Charlottesville: Where Do We Stand by Arthur Green

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WHERE DO WE STAND? by Rabbi Arthur Green

 

 

American Jews looked on with horror at the events unfolding in Charlottesville – and elsewhere – over this past weekend.  Indeed, we have felt a shudder ever since the awful campaign of 2016 and much that has followed it, while our communal leadership has remained mostly silent.  There were, after all, some Jewish voices in the White House, and it was best not to alienate the Republicans.  “And who knows?” it was whispered, “maybe this crazy guy could do something for Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

 

But in Charlottesville the masks were off.  Neo-Nazis with their swatstika flags were a welcome part of the celebration.  You heard the k-word along with the n-word quite frequently, we are told.  There was no longer any hasty “Judeo” hyphened on to the calls for a Christian America.  Not among these folks.

Editorials & Actions

Jews Are NOT “White” in 21st century USA

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Take a look at the alleged white privilege of Jews in Charlottesville, Virginia

At Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, VA, we are deeply grateful for the support and prayers of the broader Reform Jewish community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Heather Heyer and the two Virginia State Police officers, H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, who lost their lives on Saturday, and with the many people injured in the attack who are still recovering. The loss of life far outweighs any fear or concern felt by me or the Jewish community during the past several weeks as we braced for this Nazi rally – but the effects of both will each linger. On Saturday morning, I stood outside our synagogue with the armed security guard we hired after the police department refused to provide us with an officer during morning services. (Even the police department’s limited promise of an observer near our building was not kept — and note, we did not ask for protection of our property, only our people as they worshipped).

Editorials & Actions

Racism After Charlottesville

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Rabbi Michael Lerner writes: “…at a vigil to honor the Charolttesville victims I attended last night in Berkeley where the fascists promise to hold their next large rally August 27th, I encountered not only sadness, but fear and confusion as many yearned for a coherent strategy that the American Left sorely needs.”

Editorials & Actions

Australian Rabbi speaking at a Mosque

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Below I share some of my talk at a Mosque the other day. The fact that this talk happened at all is a tribute to the good people playing a leadership role in this community. Two Sydney synagogues had hosted an Imam to speak to their communities as well. Contact between cultures is not always positive and my talk explores elements of challenge as well as principles relating to living side by side with people of different cultures and beliefs. Warm regards

Zalman

Rabbi Zalman Kastel
National Director
Together for Humanity Foundation
02) 9886-7414, Direct line 02) 9886-7162, 0423-981-368
zalman@togetherforhumanity.org.au
www.togetherforhumanity.org.au
 
www.differencedifferently.edu.au is our free on-line Intercultural Understanding resource linked to the Australian Curriculum.

Editorials & Actions

Never Give Up Working for Peace by Jonathan Granoff

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NEVER FORGET VIRTUE, NEVER FORGET HIROSHIMA, NEVER GIVE UP WORKING FOR PEACE

08/08/2017 11:14 pm ET | Updated 1 day ago
 

There are historical matters toward which our ongoing attention is worthy because of their relevance today. Here are some examples:

1. The courage and benefit of Socrates’ sacrifice to uphold the rule of law demonstrated by his refusal to escape his prison cell and willingness to drink deadly poison, a penalty arising from a trial in which he was unjustly adjudicated guilty. He personally sacrificed his life to highlight forever the importance of the rule of law for his and any society. 2.

Editorials & Actions

The Pentagon’s Success Story

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Editor’s note: Thanks to our media ally TomDispatch.com we present another analysis of American military power–no, not about atomic wars, but about overthrowing governments around the world. Can the Pentagon Win When Putsch Comes to Shove? A Rare Pentagon “Success” Story
By Nick Turse

Winning! It’s the White House watchword when it comes to the U.S. armed forces. “We will give our military the tools you need to prevent war and, if required, to fight war and only do one thing — you know what that is?

Editorials & Actions

Trump’s Christian Nationalism–and how to effectively counter it

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Editor’s note: this important article below shows a troubling development in American society. Yet like so much that comes from our leftwing allies, it shows no understanding of why these scary politics have emerged and how it could be responded to by the Left. Please read my book The Left Hand of God–Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right. For 31 plus years we at Tikkun have been sharing an analysis which emerged from the research I led at our parent body, the Institute for Labor and Mental Health: capitalist society’s scientism (not science but the creation of a religious worldview we call scientism–the notion that everything that really exists or can be know must be verifiable or falsifiable by empirical observation or be measurable) reduces all values to merely subjective emotional preferences that have no place in the public sphere, thereby freeing the capitalist order and its corporations and super-rich to accumulate money (the ultimately real and measurable reality) without regard to the human consequences. The result is to create a huge crisis for people all around the world and in the advanced industrial capitalist societies as they are told that their lives have no meaning or purpose except to serve the powerful and rich and to strive to become one of them.

Editorials & Actions

Republicans’ Immigration Plan: A Whiter America

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Republicans’ immigration plan: A whiter America 
By Emile Schepers
Jeanette Vizguerra, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in a church to avoid immigration authorities for the past three months, speaks after leaving the church May 12, in downtown Denver. Supporters say that Vizguerra has won a two-year deportation delay. | David Zalubowski / AP

On Wednesday August 2, President Trump announced his supportfor Senate Bill 1720, which aims to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act in line with the aims of a so-called “skills-based immigration system.” It purports to re-center U.S. immigrant admissions with a focus on those with high levels of education or in-demand economic skills, limit family-sponsored immigration to spouses and minor children, and sharply cut the number of people granted refugee status. Trump was flanked at the announcement by the bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and its only co-sponsor to date, Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga. The bill, also called the RAISE (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment) Act, which was originally introduced in February and is now re-introduced with Trump’s blessing, is not aimed at undocumented immigrants, but at people trying to come legally to the United States.

Articles

City on a Hilltop reviewed by Yehuda Magid & response from Sara Yael Hirschhorn

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This is Yehuda Magid’s review of the important book by

Sara Yael Hirschhorn and below a response from Hirschhorn:
City on Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement
Harvard University Press, 2017, pp. 350

Yehuda Magid, PhD Candidate, Dept. of Political Science, Indiana University/Bloomington

Despite Israel’s attempt to erase the green line and normalize the Jewish-Israeli presence on the West Bank, the Israeli settlement enterprise continues to represent the single most intractable and sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. American administrations from both major parties have long recognized this reality. Most recently, President Trump surprised both supporters and opponents of the Israeli settlement enterprise when he told the Israeli daily Israel Hayom that settlements “don’t help the [peace] process” and that he did not believe that “going forward with…settlement [expansion] is a good thing for peace.” While much attention has been paid to American support and opposition to Israeli settlements, little consideration has been given to the direct involvement of American-Jews in the Israeli settlement project.

Articles

America’s Wars by Tom Engelhardt

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Editor’s note: Below, another analysis of America’s wars from our media ally TomDispatch.com. As you know, the way to overcome all this is not only to protest against this militarism, but to convince the Left that it needs to promote an alternative path to Homeland Security. That’s the point of our Global Marshall Plan www.tikkun.org/gmp which proposes that we replace the Strategy of Domination which has been tried for the past 10,000 years and doesn’t work with a Strategy of Generosity so that the U.S. becomes known as the most generous country in the world rather than just  the most powerful dominator. Until we insist that this is a major part of what liberals and progressives are presenting to the Americna people, the fear that ISIS and Al Queda have generated (the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers remain ever-present in the consciousness of Americans as a source of fear about safety, and the ruthlessness of ISIS and its clones does give even the most nonviolent people a reason to wonder what could change all this) will not abate and the militarists will keep winning inside not just the Right, but the Center of the Democratic Party as well. (side note: we give the same advice to Israelis: want security?

Editorials & Actions

Israel Freak Out About Hebron

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Editor’s note: Uri Avnery is chair of the Israeli Peace Movement GUSH SHALOM and a frequent contributor to Tikkun. Abe, Izzy & Bibi

15/07/17by Uri Avnery

THE WHOLE thing could have been a huge practical joke, if it had not been real. All of Israel was taken in. Left, right and center. All the newspapers and TV networks, without exception.

Economy/Poverty/Wealth

G20 in Hamburg

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FIRE AND RIDDLES AT HAMBURG

Berlin Bulletin No. 130, July 10, 2017

Victor Grossman, Berlin

The concert hall in Hamburg’s wonderful new Elbphilharmonie edifice resounded with Schiller’s thrilling Ode to Joy and world brotherhood in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Nineteen heads of state were there for a G-20 conference; only Erdogan from Turkey was missing; he may not appreciate Beethoven or was too busy worrying about the huge peaceful march to Istanbul, a first major response to his repression. All other leaders and their spouses heard the music; even Donald Trump was seen for a TV moment with half-closed eyes, in euphoric enjoyment of Beethoven, we assume. Or why else?

Christianity

Is Christianity today creating atheists?

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[Editor’s note: While Tikkun is a Jewish magazine and it is also an interfaith and secular-humanist welcoming magazine, many of whose authors and readers are not Jewish. While we claim not special expertise on the problems facing Christianity, some of our authors are outstanding Christian thinkers and activists, so they may be in a better position than our tiny staff to judge whether the articles below are crossing some line which we at Tikkun should not be crossing. Let us know. Meanwhile, while the details are quite different, the Muslim and Jewish communities also have major defections caused by the failure of some of their mainstream institutions to embody the highest values of the Jewish and Muslim traditions, usually for failing to actually embody their own teachings about the sanctity of all human beings on the planet. Just saying….

Articles

Celebrating July 4th in the Trump Years

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Celebrating July 4th in the Trump Years: Make it Inter-Dependence Day to Challenge the Ideology of Right Wing Ultra-Nationalism 

by Rabbi Michael Lerner  editor Tikkun magazine

A July 4th  “ Seder” 

In past years, faced with July 4th celebrations that are focused on militarism, ultra-nationalism, and “bombs bursting in air,” many American families who do not share those values turned July 4th into another summer holiday focused on picnics, sports and fireworks while doing their best to avoid the dominant rhetoric and bombast. During the Trump years we all have a moral obligation to

use this holiday to challenge the “America First” ultra-nationalist worldview that Trump and Right-wing activists are trying to popularize as they shift the mainstream dialogue from its previous center-right blandly pro-capitalist worldview to an extremist right-wing nationalism, already mobilized against environmental protections,  that could provide the foundation both for new wars (against Iran, North Korea, or even Russia or China) and for an assault on whatever remains standing of the New Deal of the 1930s (workers’ rights to organize unions, safety and health regulations, Medicare, retirement benefits, public education, social security, etc.)

Yet the key to challenging this direction is to not fall into two traps that have limited the support for liberal and progressive forces: a. thinking that the alternative to ultra-nationalism is to focus only on what is wrong with America, thereby handing to the extremists the banner of being the only pro-American voice; or b. demeaning all those who have supported Trump as racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes, antiSemites or just plain stupid. The shaming and blaming only strengthens the support of many for Trumpist politics, and must cease. Instead, we need to reclaim all that is good in America, and reframe that in terms of celebrating July 4th as Inter-dependence day. We in the Network of Spiritual Progressives believe that that there is much worth celebrating in American history that deserves attention on July 4th, though it is rarely the focus of the public events.

Editorials & Actions

Outrage at Israel’s Decision to Prevent Mixed Gender Prayer at the Wall in Jerusalem

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Editor’s Note: There was a powerful article by Nicole Zimmerman in Ha’aretz on Thursday critiquing American Jews for getting so upset about the rights of non-orthodox Jews to pray at the Western Wall (the Kotel) while never getting upset in this powerful way about the ongoing 50 years of oppression of Palestinians.  
June 30th, 2017

As Shabbat approaches at the end of this very difficult week, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) expresses its continued outrage at the shortsighted, hostile, and divisive decision of the Israeli government to rescind the agreed upon plan for the development of an egalitarian, pluralistic worship space at the Kotel in Jerusalem. We also oppose, in the strongest possible terms, the Conversion Bill now under consideration, which would essentially hand absolute control of conversions to the ultra-orthodox who do not recognize any conversions performed by other Jewish denominations, including Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal.