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Rabbi Arthur Waskow

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph. D., founded (in 1983) and directs The Shalom Center , a prophetic voice in Jewish, multireligious, and American life that brings Jewish and other spiritual thought and practice to bear on seeking peace, pursuing justice, healing the earth, and celebrating community. He edits and writes for its weekly on-line Shalom Report.

In 1996, Waskow was named by the United Nations a “Wisdom Keeper” among forty religious and intellectual leaders who met in connection with the Habitat II conference in Istanbul. In 2001, he was presented with the Abraham Joshua Heschel Award by the Jewish Peace Fellowship. In 2005, he was named by the Forward, the leading Jewish weekly in America, one of the "Forward Fifty" as a leader of the Jewish community. In 2007, he was named by Newsweek one of the fifty moist influential American rabbis, and was presented with awards and honors by groups as diverse as the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement of Philadelphia and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.

www.shalomctr.org/

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(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 16, 2012
Gaza-Israel Violence: The Fuller Story In this report to readers and members of The Shalom Center, I will be filling in that back story with reports from the Israeli and Palestinian press. Then I will include a brief and trenchant comment by Uri Avnery, veteran Israeli peace activist and former member of Knesset who has been committed to a two-state peace settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for four decades.
(33 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Five Steps to Burning Books From a small right-wing church in Florida, there has gone out a call to burn copies of the Quran on September 11. Instead of being ignored as clearly cuckoo, this call won national media coverage. As the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote almost two centuries ago, "Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people."
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Behind the Tony Kushner story: The deeper reasons for CUNY's rejection & reversal Last night, the executive committee of the CUNY Board of Trustees reversed the Board's refusal of an honorary degree to Tony Kushner. Behind the Board's original decision and its reversal are three stories. The first: There has been a concerted attack against the best traditions of open debate and exploration of opinion in academia and in Jewish life, when it comes to criticism of the Israeli government. The 2nd story:
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 28, 2010
Howard Zinn's last advice to America: A Broad Coalition for Independence From the Corporations & the Military imagining a coalition aimed at "independence from the military-corporate alliance," with a platform that includes strong planks on climate, jobs, health, ending the present wars, major reductions in the military, transforming campaign finance, and ending the filibuster.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The Speech Mr. Obama should give this Thursday night Effective at noon tomorrow, I resign the Presidency of the United States.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Refuting The "White Savior" Attacks on Avatar Movie Some knee-jerk leftists have criticized the heroism of Jake Sully as merely another racist case of a "white male Marine" becoming savior of the exploited community. Indeed, some conservatives have stolen that rhetoric to discredit a widely celebrated film that clearly threatens to undermine the corporate-military-NeoCon alliance. But there are two mistakes in this rhetoric:
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 22, 2012
From Sinai to "The Thunder" at Nag Hammadi Rabbi Waskow and several other Jewish leaders recently met with 15 Christians to discuss early texts from 0-200 CE that were not included in the New Testament. One text found in the Nag Hammadi collection, was not in any clear sense Christian, not mentioning Jesus or Christ, or the Apostles. It was titled The Thunder: Perfect Mind It is an extraordinary piece of writing.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 8, 2012
Bishops Attack Religious Freedom; Vatican Attacks Nuns The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican hierarchy are attacking the religious freedom of millions of American women and the religious freedom of American nuns. As a Rabbi, I am deeply conscious of the transcendent value of religious freedom. I believe that the First Amendment to the US Constitution is indeed one of God's best creations. So I listen with great care to claims it is being violated.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Imposing "sharia," Roman Catholic style When the bishops try to impose their own religious rules on the public During the last few weeks, we have seen an outrageous attempt to impose sharia law on the US govt and the American public. Not Muslim sharia; it is Roman Catholic "sharia" about contraception that the US Conf, of Catholic Bishops has been trying to impose on Americans of all faiths and beliefs who happen to work at a Catholic-sponsored hospital
Egyptian plague of boils in the Toggenburg Bible., From WikimediaPhotos
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Is Coronavirus a Biblical "Plague"? Though the ancient plagues were the horrifying results of Pharaoh's cruelty, they became the instruments of liberation.
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 28, 2008
Not by Might, and not by Power -- - OR: Israeli Gaza Strike Kills More Than 225 Today the starkest choice of values and visions of the future was laid before the Jewish people throughout the world.
From Images
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 4, 2010
The "AVATAR" film & the Trees' ReBirthDay: Celebrating Forest and the Lungs of Earth I urge that in many communities across our continent, multireligious groups together see the new film AVATAR this month; learn with me by teleconference seminar on January 14 the connections between this film and the meaning of the festival of Tu B'Shvat that celebrates the ReBirthDay of the Tree of Life
Torah, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 30, 2017
The Torah vs. Jared Kushner What would it mean to bring Torah to bear within or upon one rich, powerful, and unjust Jew --- Jared Kushner? I want to lift up a perfect example of how Torah values are trampled underfoot even while the semblance of piety is claimed. A story of one man who at this moment holds great power and exemplifies in his own person the "kleptocracy" -- rule by thieves -- that now afflicts us:
Page from Passover Haggadah, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 23, 2015
Becoming Elijah For the Shabbat just before Passover (this year March 28), Jewish tradition assigns the last chapter of the last of the classical prophets -- Malachi, who spoke about 2500 years ago -- to be read. The passage takes on an uncanny significance for our generation:
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 4, 2009
Shalom, Shabbat, & Shibboleth It gets harder, Shabbat by Shabbat, to say without weeping the words "Shabbat shalom" - a sabbath of peace -- when the present government of Israel has used last week's Shabbat and yesterday's to massively increase the level of its violence as a response to the violence of Hamas.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 15, 2011
CONVICTED in Court -- and PRAISED by the Judge! Yesterday I stood trial in Washington DC Superior Court for the pray-in last July in which I joined with ten other religious folk in the Capitol Rotunda, seeking to focus Congress on the need to pass a budget responsive to needs of the poor, the disemployed, the homeless.
Oregon officials object to federal agents grabbing protesters off the streets in Portland Oregon officials blasted the White House after federal agents arrested protesters in Portland, Oregon. The agents put them into unmarked vans without telling ..., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 20, 2020
No secret police, no "Portland" -- Anywhere Dear friends, "Today Portland, tomorrow all America!" is the boast of Trumpist officials who have already announced they are planning to do "Portland" anywhere and everywhere. The American public needs to stand against this vile tactic - - more than a tactic, a strategy to smash the growing majority ready to throw out of office an anti-democratic government.
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SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Oligarchs & H-Bombs: Russia, US, & Ukraine There are two great questions facing Americans: the planetary crisis and the crisis of democracy. They are intertwined. The only reason we in the US are not acting to heal Earth and save Humanity is that HyperWealthy Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Unnatural Gas , Big Bombs - and the Big Banks that fund them -- use their wealth to buy Power. Power to cancel out millions of voters.
Sheldon Adelson, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Challenging the Netanyahu-US-Right-wing Alliance Vice-President Joe Biden and many Members of Congress have already announced they will absent themselves from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to Congress on March 3. Please call your two Senators and one House Member and ask them to join this boycott of the speech.
From Images
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 21, 2012
If the Biblical Ruth came to America Today In the biblical story, Ruth was a penniless immigrant from a despised pariah people. Yet she was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. He forbade his male employees from harassing her.
candle lighting ceremony at Marion Square, in Charlotte, SC, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 22, 2015
Charleston Murders vs. Pope, Rabbis, & Ramadan What a day of profound contradiction! The worst expression of hatred and racism together with the most loving expressions of care and active healing for all humanity and all the life-forms that make up Mother Earth!
Alice's Restaurant Album Cover, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 27, 2014
Thanksgiving, Arlo Guthrie, & My Yarmulke-- A Ritual of Joyful Resistance Every year at noon on Thanksgiving, WXPN Radio in Philadelphia plays Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," about a Thanksgiving dinner in Stockbridge Mass. in 1967; about obtuse cops; and about nonviolent resistance to a brutal war. And every year, this seemingly non-Jewish set of rituals stirs in me the memory of a moment long ago when my first puzzled, uncertain explorations of the "Jewish thing" took on new power for me.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 30, 2008
Mumbai & Beyond: Turning Horror toward Healing Over the years, I have noticed a pattern like this: When some terrorist group claiming roots in Islam commits a mass murder, Muslim organizations denounce those actions. The "mainstream" US media ignore such denunciations. Then some people denounce the Muslim world for the absence of condemnations against terrorism, and grow new fury against Islam.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 2, 2011
Let Us Rejoice Over Peace, Not Death I myself would have been a lot happier to see Bin Laden arrested to stand trial, but assuming the report that he violently assisted arrest is true, I have no objection to his having been killed. Yet I was dismayed by the quasi-sports-victory tone of the celebrations that arose around the country -- chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A," for instance.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 16, 2009
URGENT Jewish Letter to Sen. Lieberman In pursuit of justice, no autonomous Jewish community has ever allowed the poor to go without healing. It is clear that the present health insurance system based on private insurance companies is broken in every aspect except assuring enormous profits to itself.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 19, 2012
Arrested for Affirming God's Unity?! The Email came; I read: "FYI for those who have not heard about the recent arrest of Anat Hoffman [an Israeli woman who has led the effort for women to pray freely at the Western Wall] for chanting the Shema out loud at the Western Well."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 16, 2012
The "new poor": What can we DO? Clergy & Laity Concerned About Economic Injustice Over the past few months, I have been sharing with you letters and stories from the "new poor" in America and in our own congregations, and ideas for how our congregations can address their suffering. What can we --- clergy and congregants concerned about the "previously poor" and the "newly poor" in our own congregations and in the nation -- do about it?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 25, 2012
"No Religion is an Island" -- Challenging Injustice in a Community That's Not "Our Own" Two weeks ago, I wrote you a Shalom Report letter criticizing the Catholic hierarchy's attacks on the religious freedom of Catholic nuns and American women. That letter sparked a lot of excitement and debate (possibly because I focused on a religious body's denial of religious freedom to women, rather than the accepted meme of women's health).
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Commission Requires Presidential Aptitude Test -- satire, but not far off base
Gray1085 Liver, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 26, 2020
My small personal crisis and the Great American Social Crisis This past Wednesday afternoon, I found all my leg muscles very weak and my speech slurred. Seemed like it might be a stroke, so Phyllis with the help of wonderful friends Mordechai and Lynne hurried me into an ambulance to a hospital. The hospital found there was nothing at all wrong with my brain, but...
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 9, 2012
My Brother is Dying Grief that the world we have known is dying. We are living through earthquakes of a dying society, racked by violent "hiccups" as Howard is by his own. The economies, the ecologies, the sexualities, the families, the communities and traditions we have known, are all gasping, coughing, shaking. It is appropriate, it is necessary, to grieve.
Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 21, 2012
Yom Kippur as Transformation-time: 3 Keys to Unlock our Hearts On Rosh HaShanah, we read the story of the estrangement between two families of Abraham -- between his wife Sarah and her son Isaac, and his wife Hagar and her son Ishmael. I believe the completion of the story ( as it appears in Gen. 25: 8-11) should be read aloud in every synagogue on Yom Kippur. It is a story of reconciliation, which is what Yom Kippur is all about.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 11, 2009
Murders in the "Cathedral": Wichita & Washington A theological look at the commonalities between the Holocaust Museum murder and the Dr. Tiller murder shows several commonalities. Is interdenominational understanding possible?
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 10, 2012
Activist Elders Challenge Candidates & Voters to New Vision of America; National Council of Elders to Release Greensboro he Declaration challenges political candidates of all parties and all Americans to go beyond the issues now being put forward in the election campaign, to address the underlying crises America faces and explore a deeper vision for our country.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 23, 2012
Killing Jews, Killing Muslims, Killing Blacks You can overcome fear by connecting, communing, with the people you fear. (But then how can you keep the benefits you get by oppressing them?) Or you can overcome fear by being willing to suffer and die for a principle. Or you can overcome fear by being willing to kill.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 20, 2013
My First Arrest, Plus 50 Years Sunday , July 7, 1963, was the date of my first arrest, among protesters creating a "walk-in" aimed at ending racial segregation at Gwynn Oak amusement park in Baltimore. This coming July 7, 2013 (also a Sunday ) there will be a 50th-anniversary celebration in Baltimore of the desegregation of the park, which followed soon after the arrests.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 9, 2013
Mandela, the Jews, & the Future: WHICH Jews? The response of Jewish organizations to Mandela has been less than ideal
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 22, 2013
Happily Arrested at White House, waving Bitter Herb & Matzah Yesterday, along with 14 other religious folk, clergy and committed "laity," I was arrested for standing at the White House with signs and songs, reciting the names of more than 100 people killed by one result of the climate crisis -- Superstorm Sandy. We were calling on the President to act swiftly to heal our Mother Earth from the climate crisis, from the plagues that modern Pharaohs -- Big Oil, Big Coal, Unnatural Gas.
A Prayer for Peace, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 15, 2015
After Paris, Where and How?Sustaining Abundance & Sharing Justice -- Not Imposing War We must mourn the dead of Paris. We must affirm and join the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world in utterly condemning these atrocities.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 7, 2013
Drop gas masks, not bombs If our own government pushes us over the edge of that precipice, the real losers will be the American and Syrian people. There, even greater devastation. Here, another wave of failure to meet the real and increasingly urgent civilian needs for schools, bridges, solar and wind energy, firefghters, and much more.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Gaza & beyond: What's the alternative? Beyond anguish, what can we say about Gaza that points toward an alternative? Not just in pretty theory, but in political practicality? Only the biggest response can meet the need. Half-measures, the normal response of governments facing complex conflict, will not work.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 27, 2013
For 8 days of Hanukkah, my True Love said to me: "Help heal My Earth!" Hanukkah brings with it again this year three crucial teachings about healing our Mother Earth from the ravages of global scorching. And Hanukkah is a celebration of rebels taking back a temple that was defiled by a vile authoritarian king, combined with a miracle-- that an energy source lasted a lot longer than expected.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Calling Us ALL to the Path Ahead, Toward Our Truest Selves The Torah portion that Jews read this coming Shabbat begins: "YHWH [Yahh, the Breath of Life] said to Abram [and his wife Sarai], "Go forth, go forward, into your best and deepest self - to a place that I will let you see, that you do not yet know."
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Election: Dancing in God's Earthquake How come the real energy-centers on our present national tickets are two passionate Christians ""-- one oriented to renewal and one to restoration?

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