The Shalom Center - A prophetic voice in Jewish, multireligious, & American life

Renewal & Tradition in Islam

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:01:27 -0400

Interview with Amina Wadud *

What are the conditions for this worldwide resurgence of Islam that we're seeing today?

I guess I don't see that the resurgence of Islam is as recent as it has been popularized in the context of America. I actually see it as part of a continuum throughout Islamic history, where Islam has contracted and expanded at different times in response to a number of factors internal to Islam and external.

Obviously, this most recent resurgent movement has a strong relationship to the liberation from colonialism. And so that doesn't place it as [a] recent event in history, but somewhere in the last 50 to 70 years. ... So that would mean that, although there have been elements of this resurgence for at least 50 to 70 years, it has become more obvious globally in the last 30 to 40 years.

"A More Perfect Union": Comments on the Obama Speech

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:09:14 -0400

THE OBAMA SPEECH: AN EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT?

We have received a number of comments on Senator Barack Obama's speech on "A More Perfect Union," delivered across the street in Philadelphia from Constitution Hall, where the Constitution was written.,

Among them were two public letters from two women with different outlooks on the Presidential campaign.

Lilly Rivlin is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker, co-founder of the original Feminist Seder, immediate past president of Meretz USA, a support group for the Israeli progressive Zionist party.

Rabbi Phyllis Berman founded and directs the Riverside Language Program, a 28-year-old English-language school for adult immigrants and refugees from all over the world, and is the co-author of two books of Jewish thought and practice.

Shalom Quilt

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:16:33 -0400

RAFFLING THE SHALOM QUILT: IN PEACE & BEAUTY I WILL SLEEP

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:23:50 -0400

RAFFLING THE SHALOM QUILT: IN WARMTH & BEAUTY I WILL SLEEP

Friends of peace & beauty –

One of the Psalms begins, "Of love & justice I will sing." Today, in the painful moments of working for peace despite a government determined on war, we need a psalm that goes –

"OF PEACE & BEAUTY I WILL SING!"

And we have one. It is a psalm in cloth – a Shalom Quilt made of dozens of T-shirts that have called out in colorful and quirky words and images for peace, justice, and the healing of our wounded earth.

New Curriculum & Ceremony for Teens on Climate Crisis : ELIJAH'S COVENANT BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:58:13 -0500

The Shalom Center has published a curriculum and ceremony for Bar/ Bat Mitzvah and confirmation-age youth and families, on how the younger and older generations can work together to heal the earth from the dangers of global climate crisis. Below you will find testimonials about it from leaders of Jewish education and action. Below that you will find a coupon for ordering copies of the 60-page "Elijah's Covenant Between The Generations," and below that the Introduction by Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Jeff Sultar.

"Elijah's Covenant" [Brit Eliyahu] looks like an exciting and creative educational venture. Congratulations to the Shalom Center for this positive contribution toward raising environmental awareness among Jewish young people."

Earth & Torah: Rabbi Waskow's books on Eco-Judaism

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:10:56 -0500

Many of Rabbi Arthur Waskow's books deal with the teachings of Judaism about healing and celebrating the earth.

All are available from The Shalom Center:

Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life. How Judaism has dealt with these everyday issues and their relationship to the earth through all the changing eras of Jewish history. $11.00

Seasons of Our Joy. The festivals seen as a spiritual journey through the year, drawing on the dance of sun, moon, and earth that is encoded in them. $18.00

Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology. Anthology of what Judaism has said about trees and the celebration of their rebirth, from the Garden of Eden through rabbinic teachings through the Kabbalah through Zionism through modern eco-Jewish teachings. $22.00

SIMPLE ACTION TO HEAL THE EARTH FROM CLIMATE CRISIS

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:16:40 -0500

The following action project is one way of carrying out the Green Menorah responsibilities to advocate crucial changes in public policy to heal the earth and avert the dangers of global climate disaster. This letter is addressed to Senators; with slight changes you can direct it instead as a Letter to the Editor of your metropolitan newspaper or a community paper in your area. Please change the language of the letter to reflect your own style and values. And please send a copy of your letter to Green Menorah, The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119, or to --

Greenmenorah@shalomctr.org

Strengthening the Lieberman-Warner Bill on Climate Crisis: A Detailed Analysis

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:17:11 -0500

November 7, 2007

To: Members of the Committee on Environment and Public Works and Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection

We are writing you to express our concerns about Senate Bill 2191, "America's Climate Security Act of 2007," introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.). The legislation falls short of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the amount current science says is needed to avoid dangerous global warming. In addition, the bill as it is currently written is likely to give away hundreds of billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in windfall profits to polluters, undermining the emissions reduction system it seeks to construct. Finally, the trading allowed in the bill could force poor communities, communities of color and indigenous peoples to absorb the direct costs of emissions reductions while seeing none of the benefits nor a swift change to a renewable, carbon-free energy mix.

Please support the "Tugboat Shalom"!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:54:09 -0400

Dear Co-searcher, Co-builder, in our work for peace and healing for the world --

The Shalom Center acts like a tugboat nudging and noodging large ocean liners to move in a new direction. Three ocean liners –- the official American Jewish world, the multireligious world, and the (smaller) world of the Left and the antiwar movement. (Details below, in this message.)

This "Tugboat Shalom" is doing YOUR work. To do it we need YOUR support. PLEASE CLICK ON THE "DONATE NOW" BUTTON ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF THIS PAGE, NEAR THE TOP OF THE PAGE.

Our tugboat has successfully "noodged" these ocean liners, in three "oceans" we have been navigating:

New learning, New feeling, New celebrating

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:59:37 -0400

Are you exploring how to renew your thoughts, your feelings, your spirit -- your life? Then check out these books from The Shalom Center:

Have you and your brother, or your sister, been having problems with each other? Want to learn how two brothers-in-conflict became deep friends?

Then order the book Becoming Brothers by Howard Waskow & Arthur Waskow from The Shalom Center. Just $7.95 + pstg & handling (see below).

Want to understand the history and the spiritual meaning of those Jewish life-cycle ceremonies you attend, feeling puzzled all the time? Want to shape a ceremony of your own to celebrate a major change in your own life?

Green Menorah Covenant Coalition: Personal, Congregational, & Public-Policy Changes to Avert Global Scorching

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:56:51 -0500

To save our planet, crops, water supply, & coastlines from the ravages of climate crisis & global scorching, The Shalom Center urges these seven directions of PERSONAL & POLICY change at all governmental levels, corporate and labor-union decisions, and household / congregational action. To work for these policy changes, write GreenMenorah@shalomctr.org or Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119.

1. Making carbon pay the real costs of its effect on climate:

Personal change: households set 5% of our annual coal, oil, & gasoline costs as tzedakah ("charitable" contributions) to support sustainable-energy activism.

A JEWISH CALL TO HEAL GOD'S WORLD BY WEAVING WORLD COMMUNITY

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:36:31 -0400

Dear Friends,

Below you will find A JEWISH CALL TO HEAL GOD'S WORLD BY WEAVING WORLD COMMUNITY.

This call has been signed by 82 rabbis and four cantors, from all the branches of the Jewish religious tree. Now we welcome all members of the Jewish community to sign as well.

To do so, please click on the blue Donate button on this page, and on the "in behalf of" line, write in "worldweave." Please give what you can (it's tax-exempt). All gifts are a great help; AND please aim to give as close to $180 as you can - to make it more possible to spread this message.

Please note that the signers commit themselves to go beyond embracing and announcing this Call -- to consult and then to act, as each of us assesses her or his own time and energy, to move the vision forward into actuality.

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500

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The Green Menorah Covenant

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:50:10 -0400

What is a "Green Menorah"?

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs. By 2020, cutting US oil consumption by seven-eighths.

HEALING THE EARTH: THE GREEN MENORAH COVENANT

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs: doing our part so that by 2020, US oil consumption is cut by seven-eighths.

MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR & VIOLENCE

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:07:34 -0400

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MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR

[Jews use the Kaddish to mourn the dead, though it has in it only one word -- "nechamata, consolations" – which hints at mourning. (And this word itself is used in a puzzling way, once we look at it with care. As we will see below, it may be especially appropriate in time of war.)

[The interpretive English translation below may also be appropriate for prayers of mourning and hope in wartime by other spiritual and religious communities.

[In this version, changes in the traditional last line of the Hebrew text specifically include not only peace for the people Israel (as in the traditional version) but also for the children of Abraham and Hagar through Ishmael (Arabs and Muslims) and for all who dwell on this planet.