Christianity

Jesus Died With His Hands Up, Too

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So in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri, let us take a long clear look at the cross once again and see it for what it is. It is a powerful reminder that peace in our neighborhoods isn’t something that can be enforced with local police armed with high-powered surplus military equipment. It’s a grim visual statement of the consequences of a preemptive policy of shoot first, ask questions later. It’s a sobering symbol of what happens when a society puts less value on human life than it does on arbitrarily-defined standards of public safety.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Border Lessons: Jewish Resources for Resisting Nationalism

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Standing on the site of the Warsaw ghetto, hearing Israeli Hebrew spoken around me, I thought about Gaza. And a deeply cynical, deeply hurt, deeply hopeless voice within me thinks: do Israelis really need to come all the way to Warsaw to learn about ghettoes? And a more hopeful voice, the voice of a student and a teacher wonders, what if more of us came to Warsaw not to reinforce a history of oppression, but to study the legacy of those proposing ways to eradicate it?

Culture

The Murder of Mike Brown: A Call To Action

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The murder of Mike Brown and response by the St. Louis Police Department to nonviolent protestors is emblematic of the persistent racism in our country and disproportionate response to peaceful actions and protests. It was only 13 months ago when a jury acquitted George Zimmerman of murder for his shooting of Trayvon Martin and here we are again, this time with a police officer shooting an unarmed black man as, according to witnesses, his hands were raised – the officer not in any danger.

Healing Israel/Palestine

A Letter to Jon Voight about Gaza and the History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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The Zionist movement was not an innocent victim of Arab fanaticism and antipathy to Jews. It was an active participant and initiator of an intercommunal conflict which resulted in the expulsion of a million Palestinians in 1948 and then 1967, which has produced a brutal and illegal occupation that continues and even intensifies to this day. Do you think this is fair, Mr. Voight?

Healing Israel/Palestine

“But Hamas…”

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In conversations about Gaza, I have heard many thoughtful people in the Jewish community lament the loss of Palestinian lives in Gaza but then say, “But Hamas…,” as if that were the heart of the problem. I’d like to suggest that, when we have these conversations about Hamas and Israel’s current bombing campaign, we begin with the necessary context and historical perspective.