The Shalom Center - 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

Prop 8, the White House, & Same-Sex Marriage

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:51:44 -0500

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The issue of same-sex marriage has engaged religious progressives in some important ways in the weeks since California voters voted 52%-48% for "Proposition 8," which canceled their Supreme Court's decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutionally protected right.

On the one hand, many religious progressives in California have been working to overturn Proposition 8 through a lawsuit.

On the other hand, President-elect Obama has invited Rev. Rick Warren, a leading supporter of Prop 8, who has said that homosexuality is as sinful as pederasty or bestiality, to invoke God at his Inauguration on January 20.

"Newsweek," Torah, and Same-Sex Marriage

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:53:25 -0500

Same-Sex Marriage: The Evolving Bible
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Newsweek magazine recently (December 2008) published a cover article endorsing same-sex marriage. The article caused a storm. I think the article could have taken the same bottom-line position, and yet imaginably have stirred a lot more thought and maybe even a little less explosion. Here is why:

Preparing for the article, a Newsweek reporter interviewed me at considerable length about my theology of same-sex marriage, Then she called back to say her boss had said to ask me whether I thought Judaism should be inclusive toward gays. I answered yes, and then that pretty simple-minded question and response were how I got quoted in the cover article.

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.

Why should Jews unite to end the war & heal America?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:18:13 -0500

[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.

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,

Order of Service & Teach-in, MLK Day, Jan 19, 2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:19:50 -0500

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: 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

The Election: Dancing in God's Earthquake

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:37:44 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Elections always seem to be about the narrowest here and now -- fluctuating polls, personalities, and policies. And indeed they are. But some elections are about something bigger, weirder, wilder. Like this one. Suppose we try looking at this election from the perspective of God and Empire -- the great rhythms of religion and power in millennia of history.

Let us begin with just a century ago. How come the real energy-centers on our present national tickets are two passionate Christians –-- one oriented to renewal and one to restoration? Not since William Jennings Bryan ("You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!") and William McKinley ("I knelt to pray for guidance on what to do about the Philippines, and heard a voice: Annex them, educate them, Christianize them!") have we had such a choice.

Bankers, the Bible, & the Bail-out

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:38:18 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Hard-headed Bankers or Masters of Disaster?
Sacred Economics -- Is it Silly?
Hard-headed Economics -- Is it Breaking our Heads?

If you listen to the hard-headed people who presumably keep us prosperous, Biblical and Quranic economics are, of course, quaint and unrealistic. They're based on romantic ideas about benefiting the poor, the landless, the outcast. Good for motivating open-hearted charity; bad for making hard-headed decisions necessary to run a successful economy.

Right. Which is why the hard-headed folks have created a crazy economic yo-yo skidding on the edge of massive disaster, in which the worst-hit will of course not be the Wall Street / Washington power-houses but the rest of us.

Elections, Kings, Wars, & Justice

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:38:59 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

As the American people faces up to the challenges of the extraordinary Presidential and Congressional election of 2008, this week's Torah portion (Shoftim) offers some profound and precise standards for deciding what to do.

This election is only slightly extraordinary because a woman and a Black person are on the national tickets. Much more extraordinary are the profound issues of centralized power and democratic process that we face.

First off, the Torah portion asserts (Deut.16: 20), "Justice, justice shall you pursue. " Why "justice" twice? To remind us that "Just results can only be achieved by just means." Even the pursuit by any political party or candidate of goals they fervently affirm are "just" cannot be done by suppressing voter turnout or by assassinating the characters of their opponents.

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.

From UnKosher Postville to a Decent Society

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:23:26 -0400

Kosher, Eco-Kosher, & Beyond:
From UnKosher Postville to a Decent Society

By Arthur Waskoiw

Dear friends,

My letter two weeks ago, called "Unkosher meat, unkosher politics" addressed the oppression of humans and animals at the allegedly kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, by both the plant owners (Rubashkin family) and the Federal government, which jailed hundreds of its undocumented workers while ignoring the crimes of the owners.. (If you missed it, see –
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1412 )

We urged our readers to write public letters to editors pressing the US government to stop charging undocumented workers with crimes, and start dealing with the far worse crimes of the plant owners. Our mailing has drawn a great many responses, a few of which we will share –- see below.