The Shalom Center - Environmental Justice

40th Anniversary Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth: Register & Contribute

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:51:48 -0500

To register to attend and/or to support the 40th Anniversary Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth that will be held in Washington DC on March 29, PLEASE CLICK TO THIS URL:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=47013

Please do NOT make contributions for this event through our regular donation page.

Thank you!
Shalom, salaam, peace --
Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Global Scorching, Swedish Church, Interfaith Manifesto

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:38:14 -0500

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

My life-partner Rabbi Phyllis Berman and I spent a week in Sweden at the Interfaith Summit on the Climate Crisis and then met with progressive religious activists.

Watch the live 5-minute video of my "words of hope" for the thousand people who filled the Uppsala Cathedral, intertwining a vision of empowering ourselves and drawing on the Spirit.

MLK Day Litany of Ashes, Stones, & Flowers: Militarism, Racism, & Materialism

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:22:01 -0500

ASHES, STONES, & FLOWERS:
A LITANY ON MILITARISM, RACISM, & MATERIALISM
IN HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING

By Rev. Patricia Pearce, Tabernacle United Church, Philadelphia

Militarism

For each vibrant life and hopeful dream that is annihilated by war and written off as necessary collateral damage,
We lift up the ashes of our pain, O God.

For the millions who go hungry or suffer sickness because bombs are more lucrative than bread and missiles are deemed more important than medicine,
We lift up the ashes of our remorse, O God.

For each mind that is forever haunted and each body that is left broken by war,

VOTING OUR VALUES: Nonpartisan Guide to Election Issues

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:28:22 -0500

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

NOV 23: Jews Uniting to End the War & Heal America: Organizing for Action

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:02:46 -0500

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.

Please go to -

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/7445/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3732

to register for November 23 and/ or contribute to its success, even if you are too far away to come.

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.)

Flashes of Light from the unkosher dark of Postville, Iowa

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:02:29 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Most of the time, as a society we walk in darkness, wounded by walking blindly into an economic barbed-wire fence here, an environmental open manhole there. Once a generation - if we are lucky, once a decade -- there is a flash of lightning in the dark that lights up the truth of our country's politics.

For some of us, Katrina was such a flash of lightning. And now, for some of us, an allegedly kosher meatpacking plant oddly located, far from Jews, in Postville, Iowa.

Even in the dark, there is usually some prophetic voice warning of oncoming damage.

In this case, prophetic calls to apply "eco-kosher" and "ethical kosher" standards not only to food but also to such consumables as coal, oil, plastics went back to the work of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in the mid-'70s and my own book Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex and the Rest of Life in the mid-'90s.

Conjoining MLK & Inauguration Day: Relearning Heschel, Rebirthing King, Re-Inaugurating America, Jan. 14, 19, 20, 2009

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:43:00 -0500

(Rabbi Arthur Waskow for The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah)

Relearning Heschel, Rebirthing King, Re-Inaugurating America:
Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day
As a new government takes office,
January 19-20, 2009>

As Barack Obama becomes President and a new Congress takes office in January 2009, there is a remarkable opportunity to bring together large sections of American society to reflect on our history and our future. The opportunity is strengthened by the fact that the day before Inauguration day (Tuesday, January 20) is Martin Luther King's Birthday. And January 14 is the yohrzeit (death-anniversary) of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. King's close friend and ally.

Toward a Jubilee Economy & Ecology in the Modern World

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:38:58 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is a chapter in Rabbi Waskow's book Godwrestling -- Round 2 (Jewish Lights, 1996). The book is available as a free gift from The Shalom Center, personally inscribed by Rabbi Waskow as you choose, if you use the Donate Now button on the right to make a tax-deductible contribution of $180 or more.

[At the end of this essay you will find citations on teachings from the Hebrew Bible & related materials toward a Jubilee Economics and Ecologics.]::

One lesson that we have discerned from studying the story of the Flood [see a previous chapter from Godwrestling -- Round 2] is that it is profoundly necessary for us to affirm and celebrate the cycles of life if we wish to preserve the cycles of life. Are those cycles now in danger? And if so, how can we affirm them?

40TH ANNIVERSARY INTERFAITH FREEDOM SEDER, MARCH 29, 2009: A SEDER FOR THE EARTH

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:06:56 -0500

By Arlene Goldbard & Rabbi Arthur Waskow
[Goldbard is a writer and expert on cultural change and is chair of the Board of the Shalom Center; Waskow is its Executive Director.]

In every generation, Pharaoh;
In every generation, Freedom

INTRODUCTION

The Shalom Center will hold a Fortieth Anniversary Interfaith Freedom Seder on March 29, 2009, ten days before Passover, two weeks before Easter, and less than a week before the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's death, infusing each of these events with new energy and depth.

A flagship Seder in Washington, DC, will draw national attention to the project, highlighting the many local Fortieth Anniversary Freedom Seders held simultaneously in communities around the U.S., uniting people of all faiths and races who love justice in a common dedication to equality, to a fair and humane economy and to peace.

Can Agriprocessors Do T'shuvah?"

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:07:36 -0400

Rabbi David Seidenberg

Following on the heels of the recent Forward article(1) about
conditions for Agriprocessors' Brooklyn workers, the Times reports
that Agriprocessors is asking the Supreme Court to deny workers in
their Brooklyn distribution center the right to unionize because they
are "not documented workers and not allowed to work." According to the
Times, Agriprocessors claimed "to have just discovered that…the
workers were illegal immigrants," just a few days after the 2005 union
vote.(2) An image comes immediately to my mind: Captain Renault in
Casablanca declaring, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is

SACRIFICING A SACRED COW: THE NEW JEWISH DIETARY IMPERATIVE

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:47:43 -0400

By Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz

“The term sacred cow has passed into the English language to mean an object or practice which is considered immune from criticism.” (Wikipedia)

“Can you imagine a supermarket allowing ‘Attention, Planet-Destroying Carnivores’ on the in-store radio?” (Hank Stewart, Green Team Advertising)

“We do not find lecturing people about personal consumption choices to be effective.”
(Carl Pope, Sierra Club)

New Ways of Accessing Kosher Meat

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:40:24 -0400

By Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

It is very painful to read about a plant that was supposed to be Glatt kosher and manages this by squeaking by the narrowest definition of kosher that could be construed by Halakha [Jewish law]. They ignored many of the issues that had to do with Tza'ar Ba'aley Chayyim [giving pain to animals] and unfair treatment of laborers, as well as knowingly breaking immigration hiring laws.

In the meantime I have received a request from concerned people who would like to be able to engage a Shochet [ritual slaughterer] and find a way to address the needs to get their meat from free-range animals that were not fed hormones and grazed on land that was not polluted by herbicides.

Sacred Food, Sacred Festivals: The Jewish Year as a Celebration of Nourishment

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:55:27 -0500

HOW FOOD FRAMES THE FESTIVALS:
THE JEWISH PATTERN

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The cycle of Jewish festivals has become intimately connected with specific foods, and the themes of the festivals lend themselves to focusing on specific aspects of what makes food sacred.

DAYS OF AWE: ROSH HASHANAH THROUGH YOM KIPPUR (Evening September 12, through September 22, 2007)

Rosh Hashanah is symbolically connected with eating apple slices dipped in honey. The apple evokes the round cycle of the year as it begins, and the honey hopes for its sweetness. The festival focuses on ten days (traditionally known as the Days of Awe) of tshuvah/ turning one's self in a new direction that culminate in Yom Kippur, a day of not eating or drinking at all.

The National Guard: At Home or in Iraq (when Katrina came)?

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 09:39:47 -0500

Pete Yost, Will Bunch, Sidney Blumenthal 08/31/2005

1. OVERSEAS DEPLOYMENTS HINDER GUARD HURRICANE PRESENCE
By Pete Yost

Associated Press (from Army Times)
August 31, 2005

Some 6,000 National Guard personnel in Louisiana and Mississippi who would be available to help deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are in Iraq, highlighting the changing role of Americas part-time soldiers.

Big Oil's War against Europe

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:12:56 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 3/8/2005

Dear Friends,

We have posted on our Website a BBC report on rising European wrath against the US for its CO2 emissions. During early March, I was in Edinburgh to speak & teach at a conference on the spiritual roots of peacemaking. In one of my talks, I said: