Obama (and Biden) Have No Clue About What’s Bothering Their Political Base
|
It’s one thing to make compromises after you’ve struggled for something you believe in, another to make the compromises without ever trying.
The Spirit of Sukkot Contradicts Israel’s Occupation of Palestine
|
Is it anything more than hypocrisy for Jews to dwell in sukkot this holiday, pretending to make ourselves vulnerable to material insecurity, when in fact we have huge material and military security but instead are imposing insecurity on the Palestinian people?
For Those Approaching High Holidays with a Heavy Heart
|
Is there a place for the heavy of heart in the Rosh Hashanah experience?
America Needs Repentance: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Atonement Are Not Just for Jews
|
Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we’ve been making globally and domestically.
Suicidal vs. Life-Giving Religious Narratives
|
I was invited to reflect here on the topic of “spiritual visions for social healing,” under the general heading of “creating a caring society,” but first, I’d like to turn the topic upside-down to look at religious visions for social suicide.
Yankee Doodle Faced Big Oil
|
The human race — not for the first time in our history — has lost the sacred sense of self-restraint. We don’t restrain ourselves. And what’s the result? The earth will give forth thorns and thistles, not abundance, and you will have to work with the sweat pouring down your faces to get just barely enough to eat.
How Closed are “Closed Minds”?
|
When I moved to the University of Missouri after having worked in Boston, I found that approaches to racial and gender equality that worked in New England were counterproductive in our work in the lower Midwest. We asked students to share what they valued in their culture, what nurtured and sustained them. We experienced the joy of expanding circles of deliberation and engagement with those we had formerly seen as prejudiced, closed-minded, and uninterested in learning
A Politics Based on Soul Force
|
I think that if you’re looking at the world today and you’re not heartbroken and you’re not grieving, you’re not conscious. The question is, if we know that things can be done, what are we called upon to do?
The New Zionist Imperative Is to Tell Israel the Truth
|
This is an extremely interesting and terrible time for the issue that I work on, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’d like to think together about some reactions to the flotilla incident and about where we go from here—what are the policy options, the implications for our politics, and, from my perspective, the implications for the American Jewish community.
The Race to Save Civilization
|
If we look at early civilizations that declined and collapsed, more often than not it was a shortage of food that brought them down. Until recently I had rejected the idea that food could be the weak link in our modern civilization; I now think it probably is.