Gordon Fellman argues that Jewish assimilation has less to do with intermarriage and more to do with the Jewish right-wingers who “have abandoned the core ethics that have shaped Judaism from the beginning.”
Editorials & Actions
Unfashionable Fascism
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Unfashionable Fascism: Mainstream Politicians Switching Sides Under Trump’s Regime of Barbarism
Other Voices
The pro-Occupation Lobby in Canada
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The Organized Canadian Jewish community has the ear of the politicians and fiercely attacks those who criticize Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. by Edward C. Corrigan
Many observers would be surprised at the pivotal role Canada played in the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel. Ivan Rand, who was a retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice, played a critical role in getting the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to recommend partition into a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State” over a unified Palestine. A unitary Palestine would have approximately one third Jewish population and two-thirds Arab population, based on the actual demographics of the country. Lester B. Pearson, then Canadian under-secretary of state for external affairs, later Prime Minister of Canada and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the 1956 Suez War, also played a significant role in getting the necessary support of countries who were members of the UN at the time to accept partition.
Reviews
Killing White Innocence
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Stephen Brookfield reviews “Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America” by George Yancy and reflects on the importance of understanding identity within a racist system.
Other Voices
Lula, servant of the Brazilian people, now jailed (article in English and in Spanish)
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was: “one of the greatest political leaders in our history, who gave Brazil a new direction and brought her into the modern world, particularly benefiting the working class.” Leonardo Boff takes a closer look at Lula’s leadership.
Emancipatory Spirituality
Theologies of Genocide and Earth Day Ethics
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Dr. Rev. Brooks Berndt provides a theological framework to rebut climate denialism.
Articles
Israel Independence Day–3 different approaches plus our Tikkunish thoughts
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Below are three different takes, from 3 organizations each of which we at Tikkun support for their important work (Hazon in developing Jewish environmental consciousness, Torat Tzedeck for Rabbi Ascherman’s courageous work in defense of refugees, Palestinians, and Bedouin in Israel/Palestine, and T’ruah for its voice for progressive rabbis guided by Jill Jacobs). We present their statements on how to think about Israel on its 70th anniversary. I’m proud to be a member and supporter of each of these.
In the statements below each of them makes important points. Yet, none of them adequately capture the legitimate outrage of those Israelis who as Jews feel that Israel is desecrating that which is most sacred in the Jewish tradition, nor the pain of Arab Israelis who continue to experience the daily humiliations and pain of being a second-class citizen in a society that publicizes itself as an enlightened democracy, nor the pain of those millions of Palestinians living under Israeli Occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
I particularly like Jill Jacobs, statement on behalf of T’ruah. She makes a very persuasive case for a balanced approach that in tone is very different from some on the Left who can see nothing of value in Israel.
Other Voices
The Torah Before The Torah…A Book Review of The Kedumah Experience
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Aubrey L. Glazer reviews Zvi Ish-Shalom’s new book “Kedumah Experience: The Primordial Torah” and find that it “provides spiritual ways towards the truth that can only be found by the individual seeker.”
Articles
Eyeless in Gaza
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{Editor’s Note: Uri Avnery is the leader of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom. Hundreds more were wounded today. Please send it out to everyone you know, also send it on Facebook and all social media, and post it on your website!–Rabbi Michael Lerner}
Uri Avnery
April 14, 2018 Eyeless in Gaza
WRITE DOWN: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief.We don’t belong to the same army, or to the same state. We hardly belong to the same human race. IS MY government committing “war crimes” along the border of the Gaza Strip?
Editorials & Actions
A Tale of American Hubris
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A Tale of American Hubris
Or Five Lessons in the History of American Defeat
By Tom Engelhardt
The lessons of history? Who needs them? Certainly not Washington’s present cast of characters, a crew in flight from history, the past, or knowledge of more or less any sort. Still, just for the hell of it, let’s take a few moments to think about what some of the lessons of the last years of the previous century and the first years of this one might be for the world’s most exceptional and indispensable nation, the planet’s sole superpower, the globe’s only sheriff. Those were, of course, commonplace descriptions from the pre-Trump era and yet, in the age of MAGA, already as moldy and cold as the dust in some pharaonic tomb.
Editorials & Actions
Peace-oriented Israelis prepare to demonstrate near the Gaza border
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At a junction near the Gaza border, Israelis living in the vicinity will demonstrate tomorrow (Friday) and call out: “Stop the escalation – rebuild Gaza !!!”
Members of Kol Aher (Anohter Voice), an Israeli movement living in the town of Sderot and smaller communities in the Gaza border area, will hold the demonstration at the Yad Mordechai Junction, a short distance north of the border – where they have already held numerous demonstrations and protests on earlier occasions.
Demonstrators will make upon the government of Israel the following calls:
– Cease the shooting of unarmed demonstrators!
– Lift the siege on the Gaza Strip!
– No violence! Yes to aid in rebuilding Gaza !!
Editorials & Actions
War Is a Lie by David Swanson
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By David Swanson
In the park today I saw a teenager watching two little kids, one of whom apparently stole a piece of candy from the other. The teenager rushed up to the two of them, reprimanded one of them, and stole both of their bicycles. I felt like it was my turn to step in at that point, and I confronted the bicycle thief. “Excuse me,” I said, “what makes you think you can commit a larger crime just because you witnessed a smaller one? Who do you think you are?” He stared at me for a while, and replied: “the U.S. military.”
There is no crime larger than war.
Other Voices
The Hope We Create: An Activist’s Perspective
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Richard A. Bachmann reviews Ron Aronson’s new book, “We – Reviving Social Hope” and reminds us of the importance of collective action to sustain hope.
Editorials & Actions
Promised Land and Social Construct
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Promised Land and Social Construct
by David Giesen
Imagine a scramble up a mountain till after several false crests have been summited in fact the grand overlook is gained. Below stretches a vast and inviting . . . social construct.