By now you all have heard of the Princeton referendum being offered by a group of concerned students at the Ivy League campus in New Jersey. Sabra Hummus has been declared an enemy of Palestine and should be banned from campus there should be other options for students to purchase when they desire a creamy Middle Eastern dip.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for meaningless political action in college; after all I was an elected member of the student senate back in college, so I know all about that. But when it comes to an elite institution of higher learning such as Princeton, I kind of expect more than a call to action that involves the inclusion other chickpea spreads. More »
It’s an annual gathering of hundreds of Jews of every age (tots to college students to twentysomethings to families to retirees) and background (Orthodox to Renewal to non/post/trans-denominational to Conservative to Reform to secular to whatever the hell else you call yourself).
We’re there to learn, sing, hang out, drink, teach and bask in the glory of the broadest definition of Torah you can conjure up.
This year it’s MLK weekend: Jan. 14-17. And it’s at the Hudson Valley Resort in the Catskills.
At Limmud NY, everything is volunteer-run and everyone is a learner and a teacher.
You can register here. Fees go up after December 16. And there’s always scholarship money available, so don’t be discouraged by prices.
The story of Hanukkah is, well, all about men. For the most part, we learn it that way, unless you’re lucky enough to have grown up in a feminist house committed to breaking that cycle, or you’ve seen this great video, courtesy of the Jewish Women’s Archive. It covers the role of the heroine Judith in the Hanukkah story, and also highlights other important Judiths in history (Judy Blume is my personal favorite). The project is a fantastic example of dynamic history, and of the power that comes with reclaiming and rewriting.
If you’re looking for both inspiration and practical skills, register now for Inside the Activists’ Studio 2010and get yourself to Joanna Kent Katz’s interactive workshop.
During the day, Kent Katz is an urban farmer in Philadelphia, working with a group of ten high school students from a neighborhood which is mostly Jamaican and African American. Together, they address issues of food sovereignty, building leadership and knowledge and holding two markets a week in the “food desert,” meaning there are no fresh, green vegetables available for purchase within a mile of the neighborhood.
“It’s not just about making healthy choices.” says Kent Katz, “It’s about creating healthy options.” She, her coworkers and their team of students have also built a food justice curriculum, addressing racism, the legacy of slavery and how it plays out in the community, undermining the connection between people and where their food comes from and moving towards a reclamation of the wisdom and action of growing food.
Kent Katz is also a social justice educator in the Jewish community, where she works with young Jewish adults around issues of liberation and oppression. “Cleaning up your own backyard” refers to bringing work done outside the Jewish community back home, helping Jews connect to their own isolation from one another, the result of internalized anti Semitism, sexism, and the roles imposed by privileged identity.
Kent Katz cites her mentor, Barbara Love, as helping her learn how to teach anti oppression with tools that will actually free the world, as opposed to approaching the work within the context of blame and guilt. “It has been work towards liberation,” Kent Katz says, “not just anti-oppression.”
At this year’s Inside the Activists’ Studio, Kent Katz will share her skills as a practitioner of the Theatre of the Oppressed. “That’s my gem,” she says. “We’ll get into our bodies.” This framework presents the possibility for folks to both understand how oppression works on a cultural and institutional level and to think about what the world could look like. “I’m only interested in talking about oppression without shame, blame and guilt. I invite people to try it out with me, learn together.”
For an innovative, genuine encounter with politics, your body and social justice, join Joanna Kent Katz and other dynamic folks onSunday, December 5that the 92nd street Y in Tribeca. Inside the Activists’ Studio 2010is hosted byPurse: Action for a Just World, a project of Avodah and American Jewish World Service, and is co sponsored by Jewschool.
Without time to report a full analysis, I instead link you to the relevant NY Times’ archives of U.S. State Department diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. Most of the documents are from the past three years, although some are as old as 1966, and only 220 of a quarter million have been released. The documents lend behind-the-headlines reality to the sausage-making of foreign diplomacy and the business of getting America’s way in the world. They report everything from Page 6-like gossip of lavish weddings attended by the head of Chechnya to a 1990 report on the release of Nelson Mandela.
The Daily Beast has the top nine shocking revelations — meaning those most likely to reap repercussions in diplomatic relations. Meanwhile, Peter Beinart points out that while detrimental to certain diplomatic relations, the information is largely not new:
The latest WikiLeaks dump is to American foreign policy what the Starr Report was to presidential politics—fun, in a voyeuristic sort of way, revealing, but not about important things, and ultimately, more trouble than it is worth.
I anticipate the Israel war boosters will use this information to ramp up their “bomb Iran” campaigns, but I’m heartened to see overwhelming evidence that Obama’s diplomacy has accomplished what Bush’s sword rattling could not: a united and expanded global coalition against Iran’s nuclear proliferation. This involved everything from removing a Poland-based anti-missile system to win Russia’s support, to leveraging Saudi oil at cheap to wean China off Iranian energy dependence.
But at the very least, a cursory read of the summaries and source documents reveal a Middle East that is very unlike the version peddled by the right-wing. Instead of hostile Arab dictators fomenting hatred of America, we read reports of Arab nations clamoring for American action to halt an Iranian nuke. We read Israeli praise of Palestinian development and hopes of boosting their self-confidence. We remember that Pakistan has the nuke and is possibly the most unstable Muslim country near extremist take-over, not Iran.
The world is a more complicated place than the talking points provided by AIPAC. Add it to your recommended reading list this week.
I am honestly not sure what to make of this. Should I consider this the genuine and generous gesture of a small people, themselves a minority, who have come to regret some role that they played in the past in the persecution of the Jews? If so, I can’t help but wonder exactly what they could have done to help – after all, they weren’t exactly a world power with lots of political sway during the Nazi era? What was it they were supposed to have done to help?
Or maybe my first reaction was right – we -the Jews- have gone completely nuts, to the extent that the entire relationship of the world to us is people finding ways to beg our forgiveness for the Holocaust, an important, but hardly defining (at least, I hope not. All the issues of the Holocaust were not new – we dealt with every one of them during the time of the destruction of the Temple – at least theologically speaking), moment in our history. Is this another chapter in the ongoing erasure of Judaism as a religion, to be replaced with the religion of Holocaustism?
What exactly does this all mean? Why did they take the extraordinary step of using modern transportation to fly a delegation to Israel; why now? And why did they decide to meet with “Western Wall Rabbi” Shmuel Rabinovitch?
I guess that, overall, I’m glad the Amish like us -they seem like nice people, and overall, I’d rather have them like us than not- but why does this strike me as somehow completely bizarre?
I got to watch my good friend Josh Freed’s feature film Five Weddings and a Felony a few weeks ago at its premiere in DOC-NYC, New York’s Documentary Film Festival. Here’s a trailer:
The film was great – thoughtful, funny (sometimes painfully so), introspective, maddening, and somehow sweet. I was going to write a summary but the director, Josh Freed, does it better on the film’s website. Before I get to that though, I highly recommend this film for anyone who wants to showcase young, Jewish artistic talent and are willing to deal with the controversial and real issues that face young Jews today. For information on how to show the film in your community, email fiveweddings (at) gmail dot com.
I began making the film that became Five Weddings & A Felony when I was 24 as a courtship strategy to win over a woman I felt unworthy of, with no idea what I was doing, hoping just the fact that I was doing it would impress her. It (the film) was abandoned several times as I fled relationships I was afraid to commit to, but I kept returning to it because the women in my life just seemed so screen-worthy to me, and I hoped the footage might illuminate the mystery of why such beautiful creatures would ever be attracted to me. It didn’t. It shall remain a mystery. But over the 4 years it took to finish it, the film came to represent for me my slow march toward adulthood – as if only a complete document of all my selfish behaviors and irrational fears would allow me to move beyond them.
Though the film is full of my own idiosyncrasies, it also reflects a trend among my generation (you may say I’m messed up, but I’m not the only one). Some researchers and psychologists want to codify a new life stage, between adolescence and adulthood, called “emerging adulthood,” because we twenty somethings are taking our sweet time getting to those milestones – financial independence, marriage, children – that our parents achieved at 23, 24, 25. Emerging adulthood is marked, according to a recent New York Times Magazines article, by “identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between and… a sense of possibilities.” And there are so many possibilities: for those of us whose parents are liberals from the 60′s – they encourage us to explore, find ourselves, try different relationships. Premarital sex and cohabitation are so widely accepted we don’t feel much pressure to get married. Even though the economy collapsed and we fear we’ll never have job stability, we know that the world is changing faster than it ever has before, which means more potential for exciting achievements (or, devastating failures).
At its heart, Five Weddings is a journey into modern courtship, with the unique intimacy afforded by the tiny Flip camera. Any woman who has ever been in the unfortunate situation of being attracted to a man-child like me will relate to it, as will all the guys out there who have ever been afraid of the idea of marriage and children. I know there’s plenty of you out there.
by chaneld1621 [➚] · Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Image taken of Judith Frieze after her arrest in Jackson, Mississippi on June 21, 1961. Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Living the Legacygrew out of a need for requests from teachers of social justice education for materials. In their search, educators and researchers at the Jewish Women’s Archive discovered that what was missing from what already existed: the story of Jews in social justice movements.
JWA tackled the topic of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement as its starting point, and, including traditional Jewish texts, paid particular attention to “complicating the narrative,” said Judith Rosenbaum, Director of Public History at the Jewish Women’s Archive. The nuanced educational tool would talk about not only the activism of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement, but acknowledge the fissures, the fallouts, and what the impact of it all has been on the social justice movements of today.
Living the Legacy is designed for use in grades 8-12. Last year, 7 teachers used in the classroom, and during JWA’s Institute for Educators this past July, 26 teachers were trained to use it.
Through primary sources, the curriculum directly confronts questions of personal identity in relationship to history and contemporary issues: who are you, what does that have with what you do in the world, and where and how does your Judaism come into play? When does it feel scary to be Jewish, when is it safer to hide, and when do you put yourself on the line for the cause of justice?
A 1956 letter from the Greenville Hebrew Union Congregation to Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (the Reform movement), regarding their disapproval of the statement that desegregation is a Jewish issues and that Jews should act on behalf of it, shows that Southern Jews saw themselves in a precarious position. “We know full well that any public utterance showing that Jews as a whole favor desegregation will have the direct effect of hurting the Jews’ position in the South…Southern Jews have established a very fine relationship with the white non Jews of the South. We believe that this harmonious relationshjp between the Jews and non Jews in the South is due in a large respect to the personal conduct, cultural progress and adherence to the customs that make for harmony between the Jews and non Jews.” The letter goes on to implore Eisendrath not to “embarrass and injure the Jews of this community and other Southern communities who feel as we do.”
In addition to highlighting the complicated relationships of Jews to race and assimilation, Livingthe Legacy also explores the impact of the Jewish relationship to the Civil Rights movement in the context of a shared history of resistance. Rosenbaum’s favorite letter is to a young woman known as “Chicky,” who had gone to the South as part of Freedom Summer, from her father, a refugee from Europe. While he worries about her safety, she “should not construct your parents’ concern about your safety as a disapproval of your present activities.”
The curriculum also tackles questions of which modes of activism are recorded in our collective memory, as well as the how the perceived solidarity of Blacks and Jews fell apart and the impact of movements such Black Power on Jewish culture and history. The establishment of Black and African American studies departments, for example, prompted an interest in reclamation of Jewish culture and the emergence of Jewish studies departments, among other things. “Other minority groups have these conversations too,” Rosenbaum pointed out. “We wanted to show that.”
Together with Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Rosenbaum collected Jewish texts to dovetail with each section, aimed at creating the opportunity to think Jewishly and provocatively about the material, particularly in the context of contemporary issues. The curriculum provokes questions of Jewish responsibility, giving students the opportunity to consider issues such as segregation in their home communities, and the question of whether equal marriage is a civil rights question.
Living the Legacy is full of challenging and vulnerable pieces which make the process of unpacking the Jewish past in the Civil Rights movement a fascinating project. It’s well worth taking a spin through the primary sources on the website, even if you don’t consider yourself to be an educator. “It’s a newer, more inclusive way of looking at history,” said Rosenbaum. “People are excited.”
dlevy pointed out to me that our local Chabad had sent out some important words in their latest newsletter:
By divine providence this year thanksgiving coincides with the 19th of Kislev Rosh Hashana Lachasidus. Which we celebrate on Thursday night. It is time to appreciate the contributions that Chassidic teaching and living has brought to this world. So tonight say L’chaim for the inner Dimension of Torah.
Of course! How had we not realised the divine providence of Thursday night?!
So, Thursday night, don’t forget to throw a Rosh Hashanah l’chasidus party. We believe it is celebrated by giving vodka to underage undergrads. L’chaim, indeed!
Guestpost by Amanda, comedian, occasional blogger, and paper bag puppeteer.
While writing cover letters to try and end my five-month long spell of unemployment, I was also reading a book that discussed Depression-era unemployment protests, which were apparently pretty kickin’ and often involved singing. Since I enjoy writing rhyming songs, I thought it would be fun to sing songs about unemployment rates, my belief that we need more government investment to create jobs, and extending unemployment benefits.
On Sunday December 5th, I am gathering with other people who enjoy singing and hate high unemployment rates on the sidewalk in front of the White House (Pennsylvania Avenue between East and West Executive Avenues) between 3 and 4pm (and rehearsing at 2) to sing about our desire for more employment. I hope you will join us in a singing protest of unemployment rates, unemployment insurance, and the needs for increased government investment –all to the tunes of Christmas and Hannukah songs. If you are interested in joining me in trying to increase awareness of unemployment and have a hopefully very fun protest, please RSVP.
And to get you excited (or not, depending on how much you enjoy hard to parse lyrics), here are two sample songs:
To the Tune of Jingle Bells, with the profound lyrics taken from FDR:
Jobs for all, Jobs for all!
Unemployment has to go!
Give us a jobless recovery, we’ll put you in the snow.
No country however rich
Can afford the waste
Of its human resources!
Demoralization
Caused by vast unemployment
Is our greatest extravagance.
Morally it is
The greatest Menace to our Social Order
Jobs for all, Jobs for all!
Unemployment has to go!
Give us a jobless recovery, we’ll put you in the snow!
We had an economy with more jobs
Some provided good fair pay
Oh jobs, jobs jobs
Why did 8.2 million of you go away?
Oh jobs jobs jobs
We miss you here this day
Oh jobs jobs jobs
Come back to us today
This letter was drafted by Columbia and Barnard alums and sent to Kraft Center Executive Director Simon Klarfeld, today, and Columbia President Lee Bollinger was CC’d.
Dear Simon:
Congratulations on the tenth anniversary of the Kraft Center. It sounds like some wonderful things are going on there.
While much of what is happening at Columbia/Barnard Hillel calls for celebration, we do want to express dismay at the reports that Hillel put pressure on Just Peace, the campus affiliate of JStreet, to cancel its sponsorship of a talk by John Ging, the leader of UNRWA in Gaza.
The Forward newspaper reports that Hillel opposed this event because there would be no moderator who represented the other side of the Israel debate. The paper quotes you as saying, “A format that is simply standing up at a podium, lecturing for an hour, and answering questions if there is time, is not conducive or compatible to a learning experience in which students can have real exchange of ideas.”
We are rabbis, Jewish communal professionals, and involved members of the Jewish community who may, personally, differ on the specifics of Israeli policy. However, we remain committed to encouraging an open discussion on Israel within the Jewish community. We owe much of this commitment to open dialogue to the lessons we learned at Columbia.
We chose to attend Columbia in order to be in an environment that encourages a “real exchange of ideas.” The Core Curriculum and other courses, the extraordinary diversity of the student body, and the wide range of speakers who visited campus all contributed to this rich exchange of ideas that makes the university so special. We experienced Columbia as a place where faculty and staff guided, advised, and sometimes criticized student initiative, but where such initiative would not be limited.
Encouraging an exchange of ideas does not require that every opinionated speaker be countered with a speaker representing the other side. Indeed, in the past, Hillel or its affiliated groups have hosted Israel speakers including Khaled Abu Toameh, a controversial Palestinian figure who is associated with the conservative Hudson Institute; Jonathan Adelman, a spokesperson for AIPAC; and several official representatives of the Israeli Defense Forces. As far as we know, Hillel made no similar demand that these speakers be balanced by representatives of the left. More »
This essay by Rabbi Yehuda Gilad one of the ramim or teachers at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa might actually be a significant development in the slow motion and excruciating implosion of the Israeli Rabbinate. Here’s the punch line:
As important as issues such as kashrut, Shabbat and religious services are, there is currently no Jewish communal matter that comes close to approaching the significance of this challenge upon which our future here as a Jewish state rests. We must admit and say honestly, the current Chief Rabbinate (with all due respect to the many fine individuals who make up its ranks), as an institution, has neither the desire nor the ability to cope with this challenge. Unfortunately, it buries its head in the sand, and even kowtows to the Chareidi community, which is ambivalent at best, and antagonistic at worst to the very state the Rabbinate is meant to serve.
Despite the pain and difficulty involved in breaking with this institution that we had great dreams for, I hereby call upon the lay people and the Rabbis of the religious-Zionist community to say openly what many of us have already felt in our hearts for some time. The Chief Rabbinate has run its course.
… Bennett Epstein [a Manhattan trial lawyer]… recently asked New York federal judge Kimba Wood to grant him a day’s reprieve in a criminal trial to attend the bris of his grandson. Epstein’s daughter has not yet given birth — so he doesn’t yet know the sex of the baby. But Epstein wanted to give Judge Wood ample notice to consider his request, given that his daughter’s due date is Dec. 3, smack in the middle of the scheduled trial.
So Epstein was stuck in the slightly awkward position of asking Judge Wood for a day off if, in fact, the baby turns out to be a boy. If it’s a girl, well, no bris, no day off needed.
Wrote Epstein, in this letter filed with the court on Thursday:
Should the child be a girl, not much will happen in the way of public celebration. Some may even be disappointed, but will do their best to conceal this by saying, “as long as it’s a healthy baby.” . . . However, should the baby be a boy, then hoo hah! Hordes of friends and family will arrive . . . for the joyous celebration . . . known as the bris. . . . My presence at the bris is not strictly commanded, although my absence will never be forgotten by those that matter.
Judge Wood, in a note written at the bottom of the letter, granted the request. But she did Epstein one better. Wrote Wood:
Mr. Epstein will be permitted to attend the bris, in the joyous event that a son is born. But the Court would like to balance the scales. If a daughter is born, there will be a public celebration in Court, with readings from poetry celebrating girls and women.
We say, well done Judge Wood!
How did Epstein respond to the answer? “It was wonderful,” he told the LB on Friday. “It struck the perfect chord.” Epstein said he appreciated being granted some time off to celebrate, given the burden such a request places on a court. “As a lawyer, you don’t want to make a habit of asking for things like this,” he said. “You’re really asking for a disruption of the court’s time. So I’m very grateful.”
And on the topic of having to ask a noted female judge for time off to celebrate the birth of a boy, but not a girl, Epstein minced no words:
“Look, the Jewish religion is sexist. It just is. But I didn’t make the rules!”
This Following Torah commentary was written by Rabbi Andy Shugerman of Aventura, Florida. Andy is both a graduate and current employee of JTS as their development Rabbinic Fellow. The following Dvar can also be found here.
Commonly found in coroner’s offices across North America is the following motto: “We speak for the dead to protect the living.” Ancient and modern biblical commentators have taken a similar stance toward the rape of Dinah and its aftermath. A close examination of Genesis 34 and contemporary responses to its narrative will show how one of the Torah’s most troubling passages can inspire us to take action. We must, in the words of Proverbs 31:8, “speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.” We must address similar injustices in today’s society in order to protect the living.
Chapter 34 of Genesis laconically opens with the rape. Verse one tells how Jacob’s and Leah’s only daughter “went out to visit the daughters of the land.” The next verse immediately reports that Shechem, a Canaanite man, “saw her, and took her and lay with her by force.” The next fifteen verses describe how Shechem, infatuated with Dinah, enlists his powerful father Hamor to “get me this girl” by brokering a deal with a speechless Jacob and his enraged sons. The brothers assent to Shechem marrying their sister only if he and his clan circumcise themselves; otherwise, they “will take our daughter and go” (34:17).
As shown above, among the various motifs in Genesis 34 is the repeated use of the Hebrew verb root LaKaCH for “get” or “take,” and three of its eight appearances figure prominently in the narrative’s closing verses. Three days following the mass circumcision, Dinah’s brothers Shimon and Levi “took each his sword” (34:25) to slay the townsmen and then “took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away” (34:26). After the other brothers “seized . . . all that was inside the town and outside” (34:28), the action concludes with Jacob’s furious reaction to his sons’ rampage, to which they reply, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” (34:31).
In fact, that rhetorical question in the passage’s final verse encapsulates the concerns of the male personalities in this story. After Shechem inexplicably ravishes Dinah, he seeks to acquire her in a way that would dignify the coerced intercourse of their initial encounter. Her brothers, on the other hand, desire retribution for this “outrage . . . a thing not to be done” (34:7) that has turned their sister into a sex object. In Shechem’s eyes, Dinah is an item for negotiation; for her brothers, she represents a defilement and a cause for revenge.
According to this literary analysis, one can see how Genesis 34 presents its violent narrative of the loss and repossession of power, property, and honor. Amidst all the explicit atrocities, though, perhaps the most subtle tragedy is the way in which both Dinah’s virginity and her voice are stolen from her. Not once does she speak in the entire chapter, nor do any of the men ever address her directly. Unfortunately, many ancient and medieval rabbis add insult to her injury, as they place the onus for the rape on Dinah and/or her mother Leah. For example, Genesis Rabbah 80:1 assigns moral responsibility to both Dinah and Leah, for “a woman is not immoral until her daughter is immoral,” as Leah herself “went out to meet (Jacob) like a harlot.” This type of moralistic comment may have been intended to protect women from exposing themselves to danger, but it unfairly assumes that either Dinah or Leah could have prevented what occurred.
Instead of blaming the victim, the action-oriented divrei Torah of two female colleagues have articulated a fresh approach that has affected me deeply. Rabbis Arielle Hanien and Sharon Brous have both spoken about the rape of Dinah, in particular, and the difficult passages in the Torah, in general, as requiring a visceral reaction from contemporary audiences. We are meant to feel disgust and horror in reading these verses; indeed, those emotions make this difficult text sacred if we pay attention to our discomfort and act upon it. According to my colleagues, we are uncomfortable precisely because we know that these kinds of violence persist in our world today. We can neither ignore the plain meaning of the text or its striking context in our broken world. Instead, Rabbis Hanien and Brous would exhort us to hear God’s voice calling us to action through this and other challenging narratives that disturb.
To place this perspective in dialogue with current events and advocacy efforts, consider the following passage from Randy Gener’s article “In Defense of ‘Ruined’” in this past month’s American Theater magazine about one of the most produced and most troubling plays on stage this season:
This tradition of objectifying women during conflicts . . . has stepped up to new levels: Fighters have systematically used rape and murder in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda in the 1990s, and currently in Darfur with the intent to eliminate ethnic groups and to induce forced displacement. The prevalence of rape and other sexual violations in Eastern Congo has been described as the worst in the world. Women, children and even some men are being attacked by multiple assailants, often in public and in front of their neighbors. Even the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces have been accused of rape. Sexual violence wasn’t recognized as a war crime until June 2008 when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1820, a small step toward ending what Jan Egeland, the former humanitarian affairs chief, described as “one of the biggest conspiracies of silence in history.”
As Gener describes, Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined has received critical acclaim and large national audiences even though—or perhaps because—its pervasive subject matter, sexual violence, is such a taboo for conversation, let alone performance. Nonetheless, the fact that the play won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama attests to the public’s need and desire to hear these stories. Will we similarly examine cases of rape among male inmates in American prisons or cases of American servicemen sexually assaulting their female colleagues on military bases and in combat zones? What of the ever-expanding problem of human trafficking in industrialized countries, including the United States and Israel?
This Shabbat, let us follow the example of these women rabbis and artists who have spoken for Dinah and for others who could not speak for themselves. We must unravel other “conspiracies of silence” by bringing new attention to bear upon the persistence of sexual violence in all forms in the twenty-first century. Let us passionately question and courageously embrace the parts of our tradition and our world that challenge us the most. May we thus realize the full message of that passage from Proverbs 31: “Speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy . . . for the rights of all the unfortunate.”
In advance of the 2010 Inside the Activists’ Studio, I spoke with Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Co-founder and Director of the Jewish Greening Fellowship. The Jewish Greening Fellowship works to change the environmental practices of Jewish organizations, via grant making and the work of Green Fellows. The first cohort of 19 fellows worked in JCC’s and summer camps, helping their agencies to create concrete environmental change while reflecting on and intergrating Jewish values into the process.
The theory is, if you make it someone’s job to work on environmental change, it becomes not only possible, but a priority. The work extends far outside the agency itself, it leads to other organizations seeking out Green Fellows and their agencies as resources, and their workplaces as models of environmental responsibility. It’s a practical approach that allows for real, systemic change, and ultimately, a transformation of culture. “This is living out our Jewish values,” Rosenfield said. “This is praying with our feet.”
With the help of grants from UJA Federation, Rosenfield is able to be on the ground, checking in with and supporting the Green Fellows. “It’s a chance to learn about where systems are stuck.” she said. One of the main reasons for lack of buy in from top leadership is how daunting the process of change can seem. Green Fellows interrupt this mind-set by doing research and piloting a segment of the larger program. “The work is huge, it’s very easy to get discouraged,” said Rosenfield.“Every small win can feel defeated the moment Congress doesn’t pass an energy bill.” A priority of the fellowship is to recognize the enormity of the environmental change project and to honor movements that might appear minute.
There’s a lot that says the Jewish community has its priorities all wrong these days, and it’s easy to feel like you can’t change it if you don’t have your nose pressed up against the institutional glass. Rosenfield’s background, she told me, is actually in comparative literature, but when she felt moved to make change, she began with her own circle of influence, and considered how far her networks could extend. ‘People should start where they are,” she said.”I like what Ruth Messinger says-‘We don’t have the luxury of being overwhelmed.’”
The Jewish Greening Fellowship is now accepting applications for its second cohort. Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield will be leading an interactive workshop at Inside the Activists’ Studio, a project of Pursue: Action for a Just World, AJWS and Avodah. Jewschool is a co-sponsor of the event, which is happening Sunday, December 5th. Register here for this unique opportunity to learn from other young, dynamic Jewish social justice activists.
by Kung Fu Jew [➚] · Thursday, November 18th, 2010
This is a long-overdue shout-out to my friends Naf and Anna Hanau — friends and former coworkers from my days at Hazon — for their entry this summer into the micro-enterprise field of kosher organics. Naf went so far as to receive shochet training himself and together with wife and Jewish food educator extraordinaire Anna, have sourced chickens and turkeys from all-natural farmers in upstate New York and in Pennsylvania.
And now, just in time for Thanksgiving, they are delivering kosher organic turkeys to the NYC area.
Know another organic and kosher provider? Let us know in the comments.
[Post-note: Naf informs me the turkeys are pastured, which is better than organic. They don't pay for certification and thus can't/don't use the term organic. The use here is mine.]
by Kung Fu Jew [➚] · Thursday, November 18th, 2010
As a small group of congregants at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton back out of a J Street event and relocate tonight’s event with Jeremy Ben-Ami across the street, The Boston Globe and the Boston Jewish Advocate‘s editorial pages have come down against the cancelation, as did the head of the local Jewish Community Relations Council. A veritable PR sweep.
The Jewish Advocate reports (behind a pay wall, no link available) that J Street believes that certain congregational members were circulating misinformation about the organization. The Jewish Advocate’s editorial on the matter:
We find ourselves puzzled, to say the least, by Temple Beth Avodah’s last-minute decision to yank the welcome mat from J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.
The Nov. 18 event had been on the books for at least a month at the Reform synagogue in Newton. In the interest of full disclosure, The Jewish Advocate was on the bill. Our editor was to interview Ben-Ami, followed by more questions from the audience. [...] We can’t speak for the synagogue, but our involvement did not amount to an endorsement of the controversial Israel advocacy group, but rather reflected our recognition that support for Israel comes in many shades.
In the Boston Globe’s reporting, Alan S. Ronkin, deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Boston, said “It’s deeply troubling that there are people in the community who would prefer to stifle debate, rather than engage,’’ he said. J Street is a member of the JCRC there.
The Boston Globe’s opinion piece says, “If a mere conversation featuring the head of a group that has become, for better or worse, part of the mainstream conversation on Israel would “threaten the fabric of the congregation,” it says more about the congregation than it does about J Street.”
And in response, J Street has launched a petition advocating more open discussion in the Jewish community.It’s got to be the shortest petition I’ve ever seen:
No longer should a small minority in the Jewish community intimidate communal institutions out of hosting those with different opinions on Israel. Count me as supporting an open and honest conversation on Israel that will make Israel, our community and the U.S. stronger.
The event will continue tonight across the street from Beth Avodah at the Memorial-Spaulding Elementary School in Newton at 7:45 pm (RSVP) and Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at 6:00 pm (RSVP).
OK. So maybe the title is a bit of an exaggeration, but
While writing cover letters to try and end my five-month long spell of unemployment, I was also reading a book that discussed Depression-era unemployment protests, which were apparently pretty kickin’ and often involved singing. Since I enjoy writing rhyming songs, I thought it would be fun to sing songs about unemployment rates, my belief that we need more government investment to create jobs, and extending unemployment benefits. 
As a small group of congregants at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton back out of a J Street event and 
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