Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/culture/page/75/)
Posts about culture, the arts, the media, book reviews, movies etc.
Though suicide may be seen as a highly individualized problem, the reality is that many social factors are at play and it isn’t a case of individual fault. In order to others better understand the issue, Dan Brook highlights nine realities we are often unaware of and twenty-four techniques for help and survival.
“Flipped” Classrooms have students watching their teacher’s lectures at home and completing their homework at school. This may bring about a greater level of hands-on participation in the classroom, but what about those who get left behind? Not everyone has a supportive home atmosphere with the resources and ability to thrive in this new, technology-heavy platform.
There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish. — Mary Parker Follett
Are campaign contributions simply legalized bribery? What does the Torah have to say about this and why should we care? What does bribery look like in this day and age? Is there anything we can do to change campaign finance laws?
Donna Swarthout decided to take advantage of the German law that allows families persecuted by the Nazis to have their citizenship restored. In the wake of the government shutdown she feels that she has made the right choice, and finds relief in the German healthcare, educational, transportation, and political systems.
During the 16-day government shutdown, Tea Party Republicans rose above, or somewhere beyond, earthly politics. Their aim was to stay true to their principles, to be faithful, not necessarily effective. At their meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday, House Republicans began not by calling themselves to order, but by singing all three verses of “Amazing Grace.” In other words, the shutdown Republicans were prophetic in their own way. By this, I don’t mean they accurately predicted a future state of being.
Youth Spirit Artworks is an interfaith job-training arts program co-founded by Sally Hindman. Hindman – who’s also responsible for the Telegraph Avenue drop-in center for homeless youth and Street Spirit, the Bay Area’s homeless newspaper – created the organization in 2007 in order to provide training for young people in need.
In Britain, the BBC has recently finished airing a landmark documentary ‘The Story of the Jews’, written and presented by the British historian Simon Schama. The ratings were good and the praise was high from both the mainstream media critics and from most British Jews. It was a highly passionate and emotional telling of ‘our story’. This time, unlike Schama’s previous television histories, it was personal. I had certainly enjoyed much of Schama’s presentation until he said this:
“…in some sense if you don’t live in Israel – I don’t live in Israel – you’re morally obliged to be nearly silent, nearly silent.”
Does Outrage Work?
When I consider how my own mind has changed, it was never because someone attacked and judged me harshly. It almost always arose from the surprising response of someone I respected. One example: I grew up literally and genuinely homophobic, one of those who are called “haters” though it was not true that I hated homosexuals.
Text:Jeremiah 29: 1-7; Luke 17: 11-18
In the first pages of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the reader confronts a Columbus quite different from the one we learned in school. Some may be aware that he sailed on condition of receiving a large share in the profits from his gold-seeking adventure, but everyone knows that early on October 12, 1492, a sailor finally sighted land. Columbus’ ship was met by Arawak Indians swimming out to greet the visitors. In his journal, the explorer wrote of these Indians:
They are well-built, with good bodies and handsome features. .