Amy Goodman and Rabbi Saperstein will speak!

On Sunday, November 23, at Central Synagogue in New York City, The Shalom Center and Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring invite YOU to take part in a one-day action gathering: Jews Uniting to End the War & Heal America: Organizing for Action

Please go to -

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/7445/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3732

and

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/7445/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3826

to register for November 23 And/ or contribute to its success.

And please send this invitation to your friends.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center in Washington, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Reform rabbinical association, former Congresswoman Liz Holtzman, Sammie Moshenberg of the National Council of Jewish Women, Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice, Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street --- - and many other luminaries of the newest and oldest generations of activist Jews. (See the day's schedule, below.)

(Rabbi Arthur Waskow for The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah)

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, a new President will be inaugurated and begin to work with a new Congress. The day before, Monday January 19, is Martin Luther King's Birthday.

The Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership and The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah have undertaken to initiate an effort to make this extraordinary confluence of dates into a moment of transformation.

We propose that on January 19-20, religious and ethical communities and congregations around the country take part in public actions intended to point America toward fulfilling Dr. King's vision.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Early in the morning of April 8, 2009, Jewish communities will have a teaching opportunity that comes only once every 28 years: the festival of Birchat HaChamah, the Blessing of the Sun.

In ancient rabbinic tradition, it commemorates the moment when God created the sun in the first place. In modern practice, it fits well into today's crisis of global "scorching" and the search for sun-based sources of sustainable and renewable energy. So spiritual communities other than Judaism might well join in blessing the sun on that day -- and during the months before and after.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

Early in the morning of April 8, 1981, I gathered with several hundred other people at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC, to watch the sun rise and to bless it in what is surely the rarest and perhaps the oddest of all Jewish ceremonies -- Birchat HaChamah, the Blessing of the Sun, that comes only once every 28 years. It commemorates, according to ancient tradition, the moment when God created the sun in the first place.

And the moment will come again less than a year from now, on April 8, 2009. (The morning of the day before the first night of Passover.)

To save our planet, crops, water supply, & coastlines from the ravages of climate crisis & global scorching, The Shalom Center urges these seven directions of PERSONAL & POLICY change at all governmental levels, corporate and labor-union decisions, and household / congregational action. To work for these policy changes, write GreenMenorah@shalomctr.org or Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119.

1. Making carbon pay the real costs of its effect on climate:

Personal change: households set 5% of our annual coal, oil, & gasoline costs as tzedakah ("charitable" contributions) to support sustainable-energy activism.

What is a "Green Menorah"?

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs. By 2020, cutting US oil consumption by seven-eighths.

HEALING THE EARTH: THE GREEN MENORAH COVENANT

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs: doing our part so that by 2020, US oil consumption is cut by seven-eighths.

"The Tent of Abraham" by Sister Joan Chittister, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti, & Rabbi Arthur Waskow is available to Shalom Center members and readers by special arrangement with Beacon Press. You will receive a 10% discount and free shipping on this (and any other Beacon title). The Shalom Center will receive 4% of the proceeds from Beacon.

To buy this book, visit Beacon's web site at:

Dear Friends,

In 2004, as religious animosities worsened around the globe, I joined with Sister Joan Chittister, a world-renowned Benedictine nun, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz), a Muslim Sufi who has written a remarkable series of books on Aramaic, Gnostic, and Sufi spirituality --

-- to write a book called THE TENT OF ABRAHAM: STORIES OF HOPE AND PEACE FOR JEWS, CHRISTIANS, & MUSLIMS.

We sent the manuscript to Karen Armstrong. She was so excited by the book that she wrote a Preface for it.

It was (June 2006) published by Beacon Press and won an enthusiastic "Starred Review" from the Library Journal. That review and others are below.