of the scientific community viewed people attracted to their own sex, those attracted to both males and females, and trans people as constituting distinct biological or “racial” types — those who could be distinguished from “normal” people through anatomical markers. This “medicalization” of homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender non-conformity only serves to strengthen oppression and heterosexual and cisgender privilege through its relative invisibility. Given this invisibility, issues of oppression and privilege are neither analyzed nor scrutinized, neither interrogated nor confronted by members of the dominant group.

Channeling Our Passions Into Effective Action

As with any movement, it’s important to glean wisdom and turn to those who are leaders in their own right for inspiration. The speakers in this series offered a profound sense of hope as well as real-world steps for action, which deeply resonated with the summit’s attendees.