This just in about Nebi Sahleh, a village I visited this past August 2010 in order to meet the nonviolent Popular Resistance Committee there and where my delegation confronted settlers digging in an archeological site. Harsh Interrogations of Children Escalate in Nabi Saleh 14 year old Islam Tamimi was arrested in a night raid on Sunday [...]
Archive for January, 2011
Parshat Mishpatim: If heaven were a Congress
To better understand the Jewish scriptures cycle and my approach to my sermonizing versus my blogging, see my explanation. This dvar Torah on Parshat Mishpatim (Exod. 21:1 – 24:18) first delivered at Kol Zimrah on January 28, 2011, and where in 2006-2007 I served on the organizing committee. This parsha is part of the extensive story [...]
Jan 29th, 2011 #18 Mishpatim and D'var Torah 0 Comments
Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Courtesy of Danielle Borrin of the White House: Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day I join people here at home, in Israel, and around the world in commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as we mark one of the darkest, most destructive periods in human history. To remember is a choice, and today [...]
Jan 27th, 2011 Politics 0 Comments
Museum of Natural History
Museum of Natural History, originally uploaded by Kung Fu Jew 18. Dinosaurs!
Jan 22nd, 2011 General 0 Comments
Tu Bishvat seder meditation on Yetzira
This exercise was inspired by an activity called “Star Cafe” led by Rabbi Yoni Gordis of the Center for Leadership Initiatives when I was a 2008 Kivun Fellow. Rabbi Yoni taught us to value the power of metaphor, which I consider one of my key takeaways from the fellowship. Oh, and “managing up.” My thanks [...]
Jan 21st, 2011 Judaism 2 Comments
May God bless you with discomfort
A Tu Bishvat meditation for yetzirah, the second world in the Kabbalistic seder, the world of emotion: My favorite Catholic prayer and my favorite social justice prayer. May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with [...]
Jan 20th, 2011 Judaism 0 Comments
Amira Haas on separate development
Amira Haas is one of Israel’s most veteran journalists, who while know for her heaping scorn for Israeli settlement policy is staunchly a two-stater. At dinner with her and a couple other young Diaspora activists, she articulately (and passionately) explained why her parents, Holocaust survivors, came to Israel as refugees, not as colonizers, and however [...]
Jan 19th, 2011 Israel 0 Comments
Random Tu Bishvat resources I’m using
Quick and dirty Tu Bishvat resources I found online: Jewish FundS for Justice seder, prepared by Rabbi Jill Jacobs Wikipedia entry on Yetzirah “New Year for the Trees,” a seder compiled by Rachel Barenblat Tu Bishvat guide by RabbiDebra.com Aish’s Tu Bishvat guide (all but useless) Hazon’s seder planning manual Got others more in depth? [...]
Jan 18th, 2011 Judaism 1 Comment
McCarthyism = political opportunism in governmental inquiry
Danny Danon, initiator of the Likud-backed Knesset initiative to investigate human rights groups connections to terror funding, tried to explain why his initiative is not McCarthyism. But it’s plain to see — and widely noted — that the two proposals before the Knesset will not find illegal behavior, terrorist ties or underground funding. They are [...]
Jan 13th, 2011 Israel 0 Comments
The liberal nationalist right vs. the nationalist-fascist right
The Israeli right-wing is divided over Avigdor Lieberman’s inquisition into human rights NGOs. Likud leaders including Netanyahu have exchanged terse words with Lieberman’s harsh attacks that their belief in, uh, democracy is undermining the right-wing. Netanyahu came to the defense of his party members: Netanyahu said that his Likud party is indeed “united in the [...]
Jan 12th, 2011 Israel 1 Comment