Politics & Society

Reform Clergy Call on Members of the Reform Movement to Not Attend Reform Conferences at Boycotted Hyatt Hotels

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The Hyatt Corporation is subcontracting jobs and forcing workers into poverty. Housekeepers endure crushing workloads that hurt their bodies. Where non-union workers are organizing to improve their circumstances, Hyatt has refused to remain neutral. On July 23, 2012 workers called for a global boycott of Hyatt hotels. We have heard stories of Hyatt abuse from many workers and find them very compelling. We support the workers’ boycott.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Israel and Gaza: Enough is Enough

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All the usual suspects are cheering on their respective sides in the latest struggle between Israel and Palestine being fought out at the expense of some Israeli and more Palestinian civilian lives. I’ve been overwhelmed with sadness at the tragic loss of lives and harm to the bodies of Israelis and Palestinians, and outraged at all those who continue to justify their side and demean the other, implicitly cheering on the violence even as they officially deplore it! Enough is enough. Stop the violence immediately!

General News

Israeli Minister: "The goal…is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages."

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Interior Minister Eli Yishai, in a moment of disturbing candor, revealed what is for many in Netanyahu’s government the ultimate goal of its escalating military campaign on Gaza:
“The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.” Now, part of Yishai’s bombast comes from the fact that, as a known racist and head of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, he’d feel much more comfortable in the Middle Ages himself. However, his statement reveals an essential truth few Israeli leaders dare to articulate. And that truth is this: the current military throttling of Gaza has less to do with security and more to do with destabilizing Gaza as much as possible.

Politics & Society

Thoughts on “Operation Pillar of Defense”

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With bombs falling on Gaza, and rockets on Holon, a person in America who cares deeply about the people of Israel and Palestine is caught between a rock and a hard place. Not wanting to ignore the violence threatening her friends and family, but afraid to venture into the roiling milieu of “for us or against us” attitude in modern day social networks. As Allison Kaplan Sommer calls it in her Haaretz editorial, “laptop warriors” are fighting a war of their own.

Buddhism

Why the Dalai Lama is Wrong to Think Meditation Will Eliminate Violence

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This quote by the Dalai Lama is going viral on the internet, “If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.” Marianne Williamson shared this quote via her Facebook account and it received a tremendous reception. Google the quote and you will find tens of thousands of web sites, Facebook pages and twitter feeds where it has appeared. Needless to say, the enthusiasm over the Dalai Lama’s statement is profound. It has struck a cord for sure.

General News

Why I'm Rejecting Rabbi Yoffie's Call for Progressive Jews to Support Israel's Bombing of Gaza

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Rabbi Eric Yoffie has penned a Haaretz opinion piece directed at progressive, U.S. Jews that is so deluded and insidious, it’s as though it was written in the same political and psychological vacuum inhabited by Netanyahu’s government. Yoffie, former head of the Union for Reform Judaism, argues that progressives should champion Israel’s “get tough” Gaza stance. It’s a call he makes using shockingly misguided and narrow arguments. It’s a call I, and all progressives, should reject. Here’s why:
First, Yoffie fails to understand the strategic motivations behind Israel’s current “Pillar of Defense” campaign.

Environment

A Call for A Politics of Love

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Dear President Obama and Democratic Members of Congress,
I invite you to embrace the radical notion that there are fundamental truths and values that the vast majority of US citizens believe in and support. They have chosen you to be the messenger and implementer of those ideas in the form of legislation and actions on a federal level. Now is the time for you to step out of a politics based on fear and limiting beliefs and into the very real possibility and actuality that when you choose to stand in a politics of love, your actions will be celebrated. This is what a politics of love looks like:
1. Genuine care for the well-being of all, both in the US and abroad.