Healing Israel/Palestine

The Spirit of Sukkot Contradicts Israel's Occupation of Palestine

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The following note from Rabbi Arik Ascherman raises for us a very important question: 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? It’s a troubling question. Rabbi Ascherman is the courageous chair of the Israeli branch of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, and his experience this week in the Silwan section of East Jerusalem gives us a better understanding of what is at stake in the demand by Palestinians that Israel continue its temporary ban on settlement building or expansions or home demolitions or evicting Palestinians from East Jerusalem, at least while the negotiations are continuing. We in the U.S. might also add a note of our domestic hypocrisy in claiming to care about the poor and the oppressed, but allowing the Democrats to have spent this past year and a half providing almost no relief to those who are being thrown out of their homes for inability to pay off outrageously high mortgage rates — rates that were imposed on them by banks that made loans without adequately alerting the borrowers to the likelihood that their mortgages would be much more expensive soon. We Jews at least should be giving this issue a much higher priority than our Jewish community has done so far.

General News

What's Happening To Our Veterans

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Contrary to popular belief, our soldiers are currently fighting three wars – two in the Middle East and one at home. With politicians and pundits endlessly evoking the “war on terror” and security concerns, it is the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces that back up all the tough talk and rhetoric. However, when these brave souls return from combat, our society is not adequately prepared for their arrival. The regrettable treatment of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan is shameful. Over two million men and women have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than 40 percent of these soldiers have served at least two tours.

Culture

Personal Growth and Social Change (Part 5)

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This mini-series started on Aug 8, and this is the seventh post so far. The previous post was on Sep 10. Each of the posts can be read separately. Working towards and creating change (as distinct from change happening, which is a constant in life) involves conscious choice and action. On the personal level, this means becoming more the person we would like to be, and creating new options for ourselves.

Christianity

Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks: "The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told"

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In this last installment of my interview with Bishop Gene Robinson, we discuss interpreting collective story in an inclusive fashion culminating in Gene’s interpretation of Exodus as “The Greatest Coming Out Story Ever Told.” Feel free to check out the first two installments if you are so moved:
Morning Feature: Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks About Obama and “The Left”
Furthermore! Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks: From Tolerance to Empathy

LR: In organized religion, there seems to be a tendency to substitute a particular interpretation of a collective ambiguous story for the story itself. And often, the narrow interpretation excludes specific people from participating in the power structure. So as a bishop, you are now a participant in the power structure.

Rethinking Religion

How we mold our own and each others' religions

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Robert Wright has a piece in the NYT today that takes essentially the same line I was taking in my “How We Discuss Religion On Tikkun Daily” post. He says it in a slightly more cynical way, pointing out how we all have tunnel vision and only see, let alone emphasize, those parts of our holy texts and traditions that reinforce our own attitudes; whereas I was arguing that if we actively seek and share what will bring us inspiration and nourishment then, if we are trying to build a caring world, we make our own religions into their best versions of themselves. Maybe it’s the same thing. Wright writes:
All the Abrahamic scriptures have all kinds of meanings — good and bad — and the question is which meanings will be activated and which will be inert. It all depends on what attitude believers bring to the text.

Empathy

Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks About Obama and "The Left"

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A few weeks ago, the congregants of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe were honored by a visit from Bishop Gene Robinson who delivered the evening’s d’Var Torah. Bishop Robinson is the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop. He was invited to Santa Fe as Grand Marshall of the Gay Pride parade. When Rabbi Marvin Schwab learned from a colleague at St. Bede’s that Bishop Robinson might be barred from speaking in an Episcopal Church, he invited him to deliver the Friday Night D’Var Torah at Temple Beth Shalom.

General News

From Jew's-Sow to Muslim-Pigs: A Medieval Meme from Hitler to the Islamophobes

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Muslim-bashers like to style themselves as “defenders of Western civilization.” Like all effective lies, there’s a certain grain of truth to their assertion. They do not stand in the Western traditions that support reason, liberty and tolerance. They do, however, recycle themes and motifs that have appeared in previous waves of fear against “witches,” Jews, lepers, Catholics, and others. A striking recent example is the use of pig imagery.

General News

Towards a North American Union: Immigration Justice beyond Arizona

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Editor’s note: If you Google “North American Union” you will find more conspiracy theories from the Right fearing loss of US sovereignty than you will visionary articles from the Left about how the people’s of North America could create people-friendly solutions to our major economic and immigration problems. So we were delighted to receive this from Josh Healey. by Josh Healey
The federal judge who blocked the worst provisions of Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law one day before they were to take effect didn’t do so on the basis of its violations of civil rights. No, Judge Susan Bolton ruled that portions of SB1070, including the mandate that local law enforcement check the papers of anyone they ‘suspect’ is undocumented, were unconstitutional because they “intruded into federal authority.” The legislation, even in its watered down version, is still the harshest anti-immigrant law in decades and represents the legalization of xenophobia against Latinos and anyone with brown skin. While grassroots activists fight the morality and legality of SB1070, the law’s proponents like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, claim it is necessary because the “federal government has failed to act.”

General News

On Labor Day: Let's Celebrate What's Been Achieved!

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I really like the second paragraph of this press release from our friends at Interfaith Worker Justice. There’s a tendency for any critic of our country’s and world’s terrible inequalities and injustices to say that “the system” has never got better, it’s just as unequal as it was 200 years ago, just as brutal. Well, in many ways it is. But whenever I hear blanket condemnations of American society, I remember all the struggles and heroes, all the many victories, all the ways that I and millions of others have led a much happier life because of the incredible work against the odds that our forebears undertook. If you disagree, check out the list in the second paragraph below.

Culture

One Million Homeless Children in America's Schools

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The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) recently published a report showing that there are nearly 1,000,000 homeless children enrolled in U.S. schools. This represents an alarming 41% rise from just a few years ago. Most people don’t imagine a child’s face when they think of the face of homelessness, but the average age of a homeless person in our country is nine! Click here to read a report by NAEHCY with more details. When my husband and I launched Reach And Teach, one of our first areas of focus was homelessness.