A working document based upon guides from PG Watkins of The BlackOUT Collective and Frontline Election Defenders Tefillat HaDerech (The Travelers’ Prayer): May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors, that You lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, and guide us in peace, and support us in...
In the current climate of police violence, particularly against people of color; political campaigns calling for law and order; and activist calls to defund the police, how might Jews respond? The following sources suggest an approach that flows from classical Jewish sources, through a lens informed by contemporary progressive values.
For the rest of us, it took ground penetrating radar, and other technologies which render the invisible visible, to wake us up. But for the Indigenous communities most directly affected, none of that was needed. The voices we most desperately need to be listening to already knew. They already saw.
More than a century ago, Martin Buber worried about a crisis in modern life: how would increased alienation and “social distance” of modern societies affect the well-being of humanity? Both in his writings on the notion of dialogue and his writings on Judaism, Buber speaks about the spiritual dimension of human relationships as the basis...
“These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding…” -Exodus 38:21 According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the...
T’ruah, together with our friends from HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, has brought over 100 rabbis and cantors to the United States-Mexico border to bear witness to the humanitarian crisis there. Standing amid so much suffering and injustice was difficult, but we were heartened to meet many heroic activists working to help...