Follow Me Online

Making Change Podcast

Facebook

Twitter

Gopin Associates, LLC

YouTube

Tag: Jewish

  • Short Film with a Long History

    I have been haunted by this short film for days. For those who do not know it is about Rainer Rainer Höß, grandson of the commandant of Auschwitz who murdered over 15 thousand human beings a day, at least one million, while raising his children in the camp. Anyone who wants to understand conflict analysis, reconciliation, and who lives with the shadows of Jewish life, should see this. I cannot stop thinking about this. I lost it 2/3 of way in. See it to the end.

    Watch video here.…

  • On the day of Rosh Hashanah

     

    9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
    “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
    10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

    I thought of this text today. Could not get out of my head for my whole life the pathos of not knowing the left from the right, the basis of mercy being our utter ignorance and aimlessness as human beings, and THAT is why God did not destroy Nineveh (Mosul) despite Jonah

    …

  • Reflections in August 2014 vol.1

     

    Galilee

    In war in an age of war the act of ultimate defiance is to make another human being feel wonderful.

    Testosterone, gestures of kindness are semen seeds. Men get busy, it will make you inherently happy and bear you many children.

    Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). A doctrine that was supposed to be about deterrence, not prophecy. #Israel#Hamas#Palestine

    Mimicry, the compulsion of humans to mirror their postures, facial expressions, and enemy war cries. Most posts on FB and Twitter. 

    Better to deny the past in fear and embrace the present with courage than to embrace the past with courage and deny the present in fear.

    …

  • What “We” Must Do Right Now For Palestine/Israel, Not Governments

    There are important next steps being debated for what states can and should do to stop the current war, and set the stage for ending the current cycle of violence. That is not my subject. I thought recently that leaders are followers and followers are leaders, and neither knows it. The fact is that people and their individual initiatives have much more impact on the course of history than is acknowledged by government officials, by cynics, and by those too apathetic, too callous, or too fearful to act. If you are in that category, do not read forward. Just go back to Al Jazeera, Fox and CNN and choose a side. Or go back to Jon Stewart and have a good laugh.

    Here is what is necessary, efforts that have worked before in history in changing the available information available to all parties so that more rational and more morally …

  • Event with New Story Leadership Participants

    Last weekend, Marc appeared on the event of New Story Leadership for the Middle East as a panelist to discuss with Israeli and Palestinian youths, at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

    During the 7-week youth leadership program in Washington, a young delegation with 5 Israelis and 5 Palestinians watched the recent news of increasing tension between two countries, which made the program challenging and notable.

    You can read the report of this event at Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, or watch the video.

     …

  • They Bomb and You Bomb

    marc photo

    *dedicated to all my dearest Arab, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic sisters and brothers,

    Too many to name,

    Across the world,

    Who bring light and love.

    You know who you are.

     

    I had a dream of you.

    Last night I saw bombs bursting everywhere,

    But they were Yours not theirs.

    They bombed and you bombed.

    Their bombs pierce the body and break it apart in pieces,

    Your bombs pierce the heart and merge body and soul with millions of other souls.

    Their bombs stream across the sky with hate,

    Your bombs stream across the planet with love.

    Their bombs destroy family relations,

    Yours create a thousand more relations.

    Their bombs make a man weep with sorrow,

    And your bombs make a man weep with sorry.

    Their bombs are designed for ultimate torture,

    And your bombs heal the worst wounds.

    Their bombs are manufactured for revenge,

    And yours for …

  • Commemorating the 9th of Adar, Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict

    By Rabbi Daniel Roth
    Event – Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict (JDCC) FEBRUARY 19, 2013  
    Join Us in Commemorating the 9th of Adar – Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict

    Please join us in commemorating this pilot year of the Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict by reading and studying more about it and by attempting to truly approach conflicts in a more cooperative and constructive spirit.

    The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) has joined in an international effort to mark the 9th of Adar as the annual Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict, dedicated to the study and practice of Jewish models of conflict resolution, particularly the model of “mahloket leshem shamayim/controversy for the sake of heaven.”  This year the 9th of Adar falls on February 19th. 
     
    At this link, please find a page with a section from the Mishnah (Avot 5:17) with contemporary commentaries, arranged …

  • Unite, Confuse, and Inspire: Creating a More Inclusive Atmosphere in Israel

    Reflecting on 2010, it’s clear that racism in Israel has reared its ugly head. A recent poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that only 51 percent of Israelis support equal rights between Jews and Arabs, while 53 percent think the state should encourage Arabs to emigrate from the country. Thepoll also established that Jewish Israelis find the idea of living next to an Arab more troubling than any other minority, and that in the event of war, 33 percent of Israelis support the idea of putting Arabs into internment camps.

    In the last few months, these findings were given concrete expression in a number of incidents. These include:

    A religious ruling signed and endorsed by 50 state-appointed rabbis forbidding Jews from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews. “Racism originated in the Torah,” said Rabbi Yosef Scheinen, head of the Yeshiva in Ashdod and one of the endorsers …

  • Imagining Peace: The Practical Advantages of an Israeli/Palestinian Final Settlement

    Recent sputterings of a peace process between Israel and Palestine, the termination of Israel’s settlement building freeze causing a demise of said peace process — again — has produced a loud, global yawn. What else is new in this endless conflict? Negotiations cannot succeed without a vision, and there is no widely shared vision of peace among these people that could truly spur their politicians forward.

    The hardest part of building peace for the future is freeing oneself from the wounds of the past that create brutal behavior in the present. One way forward may be to suspend skepticism for just a moment, to free the mind to build a world of practical possibilities should peace be achieved. Armed with this imaginative exercise it might become easier to lobby for practical ways forward.

    Let’s imagine the following: official creation of a state of Palestine on the West Bank and Gaza

    …

  • THE PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES FOR MUSLIMS, JEWS AND CHRISTIANS OF PEACE FOR PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

    The hardest part of building peace for the future is freeing oneself from the wounds of war, the mutual recriminations of the present, the painful memories of a lost past, and the unreasonable fantasies of a world where one’s enemies magically disappear. Sometimes the way forward is to free the mind to build a different world, a world of practical possibilities should peace be achieved.

    Let’s imagine the following: a full peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, official creation of a state of Palestine on the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, a shared civil regime for the quarter mile of the Holy Basin in the Old City of Jerusalem that is overseen by Israeli and Palestinian Jews, Muslims and Christians, and a way for every Palestinian refugee camp’s residents to be awarded citizenship and compensation in a variety of countries including Palestine itself.

    The first …

Categories