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EDITORIALS
Pragmatic Compromises Will Never Yield the World We Seek
MICHAEL LERNER
Liberals need to question a capitalist assumption that too often finds support in the liberal world: that material well-being is the primary key to happiness.
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POLITICS & SOCIETY
Boycott Hyatt and Patronize Union Hotels: A Jewish Obligation of the Union for Reform Judaism
ROSS HYMAN
Why doesn’t the Reform movement honor the hotel workers’ picket and boycott of Hyatt hotels?
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RETHINKING RELIGION
Rethinking Prophecy
MORDECAI SCHREIBER
What defines a prophet? Is it a moral compulsion to speak the truth, no matter the consequences?
Sleeping in the Dust at Burning Man
RON H. FELDMAN
If “sabbath, sunshine, and sexual intercourse” offer a foretaste of the world-that-is-coming, as the Talmud suggests, then could the Burning Man festival be understood as a taste of this messianic future?
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SPECIAL SECTION: IMMIGRATION
Away With All Borders: The Immigration Mess
MICHAEL LERNER
To truly champion immigrants, we may need to challenge the right of nation-states to exclude the homeless and the hungry.
Immigration: A Difficult Love Story
ANDREW LAM
During economic booms, migrants are recruited as much-needed workers. During downturns, they are demonized and deported. It’s a tumultuous affair wrought with hypocrisy, injustice, and cruelty.
The New Abolitionism: The Struggle to End Deportation
JACQUELINE STEVENS
The travails of deportation will cease only with its abolition. From Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., activists are joining forces with targeted communities in the burgeoning movement to end this unjust system.
Healing the Wound: Immigration, Activism, and Policies
NORMA E. CANTÚ
To build a world free of borders and border violence—a world where no one yells, “go back to where you came from”—we need to address the fear motivating those who would shut the door.
How to Stop a Deportation
PUCK LO
Individuals often endure deportation proceedings in isolation, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The stories of Steve Li and Laibar Singh show what is possible when communities mobilize in response.
Rethinking Immigration with Art
LAURA E. PEREZ
To reorient this country’s immigration policy toward generosity and compassion will require serious creativity and vision. Let’s look to art for inspiration!
Creating Sanctuary: Faith-Based Activism for Migrant Justice
BENJAMIN LORBER
When would-be migrants die in the desert, it’s not just an ethical issue, it’s also a religious crisis. Arizona groups have put their faith into action for decades, defying federal law and offering humanitarian aid.
A New Social Contract: Social Welfare in an Era of Transnational Migration
PEGGY LEVITT
Increasing numbers of people are living transnational lives yet are served by nationally bounded social institutions. What would a transnational social welfare system look like?
Living in the Shadow of SB 1070: Organizing for Migrant Rights in Arizona
CAROLINE PICKER
The predatory escalation of immigration enforcement in Arizona has continued to worsen in the wake of Arizona’s 2010 immigration law. In response, migrants have organized Barrio Defense Committees, Freedom Rides of undocumented activists, and more.
An Evangelical Perspective on Immigration
STEPHAN BAUMAN and JENNY YANG
Inspired by Scripture and struggling to serve immigrant worshippers, the evangelical community is calling for reforms to keep families together and establish a path toward citizenship for people without papers.
Love the Stranger: Looking to the Torah for Guidance on Immigration Policy
ZALMAN KASTEL
We are all capable of prejudice and must remain vigilant to observe and change it within ourselves. Perhaps that’s why the most repeated commandment in the Torah is to love the stranger.
Awakening to the Story in My Bones: Border Crossings, Violence, and Asylum
ARIEL VEGOSEN
It is easy to become complicit with U.S. border policy—even for those whose ancestors once fled violence themselves. How can so many of us live in denial?
Online Exclusives
Don’t miss the online-only articles associated with this special section on immigration: powerful contributions from Fred L Hammond, Robert Latham, Kathleen M. Moore, Kate Morgan-Olsen and Catherine Gaffney, Joseph Nevins, Samuel Rodriguez and Robert Gittelson, and Carl A. Ruby. To read them, click here.
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CULTURE
BOOKS
Spirituality in a Broken World
Spirituality: What It Is and Why It Matters by Roger S. Gottlieb | Review by Larry Rasmussen
Queering Palestinian Solidarity Work
Israel/Palestine and the Queer International by Sarah Schulman | Review by Wendy Elisheva Somerson
POETRY
Translation depends, not on what must be included, but on what must not be left out by Marcela Sulak
TIKKUN RECOMMENDS
River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom by Walter Johnson
Trouble-Making Judaism by Elli Tikvah Sarah
On the Muslim Question by Anne Norton
Whatever Happened to the Islamists? edited by Amel Boubekeur and Olivier Roy