Holding Onto the Image in Every Human Being, Even One’s Adversary
In the militia headquarters in Odessa decades ago, I was surrounded by harsh interrogators who castigated my friend and me for visiting Russian Jews, who were aliens in their eyes. I felt anger and even hatred at these leaders and their many followers who had made Jewish life impossible for a large segment of our...
read more
Our Previous JNF-USA Campaign
Scroll down to watch our 2015-16 videos. Founded in pre-state Israel in 1901, the Jewish National Fund is one of the world’s oldest and largest continuously operating Jewish institutions, and is best known for planting trees in Israel. For decades JNF-USA was an auxiliary organization whose primary purpose was to raise money for the Israeli...
read more
The Voice of God
The image of God—tzelem Elohim—is often front and center in animating Jewish human rights work. The recent release of the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings (which, admittedly, I have not seen) gave me pause to contemplate the tzelem’s counterpart—the voice of God. Director Ridley Scott is taking some flak for casting 11-year-old Isaac Andrews as...
read more
Opening the Narrow Straits with Advance Care Planning
We have come to the end of Genesis, and with it the conclusion of the stories of our matriarchs and patriarchs. For the last several weeks we have been engaged with the stories of the children of Jacob, focusing mainly on his favored son, Joseph. Now Joseph is on his deathbed. We are privy to...
read more
10 Rules for Engagement for White Jews Joining the #BlackLivesMatter Movement
"1. Show up. It's not too late to build relationships."
read more