Culture

Once White in America: Raising Black Sons in a White Country

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It is 2015 and I could list so many names. I would pray, but I am not a believer, as people call us now, but I do believe in action, in what has always been called struggle, in what I insist on calling faith in the human capacity and responsibility to know and feel another human story. I witness my son, now a man of 40, marching from Washington Square Park up Fifth Avenue, across 34th Street, downtown on Sixth, long renamed Avenue of the Americas, to One Police Plaza. He marches and shouts with colleagues and friends: I can’t breathe! Black lives matter!

Culture

Reasons for Departure

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That summer my Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic teacher and closest confidant asked me, seriously, as many cynics told me she would, if the Holocaust actually happened. That summer I summoned up all the grammar and honesty I could find to say “Yes. And to admit that it happened does not excuse what has been done to the Palestinians. It’s not Jewish history, or Zionist history; it’s human history. Just like the Nakba is human history.”

Culture

We Are “Carefully Taught” to Hate

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Bandura found in his “Bobo Doll Experiments” that young people can be highly influenced by observing adult behavior, and perceive that such behavior is acceptable, while freeing their own aggressive inhibitions. They are then more likely to behave aggressively in future situations.

Empathy

Are We Still Marching With King?

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Every year, on this state-sanctioned day of reflection, we memorialize the Martin Luther King who was a peacemaker, a conciliator, a lover and not a hater. In reality, however, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the master of the thunderous cadences of righteous rage.

Culture

Join George Lakoff, Marianne Williamson​, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Matthew Fox and more to Reclaim America

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After the 2014 elections and facing a Congress determined to dismantle environmental protections and health and social benefits for middle income Americans and the poor in 2015-2016, and after the spate of well-publicized police murders of African American men and grand juries refusing to indict the police, it’s critical that ethically sensitive people develop a strategy to: RECLAIM AMERICA

Culture

Let Your Voice Be Heard

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A vital aspect of the ongoing Berkeley Protests (along with those around the country) is the undeniable power of voice. We at Tikkun believe in the voice of the people, from that of an individual blogger to the harmonious chants of thousands in the streets.

Empathy

Affordable Housing Rally, San Jose

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San Jose has the nation’s largest unsheltered homeless population. In response to San Jose’s homelessness crisis, the Sacred Housing Action Committee led a rally at city hall last week to inform and persuade the public and elected officials to pass a fee to raise funds for affordable housing.

Culture

A New Peer Youth Emerges in Transforming the World

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After twenty-year-old Daniel Pierce was disowned by his family when he came out as gay, a peer community of youth arose on social media to stand by his side. Warren Blumenfeld reflects on the youth’s approach and the modern generation’s determination in eradicating oppression.

Education

Empathy Workshops in Oregon

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This weekend Rabbi Michael Lerner will be the keynote speaker for the Awards Dinner at the Peace House in Ashland, Oregon. Michael and Cat Zavis, executive director of NSP, will then co-lead two separate workshops on empathy.