Culture

Simon Schama and the Error of Jewish Silence

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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.”

Empathy

Politics, Humility and Homophobia: The Strangest Bedfellows of All

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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.

Christianity

Weekly Sermon: Learner's Mind- Between Empire and Kingdom Come

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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. .

Culture

Making Radical Decency a Daily Practice

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If Radical Decency challenges us to be decent at all times and without exception does this mean that those of us who are not saints are doomed to fail? This blog tackles this issue; framing Radical Decency as an aspirational practice; arguing that we realize its promise – not when we’re perfect – but when we practice it with focus, persistence, imagination, and guts.

Inter-Culturalism

Proof of Religion

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The bottom line is that we in this country, as well as in others with burgeoning Muslim populations, must start a dialogue, come up with solutions that allow us to move forward together and stop discriminating against each other based on labels. We cannot keep denying groups of people drivers’ licenses or student IDs or public services based on what’s on their heads or in their hearts. We must start talking, to figure out what can be done to balance safety and civil liberties, democracy and religion. Until we do that, we are not truly human beings, just labels.

Culture

Muslim Women Set Precedent for Religious Freedom

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In the struggle for workplace-related religious freedom, Muslim women have, perhaps unwittingly, blazed a new trail. While on the one hand the hijab makes them a target for unfair practices, it also becomes a beacon for the legal system to rally under. For most judges and juries, the fact that a woman would be fired due to her dress is such an obviously unfair concept that it begs retribution. And although the Abercrombie and Fitch lawsuit is arguably the most popular, it certainly isn’t the only one Muslim women have fought in recent times.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Awakening to a Disappearing Palestine

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Ada Glustein writes about the awakening process she and others might face upon discovering that the “new home for Jews” came along with the displacement of the Palestinians. She offers compassionate advice of what can be done to rid the Jewish community of fear and ignorance and replenish it with love and care.

Religion

Weekly Sermon: Learner's Mind- Salvation Is a Kind of Seeing

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This week’s sermon by Stephen Phelps considers the word “salvation” and what it means to people today, since it isn’t uncommon for the word to be left out of many religious ideologues. Phelps argues that we must not leave it behind, as salvation is how we see in the dark, salvation is an eternal light shining through the enemy and the beloved, and it is a light from which we cannot be separated.

Healing Israel/Palestine

J Street 2013: The Beginning

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My hope for this weekend and beyond is that J Street will encourage its younger members to explore and educate themselves beyond these three conference days; to question what they learn, to honor their own instincts, and to understand that there is no right answer; the road toward a solution to the conflict in Israel/Palestine is fluid and in always flux.