Editorials & Actions

Tony Kushner Denied Honorary Degree: The Continuing Political Power of Right-wing Zionists to Shape American Society

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Whenever I talk publicly about the way that right-wingers in the Jewish world make it hard for other Jews to speak out against Israel, I’m challenged by some who insist that there is no such climate of repression in the Jewish world. Yet over and over again, I’ve encountered people who have taken Tikkun-like stances, both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, and paid a high price for it. The impact of the Tony Kushner incident, described below, is not that it will silence Kushner–he has enough social power to resist this kind of attempt to silence him since as the author of Angels in America he has received so much public praise he is not in danger–but that it, like so many other similar acts of repression, gives a stark warning to younger or less economically secure people in academia, the media and in professional lives that they must keep their mouths closed about Israel or face dangers to their careers and futures. Two recent pieces about this incident are particularly worth reading: “CUNY Board Nixes Honorary Degree For Playwright Tony Kushner” in the Jewish Week by Doug Chandler and Tony Kushner’s response to the the CUNY Board Decision. Doug Chandler writes:
In what is believed to be a rare move, the City University of New York has turned down a request by one of its colleges to honor Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner at its commencement ceremony this spring, The Jewish Week has learned.

Editorials & Actions

The Tragic Political Reality in the U.S.

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Chris Hedges’ recent article “The Corporate State Will Continue its Inexorable Advance Until We’re Locked into a Permanent Underclass” is brilliant in its insights. Unfortunately, like most of what Hedges is writing these days, it is missing any picture of hope or possibility. The very existence of constituencies for his thinking, like those who read Tikkun, belies the extreme pessimism and shows that his analysis is too one-sided, ignoring all the factors that have produced him and produced us and produced the tens of millions  who voted for Obama precisely because we  falsely believed that he would articulate and fight for an alternative to the reality that Hedges so clearly explicates. Because his analysis leaves all of us out of the picture, it is not only depressing but one-sided and therefore inaccurate. And yet, it does describe the massive reality we face and gives us a very good picture of why we are in the mess we are in.

Editorials & Actions

Notes on Homelessness

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Editor’s Note: I received this information from a homeless woman named Bobbie.  It reminds us of why the GMP is so important and why the budget reductions of help to those suffering from poverty is such an immoral reality. “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”  –Mohandas Gandhi
NEED VS SUPPLY
Funding
•In 1978, HUD’s budget was over $83 billion. •In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion. Demolition
• In the last several years, HUD has been tearing down thousands of low-income units across the country. • From 1996 on, HUD has spent $0 on building low-income housing while thousands of units have been demolished.

Jewish Wisdom

A Beautiful Story of a Conversion to Judaism

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Please listen to it at http://www.jewintraining.com/

Leigh Marz began a yearlong process of converting to Judaism in 2004. In preparation for Leigh’s conversion ceremony her “Jew coach” (as Leigh calls him) asked her to share a written summary of her experience with guests. “A written paragraph or two should do it,” he suggested. What seemed a simple task became a brief obsession and led to the writing of Tales of Jew In Training. In preparation for the ritual, Leigh made each guest a handbound copy.

Christianity

Christian Reflections on Easter

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Here are some reflections from Christian thinkers on Easter From Rev. Brian McLaren’s blog (Rev. McLaren is one of the most exciting contemporary Christian theologians):

Holy Week: Meditation 7 … Easter
Fr. Richard Rohr celebrates the holy resurrection of the Lord like this:
Christ Crucified is all of the hidden, private, tragic pain of history made public and given over to God. Christ Resurrected is all of that private, ungrieved, unnoted suffering received, loved, and transformed by an All-Caring God. How else could we believe in God at all?

Editorials & Actions

Rabbis for Human Rights: Passover reflections from Rabbi Arik Aschermann

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I’d like to share an annual Passover message from the courageous leader of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, Rabbi Arik Aschermann of Jerusalem. On this Passover holiday I invite you to become our fellow provocateurs by making a generous donation to Rabbis for Human Rights. Passover/Shabbat HaGadol Thoughts
by Rabbi Arik Ascherman

On Saturday night a Ta’ayush activist called me right after Shabbat ended. In a choked up voice he told me about the day’s events I had not witnessed because of the fact that I am Shabbat observant. Thanks to the work of our OT legal staff the valley of T’wamin was filled with Palestinian shepherds and their flocks for the first time in over ten years.

Editorials & Actions

The Budget Battles–from the standpoint of progressives

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The budget is an ethical and spiritual issue–it is the concrete manifestation of our values both as individuals who vote for the candidates who shape the budget, and as a society. Below a few progressives make sense of the budget battles we are facing in the coming months. Budget Battles: Sound, Fury and Fakery
by Richard D. Wolff

Weeks of highly publicized debates — some in Congress, more in the mass media — brought Republicans and Democrats to a budget deal.  To maximize public attention, they threatened a possible government shutdown.  Both parties said that large government deficits and accumulated debt were “serious problems.”

Jewish Wisdom

Passover Haggadah Supplement 2011

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In this year of uprising in Egypt what does the Passover story have to say to us? What would liberation throughout the world mean? FOR YOUR SEDER, here is a Haggadah supplement — not a replacement. If you don’t normally do a Seder, you can use this supplement as the basis for an interfaith gathering in your home on April 18, the first night of Passover, or on any of the other nights of Passover until it ends on April 26. Many people read part or all of this at any Seder they attend, sometimes going around and having a different person read each paragraph.

Editorials & Actions

Jerusalem Bombing

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We at Tikkun view with horror and outrage the latest bus bombing in Jerusalem. Nothing can make murderous attacks on civilians justified. And nothing does more to freeze people into their fear and certainty that the other side is so barbarian that there is no possibility of achieving peace, so why bother? We at Tikkun unequivocally condemn this morally despicable action.