War, Peace, & the Jewish Community

If the US Insists on M. E. Peace --
Will There Be a Crisis over Values & Identity
Within American Jewish Life?

Is the American Jewish community headed for a deep internal split over our values and commitments if the US and Israeli governments collide over whether to be serious about a two-state peace settlement?

The Israeli-Palestinian collision, since Hamas rocket attacks on parts of Israel and the Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, has now reached a crisis point. It has become both a special case of the collision between some elements of Islam and some elements of the West -- – and a burning source of anger on both sides that makes harder any peaceful resolution of issues between the West (especially the US) and some Muslim states and organizations.

BY ANDREW O’HEHIR

Salon, Sunday, May 3, 2009 06:29 EDT

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Simone Bitton's documentary "Rachel," which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is what's not in it. Bitton, a Moroccan-born Jewish filmmaker who spent many years in Israel and now lives in France, conducts a philosophical and cinematic inquiry into the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American activist who was killed under ambiguous circumstances in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in March 2003. But the political firestorm that followed Corrie's death, which saw her beatified as a martyr for peace by some on the left and demonized as a terrorist enabler by some on the right, is virtually absent from the film.

by Arthur Waskow

[This article is extracted from Rabbi Waskow's remarks to a Peace Gathering of Christians convoked in January 2009 by the Historic Peace Churches (Quakers, Mennonites, and Brethren), which also invited a small number of Jews and Muslims to act as participant-observers and commentators. This transcript of his talk is appearing in the Friends Journal. Copyright © 2009 by Arthur Waskow.]

I begin with a renewed version of the blessing traditionally offered before learning Torah—sharing wisdom—together:

Blessed are You, the Breath of Life, the Inter-breathing Spirit of the universe, who breathes into us the wisdom to know that we become holy by breathing together, by shaping our breath into words, and by shaping our words so that they aim towards wisdom.

1. To plan your own New Freedom Seder of the Earth, , click on the article just beneath this for the text. For the Blessing of the Sun on April 8, see articles 3 & 4 below.
2. To view on YouTube part of the only existing film of the original Freedom Seder held on April 4, 1969, access the film at –-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5HgiGMqh6g
3. The Shalom Center has available ten DVD's of a much fuller film record of the Seder. To the first ten people to make an on-line DONATION OF $180, we will be glad to give the gift of one of those films. Donate by clicking on the Shalom Center logo on the right-hand margin of this page (right there! >>>>>>>>>>>) and enter "1969" in the "honor of" box.

By CHRIS HEDGES
NY Times, June 13, 2002

AS a young refugee, Henry Siegman found himself fleeing advancing German troops in Belgium early in World War II. He, his pregnant mother and younger brothers and sisters stumbled into one of the worst debacles of the war -- the frantic retreat of Allied troops at the Battle of Dunkirk. They huddled in a pitch-black cellar as the fighting raged overhead. In the morning, to the horror of the young boy, the door was kicked open by victorious German troops.

This scene, the subsequent months of hiding in Vichy France, the constant efforts to elude the roundups of Jews and the eventual flight to Casablanca and passage to America, come back to him now regularly. He says that what he went through as a child makes it easier to understand what it is like to be a Palestinian living under the ''fear and humiliation'' of Israeli occupation.

[Ed. NOTE] This statement by leaders of the three Abrahamic communities in Boston was issued January 13 and was published in the Boston Globe by a columnist who writes on religion.

Its thoughtfulness and the breadth and stature of its signers are extraordinary –-- representing the best version of our religious traditions and communities.

If in your own community, religious leaders are well on the way to adopting your own statement on the Gaza-Israel war and publicizing it, wonderful! --

If however you don't have such a statement ready, the existence of this one could be a great help. In that case, we strongly recommend that in your own community, you take this statement with its list of well-known signers to your own congregation for discussion and signing, and to interfaith leaders where you are. Then go to the local media and ask them to do a major news story about the statement's adoption in your locale.

[I gave this talk at the opening session of the "Jews Uniting to End the War & Heal America" gathwring in New York City on November 23, 2008.-- Arthur Waskow]

Shalom, salaam, peace. For the last two years, I’ve been making it a spiritual and political practice to use all three of those words when speaking to an audience — whether all or practically all Jewish, or all or practically all Christian, or all or practically all Muslim. Our three different Abrahamic traditions have, for most of our history, acted as if we were in separate rooms. But our planet is too small and too endangered for that to continue, for us to think that only Jews, or only Christians, or only Muslims, are in any room in which we gather.

LITURGICAL SCENARIO FOR MLK BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE,
EVE OF INAUGURATION DAY, 2009

(From Rabia Harris, Muslim Peace Fellowship, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center)

: Remember we awant people to stay interested, be moved, get motivated, have fun, and draw closer together. We are assuming that programs, including the text of the pledge, will be distributed at the door.)

Introduction Coming Together Summoning of the People According to the Traditions Blowing of the Shofar Ringing of Church Bells Muslim Call to Prayer Buddhist bells, etc.

VOTING OUR VALUES
Judaism & American Life
“To be is to stand for.”
—Abraham Joshua Heschel
RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION:
A JEWISH CALL FOR JUSTICE

Judaism & American Life
Elections offer us the opportunity to reflect upon, and
to recommit ourselves to, our core values. This Jewish
non-partisan election guide is intended as catalyst for
thought and action during the 2008 election season.

The guide includes seven topics that the Righteous
Indignation staff has identified as key election issues
based on our research and in consultation with religious
and political leaders across the country. In addition, the

On Sunday, November 23, at Central Synagogue in New York City, The Shalom Center, Jewish Currents, and Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring invite YOU to take part in a one-day action gathering: Jews Uniting to End the War & Heal America: Organizing for Action.

And please send this invitation to your friends.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center in Washington, Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Reform rabbinical association, former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Sammie Moshenberg of the National Council of Jewish Women, Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice, Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street --- - and many other luminaries of the newest and oldest generations of activist Jews. (See the day's schedule, below.)