Tag: rabbis for human rights

• October 5, 2009

  Our Misdeeds and Theirs: Rabbi Waskow Writes Again from the Hospital

  Once again, folks, it is Dr. Arthur Waskow who has captured the best of a Jewish spiritual response to days of repentance and self-examination. In the midst of his own pain, he is instructing us all on what self-reflection means, even when you may feel like lashing out at others.

  Our Misdeeds & Theirs — and the Middle East
  By Arthur Waskow

  

  Written from Hahnemann Hospital, September 22/ 4 Tishrei:

  During these days between Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur, Jews are called on to reexamine our own actions — our “missings of the mark.” The emphasis is on OUR sins — not those of individuals alone, but of the community — and the sins of ourselves, not of other people, even our enemies. We are also called on not only to confess our misdeeds but CHANGE what we do.

  In that light, the Israeli government’s recent behavior flies in the

  …

• July 16, 2009

  Planting Justice: A Spiritual Mission to Palestine and Israel from Progressive Jews Devoted to Israel

  Hello from Switzerland and Caux. I am curious what my readers think of this video.

  …

• April 1, 2009

  BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: MERCY ON PASSOVER, MERCY IN GAZA

  See Rabbi Edward Feld’s agonized sermon on the state of ethics of Israel’s military chaplaincy that encouraged war crimes in Gaza. This is a reflective sermon that brings into sharp relief the choices of religious people between violent texts to justify their violence and nonviolent texts to articulate their deepest values, hopes and aspirations. The rabbis who have taken control of the Israel Defense Forces have made their choice, and other rabbis like Rabbi Feld have made theirs. Here is Rabbi Feld:

  “When you have mercy on a cruel enemy you are thereby showing cruelty to innocent and honest soldiers. It is a terrible immorality……This is a war against murderers.”

  The above excerpt is from Go Fight My War, a booklet published by the Jewish Awareness Department of the Chief Military Rabbinate in Israel, and distributed to soldiers in the fighting units before they entered Gaza as part of Operation …