Author: Religious Action Center

Molly Goldberg is the
incoming Social Action Vice President of the North American Federation of
Temple Youth (NFTY). She is currently the Social Action Vice President of
NFTY’s Missouri Valley Region.

Nearly 120 NFTYites from across the country gathered last
weekend at Veida, our annual meeting for regional and North American board
members. We met at Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas to elect a new North
American board, pass resolutions, and select study and action themes for
2010-2011. We were proud to select “Anavah: Humility – What do we really need? NFTY Addresses
Overconsumption” as our Action theme for the year to come.

At each URJ Biennial convention, President Rabbi Eric Yoffie
launches new Biennial Initiatives,
issuing challenges to our Movement to rethink Jewish perspectives and take
action on thought-provoking subjects, from embracing Shabbat to initiating Muslim-Jewish
dialogue. During his Shabbat morning sermon at the 2009 URJ Biennial in
Toronto, Rabbi Yoffie presented the following statistics:

The meat industry today generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas
emissions that are accelerating climate change throughout the world. According
to a U.N. report, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas
than all transportation sources combined. And the preparation of beef meals
requires about fifteen times the amount of fossil fuel energy than meat.

Then, Rabbi Yoffie challenged our
Movement – including NFTY – to consider what we eat and how it affects our
environment.  The NFTY 2010-2011 Action
Theme, “Anavah: Humility – What do we
really need? NFTY Addresses Overconsumption,” adopted last weekend, will encourage
NFTYites to rise to Rabbi Yoffie’s challenge. Our resolution on consumption challenges
NFTYites to rethink their eating habits with an eye to the environmental impact
of our food choices.

But we won’t stop
there. Beyond conscious eating, our new action theme encourages NFTYites to
examine their per capita consumption and consider amending their consumption of
fuel, minerals, and other resources to preserve our Earth.

To implement “Anavah: Humility,” we will incorporate the concept of overconsumption
on all levels of NFTY, from communal to individual. NFTY will partner with the
Religious Action Center and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life to
advocate for comprehensive legislation to address climate change and encourage
the transition to a cleaner, more efficient energy economy. NFTYites and others
can start by writing to Congress using
the RAC’s action alert.

Our 19 NFTY Regions will study how unsustainable fishing practices and insufficient waste management blight
the developing world’s infrastructure through educational and experiential
programming. Next, with our respective syangogues and youth groups, we will
align with Shulchan Yarok, Shulchan Tzedek (Green Table, Just Table), a newly launched URJ initiative that encourages congregations
to implement food policy and programs that promote healthy, sustainable, and
ethical eating, such as Community Supported Agriculture and synagogue garden projects.
Finally, on an individual level, we will encourage NFTYites to give up bottled water, reduce energy use by
washing their laundry in cold water, switch to energy-efficient CFL light bulbs,
and reduce fuel consumption by carpooling, biking, walking, and taking public
transit.

Combined, these projects on all
levels of NFTY, as well as alliances with the RAC and URJ, will give Reform
Jewish teens insight into how each of our daily actions affects the environment,
and how we can make informed choices to have a more positive impact.

Century, we realize that Midrash Ecclesiastes
Rabbah 7:13 rings true: “See my works, how fine and excellent they are! All
that I created, I created for you. Reflect on this, and do not corrupt or
desolate my world; for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.”
With our 2010-2011 Action Theme, NFTY plans to live up to this teaching, doing
our best to repair our broken world and ensure that generations to come will
enjoy the environment that is so crucial to all our lives.

In an opinion piece published this week on Foxnews.com, Ken Blackwell, Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment for the Family Research Council, wrote that confirming President Obama’s nominations of Dawn Johnsen and Chai Feldblum (to the Department of Justice and the EEOC, respectively) would result in “programmatic pogroms” against Christians.

Today, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the RAC, sent a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell asking him to distance himself and his party from the ideas espoused in Blackwell’s piece. Full text of the letter follows:

Dear Senator McConnell,

On behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose 900 congregations encompass nearly 1.5 million Reform Jews nationwide, I write to ask you to publicly distance yourself and the Senate Republican caucus from the Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment Ken Blackwell’s recent assertion that the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen to the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would amount to a “programmatic pogrom” against Christians.

The intimation that, with these confirmations, our government would become an oppressive and Christian-hating regime rather than a democracy that values freedom of religious expression is a blatant falsehood. Mr. Blackwell’s use of rhetoric invoking the pogroms, the widespread destruction of countless Jewish lives in Eastern Europe, is aimed at quashing reasoned political discourse, suggesting that the confirmation of these qualified, respected nominees is beyond the pale of our normal politics. His likening of Ms. Johnsen and Ms. Feldblum’s confirmations to the persistent and violent killing of Jews in Cossack-controlled Russia desecrates the memory of those who died in the pogroms.

The Union for Reform Judaism has repeatedly expressed support for Ms. Johnsen, but obstruction has left her nomination in limbo for over a year. This most-recent, offensive assault on Ms. Johnsen’s integrity must not deter the Senate from considering expediently her nomination and confirming this qualified and willing public servant. Similarly, while we have taken no position on the EEOC nomination, Ms. Feldblum is a respected legal scholar with whom we have worked very closely for years to protect religious freedom and shape religious exemptions in civil rights legislation–the exact opposite of Mr. Blackwell’s contention.

We urge you to speak out about Mr. Blackwell’s offensive comments, and to allow these nominees to proceed to the Senate floor for consideration.

Sincerely,

/s/

Rabbi David Saperstein
Director and Counsel

February
is Jewish Disability Awareness Month, and all month, we’ll be featuring blog posts
about disability inclusion. Read our posts here and visit our Jewish Disability Awareness Month page.

Estimates
of the financial damage caused by January’s earthquake in Haiti have
climbed with the death toll estimates The New York Times cites a report
that “estimates that the cost could be between $7.2 billion to $13.2 billion,
based on a death toll from 200,000 to 250,000; earlier estimates had hovered
around $5 billion.” Haitian citizens are slowly
coming to grips with the destruction that upended so many lives in such
little time, but U.S.
forces are beginning to
wind down despite increasing need. Amid all of this, the needs of one group
of Haitians in particular are in peril: those
with disabilities.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stated
that Haitians with disabilities – or those who became disabled in the wake of
the earthquake – must not become “the forgotten ones during the emergency
response and the reconstruction of the country.” As Dale Buscher points out in his
excellent op-ed in the Huffington Post, “People with disabilities
are often overlooked, neglected and forgotten in disaster relief and
humanitarian response. Yet they are among the most vulnerable of the affected,
particularly if they have lost their traditional caregivers-extended families
and neighbors.”

Indeed, in a country in which every citizen has become vulnerable,
those with disabilities become even more vulnerable: when hundreds of people
clamor for food aid, Buscher notes, the “likelihood of people with disabilities
getting anything is remote.” Likewise, temporary shelters, schools and other
services must be made accessible to those with disabilities. Buscher observes
that though “those living with disabilities were underserved in Haiti prior to
the earthquake and were often shunned and stigmatized,” efforts to rebuild the
country offer “an opportunity to amend past neglect and discrimination and
assist persons with disabilities to live richer, more dignified lives.” My hope
is that they harness the potential of the disabled community and realize that,
just as everyone is vulnerable to a natural disaster, everyone deserves the
opportunity to contribute to society.

Beth Dahlman is the Online Organizer at Faith in Public Life. This post originally appeared on Bold Faith Type and is republished with permission.

The February 25 bipartisan health care summit
with President Obama and Members of Congress will put reform back on
the agenda after its relegation to the back burner several weeks ago. A
couple of recent stories are poignant reminders of the urgent need for
these leaders to act in good faith to pass reform legislation as soon
as possible. A study released yesterday found that the nation’s 5
largest insurers saw their profits surge
by a combined 56 percent in 2009 as they shed 2.7 million policy
holders, and Anthem Blue Cross announced last week that it was increasing premiums by up to 39 percent in California.

These eye-popping numbers underscore a reality that faith leaders
have been bringing to Congress’s attention throughout the lengthy
reform debate: a health care system that leaves millions of Americans
uninsured and costs too much for millions more is inconsistent with our
values and must be reformed. Simply put, our current system encourages
powerful corporations to harm vulnerable people — insured and
uninsured alike. It’s just not right.

The Feb. 25 Health Care Summit needs to explore how to address these
injustices and deliver quality, affordable choice for millions of
American families. Faith leaders and advocates in congregations across
the country will keep a close eye on the event, evaluate it in terms of
how much closer it brings us to the goal of passing reform, and tell
their elected representatives to keep moving forward.

February
is Jewish Disability Awareness Month, and all month, we’ll be featuring blog posts
about disability inclusion. Read our posts here and visit our Jewish Disability Awareness Month page.

The decennial census officially
commenced on January 20^thin Noorvik, Alaska — a remote Inupiat Eskimo
village north of the Arctic Circle with a population of about 700. Unlike most
American citizens who will receive the census form through the mail in March,
the Inupiat Eskimos, due to the isolation and topography of their village (it
is reachable only when the ground is frozen) are counted in person. As the Census Bureau works to ensure
these individuals are counted, it has also done extensive preparation for
individuals who face a variety of hurdles in responding to the census. Because February is Jewish Disability
Awareness Month, let’s take a look at how the Census Bureau is preparing to reach out
to individuals with disabilities.

On the 2010 census website, a series of
specialized toolkits facilitate outreach to more than 20 specialized
groups.  From college students to
faith organizations, from immigrants to the elderly, from veterans to the
disabled, these resources explain how individuals benefit from the census, the
resources available to help them respond, and some fun facts.  For instance, did you know that people
with disabilities represent the third largest market segment of the US economy,
surpassing Hispanics, African Americans and Asian Americans, as well as
Generation X and teens? That
statistic wowed me!

To ensure that all people are counted, the Census Bureau sets up
Questionnaire Assistance Centers (QAC) to assist those who have trouble reading
or understanding the form. Language Assistance Guides are available in large print and in Braille
and a special Video Relay Service (VRS) for the deaf and hard-of-hearing can be
reached at 1-866-783-2010.

So, why is it so important that EVERYONE be counted?  What, for instance, do people with disabilities
stand to gain from an accurate census?

Census data directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in
federal funding is distributed to state, local and tribal governments. This money includes funding for health
centers, planning and construction of facilities for people with disabilities,
transportation services, and community-based health care initiatives. Census
data also helps guide all levels of government on the implementation and
evaluation of programs and enforcement of laws like the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act.

This year’s decennial census is the shortest in history – just 10 questions! Learn about all
the resources available to make sure that you are counted.

This week’s question on the Washington Post’s On Faith section asks: “Top U.S. defense
officials say they will repeal the decades-old ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, which requires gay soldiers to keep their sexual orientation
secret. Homosexuality is often cast as a religious issue. Should religious
views be a factor in military decisions? Should the U.S. military repeal its
‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy?”

All but one answer indicates strong support for repealing
this discriminatory policy, which the Reform Movement has long opposed. The
responses – from leaders of various faith communities – are heartening and
hopeful. Read a few excerpts after the jump, click through to read full responses, and use our easy action alert system to send a pre-written letter to your members of Congress asking them to support repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

• “Competence, excellence in job
  performance, and dedication to the service should be what determines a
  soldier’s career path, not sexual orientation which has no impact at all upon
  how well they perform the tasks set for them.”
  – Pamela
  K. Taylor, co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values

• “The question for me is not
  whether ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ should be repealed, but why it’s
  taking so long. If the United States can’t be a leader in civil rights, it
  should at least not follow so far behind.”
  – Herb
  Silverman, Founder and President of the Secular Coalition for America

• “Unless policymakers are
  prepared to publicly claim that the full inclusion of gay soldiers will cause
  God to curse our military, the answer on this one is a no-brainer. Gay people
  should be able to serve our nation without fear of ‘detection’ or
  shame about who they are.”
  – Brad
  Hirschfeld, President of CLAL — The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

• “Since the days of our founding
  fathers, the United States has been committed to religious tolerance: a
  commitment that means we do not judge our fellow Americans based on our own
  religion. Keeping that promise is a matter of our nation’s integrity, no matter
  what your religion.”
  – Rev.
  Dr. Janet Edwards, Co-Moderator of More Light Presbyterians

• “Any military policy that asks
  gay people to understand themselves as ‘stepchildren’ of God is wrong. God is
  love, and love does not discriminate. It’s not all that complex, really.”
  – Susan
  Brooks Thistlethwaite, Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary

• “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is
  a discriminating, life-denying policy. It is both unconstitutional and
  un-American since it in fact denies equal protection under the law. To
  denigrate the humanity of another human being with both prejudice and ignorance
  is hardly Christian either since it violates the purpose of Jesus, at least as
  St. John’s Gospel understands that purpose.”
  – John
  Shelby Spong, Former Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark

Of course, support of repeal isn’t universal, as
evidenced by responses from Rev.
Chuck Colson, who says repeal would hinder military effectiveness, but it’s
encouraging to see leaders of so many faiths speaking out in favor of doing
away with this antiquated and discriminatory policy. And don’t forget – you can make your voice heard by writing to Congress now!

Ron Tabak, a lawyer, is chair of the Jethro Committee to Honor the Legal Profession at Central Synagogue in New York City.

The Torah portion Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23) is named for Moses’ father-in-law Jethro (Yitro). After observing Moses, the leader of the Israelites, act as judge to settle every dispute that arose, Jethro suggested to Moses that others resolve the less difficult disputes. On each Shabbat when we read this portion, Central Synagogue honors the legal profession in a special service called Jethro Shabbat. This year’s guest speaker was New York State’s new Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.

Judge Lippman spoke in the sanctuary immediately after the February 5, 2010 Shabbat service. His talk is titled “Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: The Chief Judge’s Perspective on Justice and Jewish Values.”
Read his speech or watch it below, followed by a question and answer session.

In the past, the Jethro talk was given at a luncheon or dinner following either Sabbath morning or Sabbath evening services, and attendees had to pay to defray for the cost of the meal. For the first time this year, the talk was given in the sanctuary and no one had to pay anything to attend. There was an oneg thereafter. As a result, the attendance was far greater than in the past, except when former Supreme Court Justice Blackmun was the speaker!

The Justices just might be on our side. Last week, while hail and freezing rain pounded the skylights of the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem, the IRAC team was inside and warm and enjoying what might have seemed a comedy hour were it not for the seriousness of the issue at hand: a hearing following Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz’s half-baked pronouncement earlier in the week, that segregation on buses could continue as usual, only this time with signs to let riders know segregated seating wasn’t mandatory, merely recommended and “voluntary.”

While I’d worried the judges would sleep through our hearing, they were alive and kicking, pointing out the weakness of Katz’s claims, and with humor to boot: said Justice Salim Joubran, “how do you expect Israelis to obey signs on buses if they can’t even obey traffic signs?” He continued, “what, do you envision training bus drivers to act like babysitters?” He raised one of our own arguments – how can you enforce “volunteerism”? Is that not a contradiction in terms?

Haredi attorney Mordechai Green, arguing in favor of segregation, then
told Justice Joubran he’d received “thousands of letters” from
“seculars and Arabs” who liked the segregated seating. “Don’t speak for
the Arabs,” Justice Joubran replied, “Arab society has made progress,
and we already sit together, men and women.” A beat later, he asked,
“where’s the tolerance here?”

Good point. We believe the signs will not make segregation
voluntary: those who demand segregated seating will not tolerate a
woman who decides to “disobey” the sign and sit in the front of the
bus. There’s another problem with Katz’s arguments – a sign requesting
riders to comply with Haredi modesty requirements will make those who
refuse to accept segregated seating appear as the offenders, and not
those who force segregation upon everyone else.

IRAC lawyers Einat Hurvitz and Riki Shapira cited the growing
number of Orthodox organizations that had joined our petition, and the
growing number of phone calls from Haredi men and women who call our
office daily to complain about the segregation and thank us for our
work. “Wait,” said Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, “the Haredim are calling
Reform Jews? That’s progress.”

But let’s be serious for a moment. The signs do not address the real
issue – whether segregation is legal. And if it is legal, where else
will it be allowed? We already know of streets, post offices, HMOs, and
other public meeting spaces where segregation is enforced. If you allow
it on buses, soon it will be everywhere.

It’s not too late. The Supreme Court Justices can rule that segregation
is illegal and outlaw it. They’ve heard our case for the final time.
Now we must wait for a decision. It could take a while, but you’ll be
the first to know.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the RAC’s Director, was a guest today on State of Belief with host Rev. Welton Gaddy, Director of the Interfaith Alliance. On the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, on which Rabbi Saperstein serves, he and Rev. Gaddy discuss what the council has accomplished, what it’s working on now, and where it’s headed.

Applications for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s 2010-2011 Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Program are online now! Eisendrath Legislative Assistants, or LAs, are recent college grads who come to the RAC to advocate for Jewish values and social justice on behalf of the Reform Jewish Movement. Their responsibilities include monitoring legislative activity, developing synagogue social action programming, coordinating special events, creating educational materials, planning and staffing our L’Taken Social Justice Seminars for teens, and mobilizing the grassroots of American Jewry.

This one-year fellowship is a unique and exciting opportunity to work alongside advocates and policymakers in Washington and engage in the work of tikkun olam. Former LAs have gone on to become rabbis, congressional staffers, lawyers and advocates at progressive social justice organizations like the National Council of Jewish Women, the Human Rights Campaign and Interfaith Alliance. Learn more about this year’s LAs (we’ll put you in touch with any of them if you’re thinking of applying and want to talk to someone who’s been there); while you’re at it, check out the story of former Legislative Assistant Ben Weyl’s RAC experience in “Tales of a Former LA: Better Off for Having Been One.”

Apply now for the 2010-2011 program year at rac.org/la, or send the link along to a recent or soon-to-be grad who you would make a great LA. For more information, contact our Legislative Director Barbara Weinstein at 202.387.2800.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been working with my colleague Rabbi Lynne
Landsberg, Senior Adviser for Disability Issues at the Religious Action Center,
to draw attention to a very troubling statistic: more than 70% of
people with disabilities are unemployed. This means that the
unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than seven times the national average.

But why? This is an extremely complicated question, and not one I can
fully answer. I understand there to be a vicious cycle in which in order to
qualify for often necessary health insurance, young people with disabilities
just finishing high school must swear that they are unable to ever work. I
understand there is immense discrimination perpetrated against a community of
people often and wrongly considered burdensome and costly (the average cost of accommodations
for an employee with a disability is around $500). I understand that
too many people see only the disability and not the potential employee. I
understand that for many people with disabilities, accessible homes near
accessible transportation to accessible buildings for jobs which provide full
health benefits are all prerequisites for employment.

I’d like to add an issue to this list, one often missing
from this conversation and if better addressed possesses an enormous payoff both
for the community of people with disabilities and for the American economy:
problems and equalities in education for people with disabilities.

The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of
1975 first established the standard that all schools which accept federal
funding must provide equal access for children with mental and physical
handicaps. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990
expanded upon the EAHCA and created specific standards for specific forms of
disability in thirteen categories for all children with disabilities up to age
21, and has been amended and reauthorized several times since.

But is enough being done? Are these laws adequate? Off the
top of my head, I can think of several existing gaps in services for students
with disabilities – opportunities for higher education, assistance for students
or young people over 21 who have had special education suddenly removed,
services for students with poorly-understood or unusual disabilities and needs,
etc. These laws are not enough, we need to be addressing these gaps and
assisting all Americans, including those with disabilities, to become fully
educated and use that education to find employment and contribute to the
economy.

One of the best tools we could soon have for improving
educational opportunities for students with disabilities is the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
This convention, signed by the United States last July but still not ratified,
would set high standards for special education and accommodations for students
with disabilities. It would make some of these standards obligatory for all
public schools, not only those which accept federal funding and require annual
accountability and status reports. Furthermore, it would seek to change
attitudes about disabilities by improving education for all students, not just
those with disabilities – a long term amelioration of the discrimination people
with disabilities experience when seeking employment.

The process of ratifying a treaty is a long and difficult
one (some spend years being checked out by the State Department before being
sent to the Senate for a vote), but in this case, when educational iniquities
contribute to hyper-unemployment among the community of people with
disabilities, it is more than necessary. Canada and 78 other nations have done
so already. Though not yet ready for a vote, the UNCRPD could be released from
State at any time.

For more information, visit www.ratifynow.org or contact me at [email protected].

Jeff Mandell, a Chicago attorney, is a former Legislative Director of the Religious Action Center.

I was a first-hand witness to
DC’s snow emergency this week. Trudging along Capitol Hill’s snow-clogged streets
and seeing the entire city – and the federal government it hosts – at a
standstill was an amazing and deeply distressing experience. I could not help
but feel that the havoc wreaked by the snow was, more than anything else, a
symptom of how impotent our government has become. In the 24 hours I spent in
DC this week, I saw numerous unplowed streets, snowed-in cars, and
fender-benders. But I didn’t see a single snow plow. The city was a complete
mess, more than 48 hours after last weekend’s snow had stopped falling. Tuesday
morning, with the federal government closed again in reaction to the snow
already on the ground and in fear of the snow predicted to arrive that
afternoon, I fled back home to Chicago. That is, I left Washington, where no
snow was falling, to fly back into an ongoing blizzard. And the only question
was whether my flight would leave DC; landing in Chicago was never in doubt.

Chicago knows how to handle
its snow, as well it should, being famous for harsh winters of prodigious
snows and ferocious winds. While it makes sense that Chicago would be more
prepared for winter than Washington would, that might not be true: according to
the newspaper coverage, Chicago has a fleet of 275
snowplows, while DC has a fleet of 250. Chicago
has only 10 percent more plows than DC, though Chicago, at 234 square miles (with more than
50,000 miles of streets and highways) more than triple the size of
Washington, at 68
square miles (of which area 10 percent is water). By the time the snow
stopped last night in Chicago (about 24 hours after it had started falling), we
had more than a foot in my city neighborhood, and the storm had set a
new record for one-day snowfall in Chicago in February
. Rush hour was a bit sticky Tuesday
night, but neither the roads nor public transit ground to a halt. Our small
residential street in the city was plowed by morning, and I could walk to the bus or the
train for my daily commute. Yet in Washington, a couple of inches causes paralysis; truth be told, even the prediction of a couple of inches often paralyzes DC.

This isn’t just a laughing
matter or a point of regional snobbery (though President
Obama chided Washington’s feeble response to snow last winter, when he had
recently moved into the White House). The cost of Washington’s inability to
clear the streets is staggering: The Office of
Personnel Management estimates the each day the federal government closes
because of weather costs taxpayers approximately $100
million.

After reading that estimate – $100 million per day! – I looked upon the snow piled in D.C.’s streets with
more than just personal frustration. The snow became an affront to the efficacy
of our government – simultaneously reinforcing the skepticism of those who
insist our government can’t confront the challenges we face and blocking the
work that needs to be done for us to confront those challenges. For the total
cost of a few days worth of snow closures, I thought, the federal government
could give D.C., Virginia, and Maryland the funds to upgrade public transit, buy
more equipment, and train more people so that snow would no longer regularly
cause protracted disruptions in our nation’s capital. The whole nation would
kick in to prevent the waste and lost productivity our government suffers when
it has to shut down because its employees cannot get to work and their children
cannot get to school.

Yesterday’s Washington Post
contains a better
idea: D.C., Maryland, and Virginia could collaborate to prepare and to commit
that snow – even in large quantities – would not lead to prolonged regional
paralysis. As columnist Steven Pearlstein sets the goal: “There is no reason less than a
foot of snow should be allowed to disrupt work and school, and no reason
anything more than a foot shouldn’t be cleaned up within 36 hours.” That
seems more than reasonable. “There are lots of problems that cannot be solved just by
throwing money at them,” Pearlstein continues, “but snow removal is not one of
them.

This is a perfect example of how a relatively small
expenditure could protect against major disruptions, to residents of the DC
area and to the entire federal government. And yet, as Pearlstein notes, the
contemporary political climate is so reflexively hostile to the idea of taxation
that it is difficult to imagine his proposal gaining traction. Instead, he’ll
be pilloried for suggesting the government raise taxes and spend people’s
money, rather than letting them spend it themselves – even though snow removal
is a perfect example of the kind of problem that can’t be solved through
individual expenditures.

Representative Barney
Frank likes to say that “government
is the name we give to things we choose to do together.” And we often choose
those projects we undertake together because they are the kind of projects that
we cannot accomplish individually – slowing climate change, improving
infrastructure, reforming health care. As I said, this is one of those projects.
I know because it’s time to walk the dog, and some of my neighbors have not
shoveled their sidewalks.

By Marc Rosenstein, originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary.

The Council of Progressive (Reform) Rabbis in Israel views the Western Wall as an area that does not represent the Jewish attachment to God, the experience of prayer, or modern Jewish thought… For the Reform Jew the Wall may be a place of historical connection, but it does not have any place in a Reform theology.

-Responsum of the Council of Progressive Rabbis in Israel

It takes me about four hours to get to Jerusalem by public transportation; not a great distance as distances go in the world – and merely a fraction of the distance to the North American Diaspora. And Jerusalem is very familiar to me from living there and visiting frequently over the years. I even remember it before the unification of the city in 1967. Yet sometimes it looks, in my “peripheral” vision, like another world. And since it is the “center of the world,” and the capital of Israel (depending on whom you ask), it represents Israel in the eyes of the world. Thus, sometimes it seems that the Jews of Boston and Omaha and Phoenix are more involved in the symbolic events occurring in Jerusalem than are we Galileans. You might say that Jerusalem looks to us like Washington DC looks to a Montanan: What’s all the fuss?

This mismatch comes to mind in the wake of the most recent installment
in the ongoing jousting match between the ultra-Orthodox and the
liberal movements in Jerusalem: violating a court order, the Women of
the Wall, a group of women who pray every Rosh Chodesh at the Western
Wall, took their prayer out of the Robinson’s Arch area that had been
designated for them, and held it in the open plaza behind the
“official” prayer areas at the wall. One of them even put on a tallit –
and was promptly arrested (and released after a few hours
“interrogation”). The repercussions have been continuing for weeks,
almost entirely among liberal Jewish organizations here and abroad.
Most Israelis, who are not affiliated with these movements, are not
very interested in what seems to us to be a test-case for religious
rights of a significance equivalent to Rosa Parks’ historic bus ride.
Indeed, they can’t imagine why a woman would want to put on a tallit
anyway.

In a climate of public discourse that can best be described as
a conversation of competitive victimhood, we liberal Jews have jumped
in with gusto. There is no group in Israeli society that doesn’t see
itself as victimized by those in power: Arabs, the ultra-Orthodox,
residents of the periphery, settlers, peaceniks, the anti-religious,
the state as a whole, etc., etc., – and now, Reform and Conservative
Jews. And to highlight one’s victimhood, it is generally useful to
label the other side as an archetypal oppressor (Nazi, Taliban, Iran
are common epithets). The trouble is that since everyone is busy
cultivating his/her own particular victimhood, no one really has
patience for or interest in anyone else’s. So we find our cries of
“gevalt” being mostly ignored. Moreover, in a country whose declaration
of independence begins “In the Land of Israel the Jewish people
arose…” it is not entirely self-evident to most people that we are
all “endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights.” The
historical and ideological bases of Israel and the United States are
quite different from each other. The problem of the Women of the Wall
is not just a case study in the individual’s right to free religious
expression in a neutral, secular democracy. It is rather a call to set
forth a vision of what we want the Jewish state to look like as a
Jewish, democratic state.

As long as we Reform Jews speak the language of secular
democracy and claim moral authority as a persecuted minority – so long
will we continue to be considered an irrelevant nuisance here. Our
strength is in offering a meaningful alternative at the level of the
community, the school, and the synagogue, in realizing the vision of –
and modeling – a Judaism that can meet the spiritual needs of the
citizens of a modern state and can live in harmony with democracy.

It is too easy to say what we don’t want (religious
discrimination) and too difficult to say what we do want (i.e., do we
really want Israel to look just like the United States? If so, how will
it be a Jewish state?). We need to be the visionaries of a state that
lacks them in our generation – not still another group of victims vying
for headlines and sympathy.

The Religious Institute, a self-described “multifaith organization dedicated to
advocating for sexual health, education and justice in faith
communities and society,” yesterday released its new report, Sexuality and Religion 2020: Goals for the Next Decade, which explores the relationship between sexuality and religion.

The report indicates a disconnect between the faith community’s views on sexuality and religion and clergy’s willingness to address these issues from the pulpit. A 2009 survey of mainline Protestant clergy, for example, reported that more than 70% seldom or never discuss sexuality issues.

In Sexuality & Religion 2020, the Religious Institute outlines 10 goals for the decade, urging clergy, denominations and seminaries to:

• break the silence around sexuality in congregations and faith communities;
• improve ministerial training in sexuality issues;
• provide better pastoral care on sexuality-related issues and sexuality education for youth
• and adults; and
• become more effective advocates of comprehensive sexuality education, sexual and
• reproductive health, and the full inclusion of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons.

Learn more about how the Religious Institute plans to accomplish these goals – and get involved yourself – at www.religiousinstitute.org.

In a press release, Rev. Debra Haffner, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Religious Institute, and Timothy Palmer, Director of Communications and Outreach and leader of the Institute’s LGBT initiatives, say of Sexuality & Religion 2020, “This report is for clergy, congregations, denominations, faith-based organizations – indeed, for all religious leaders and people of faith who believe we must create a healthier, more positive and inclusive relationship between sexuality and religion.” Read more on Rev. Haffner’s blog.

What do you think of the report? Do you see the same disconnect between sexuality and religion? As people of faith, what can we do to help bridge the divide?

Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs.

I must admit, I’ve always kind of wanted to go to the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 
The sessions are amazing, the location lovely, and all the coolest kids
(Nicolas Sarkozy, Muhammad Yunus, Bill Clinton) are there.

I never really thought much about the Jewish side of Davos,
or even that there is a Jewish side. 
Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed Daniel Gross’ great
report on a memorable Shabbat dinner at Davos. (It was published on Tablet:
A New Read on Jewish Life, an interesting new(ish) website where I find
something interesting nearly every time I look at it.) Gross writes:

My table represented something of a cross section of Davos: the editor of Foreign Policy,
two venture capitalists, a London-based executive at Google, the head
of a large French industrial concern, a young management consultant.
One table over was what I called the adult table–the head of one of the
world’s largest private equity firms, an undersecretary of state, one
of the best-known Jewish philanthropists. In many ways, it was a
typical Davos event–high-level chattering, the exchanging of business
cards.

Read the whole piece here. Next year maybe I’ll bring the challah….

Shelly Christensen is the Chair of the Disability Task Force and Program Manager of the Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities, a program of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis.

Almost nine years ago, when I began my career in the field of Jewish disability advocacy, I called a local synagogue to tell them about my program, the Minneapolis Jewish Community Program for People with Disabilities. I wanted to schedule an appointment with the rabbi to talk about my program and to discuss the kinds of challenges his congregation had. When I explained my purpose, the administrator on the other end chuckled, and said, “Well, that’s wonderful, but you see, we have no people with disabilities.”

Would it surprise you to learn that I am speaking next Shabbat to that congregation for Jewish Disability Awareness Month?

At some point, everyone comes to the realization that there are Jews with disabilities. It takes some longer than others, but the conditions are almost always the same: A congregant has disclosed a disability, and the congregation isn’t sure how to deal with it.

But the truth is that we don’t have to have all the answers, and we don’t have to “fix” a situation. Somehow, we have acquired the notion that it’s rude or impolite to ask
the person what we could do to provide access – as if asking the
person with a disability how to do that would offend them. There is the small matter of asking someone what they need; most likely, they will tell you.

Until that happens, many of us remain so uncertain about what to do
that, to the person asking for accommodations, it can often seem as
though the synagogue just isn’t going to do it. The most important idea
here is collaboration, a brain trust composed of people from the
organization and the person who has a disability, or, if that person is
a child, his or her parent(s). Building a trusting relationship and
working together to create appropriate accommodations and modifications
are two very important reasons to collaborate.

We have applied the principals of collaboration and
partnership to Jewish Disability Awareness Month in its second year. All four major Jewish movements – Union for Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Orthodox Union through Yachad: The National Jewish Council for Disabilities and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation – have committed to support raising awareness during the month of February and beyond. The result is a
well-rounded effort to promote inclusion of people with disabilities
using the many resources that are available on the websites and through
the organizational professional staff and lay leaders.

The Jewish community would be remiss if we did not collaborate and partner
through information and resource sharing, and even through joint
programming on a number of local levels. Our individual efforts toward Jewish
Disability Awareness Month would be considerably diminished if the
movements did not simultaneously support this month-long event. We are
much more effective when we are all speaking together and generating
programming and shared resources. We are able to combine the strengths
of each organization, the materials they publish and the programs they
support to provide better access to Judaism for people with
disabilities and their families, and to the synagogues, camps and
organizations that serve them.

For more information, visit:

• The URJ’s site on disability awareness
• The RACs Jewish Disability Awareness Month page
• The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s accessibility page
• Yachad: The National Jewish Council for Disabilities (including a list of awareness events)
• The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation’s disability resource page

For more information on Jewish Disability Awareness Month contact me at [email protected] or RAC Legislative Assistant Samuel Lehman at [email protected]. We’d love to hear how you’re honoring Jewish Disability Awareness Month!

Today’s Army (Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard) is a
 professional force.  They are highly skilled, trained professionals.
We invest a lot of time, money and educational opportunities to train
them. This isn’t the draft of WWII or Korea or Vietnam. Obama in his
state of the union addressed called for repealing DADT. But actions
speak louder than words. Let’s see Congress move. Today Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in part
about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. 

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke of the need to change the
policy. Sen. Carl Levin spoke of the need to change the policy.  Sen
John McCain, the former presidential candidate supported DADT.  Well at
least his wife, Cindy McCain seems to be in our court.

One of the surprises of the testimony today was the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen of the United States Navy.
Admiral Mullen spoke eloquently about his belief about DADT: “that we
have in place a policy which forces  young men and women to lie about
who they are in order to defend our their fellow citizens. For me
personally, it is a matter of integrity theirs as individuals and ours
as an institution. I also believe the great young men and women of our
military would embrace such a change.” Wow! How refreshing that he
spoke personally and so forcefully.  But then he hedged about how to
make the change in a time of war. To listen to the hearing see the webcast of the Armed Services Committee.

There will be a similar hearing on March 3 in the House Armed Services Personnel Sub-Committee.   

Let’s keep the pressure on. Contact your Senator, Your
Representative and President Obama. Let’s make Don’t Ask Don’t Tell an
unpleasant memory. For more ways to help contact the Servicemembers  Legal Defense Network.

Rarely have I been so disturbed as when I learned that my good friend Naomi Chazan, chairwoman of the New Israel Fund, had become the personal target of a hate campaign launched last week by a group called Im Tirtzu. It’s important you know the truth about this organization, whose members purport to be leaders of the “second Zionist revolution”, but whose main activities consist of silencing dissent and slandering someone’s good character. Even the Anti Defamation League has called their work a strike against democracy.

In response to the attack against Naomi Chazan and the New Israel Fund, I wrote an open letter of support that has also been published in The Jerusalem Post.

Please read my letter below and forward it to your friends. And take some time to read through this week’s articles, which tell a fascinating – albeit troubling – story.

Dear Naomi,

While I know you’re not one to be intimidated easily, or frightened
into silence by a personal attack paid for by dubious organizations and
publicized in newspapers and online – or even posted on electronic
billboards in Tel Aviv – I was personally insulted when I saw the crude
caricature of you: a rhinoceros horn tied around your head, someone’s
tired play on words with keren as “horn” and keren as “fund”, or the
suggestion that you and the NIF intend to drive a “horn” through
Israel. It was dehumanizing, cruel, and, in my opinion, something they
would not have done to a man. It is too bad they didn’t think of the
third meaning of keren, as ray of light – as in, ki keren or paniv –
rays of light shone from Moses’s face, not horns after all.

That the caricature stirs up dangerous associations is not an original
observation to make – I know I’m not the first. That a Jewish
organization claiming to represent “the second Zionist revolution” runs
such an ad – that is more interesting. It certainly says something
about the character of Im Tirtzu, an organization which we all know by
now is funded by the Christians United for Israel lobby and its
frequently controversial, frequently anti-Semitic Evangelist preacher
John Hagee.

Though it seems I can’t criticize them overmuch for their association
with John Hagee, since the CUFI has recently disassociated itself from
Im Tirtzu’s inappropriate campaign.

Which brings me to my next point. What does Im Tirtzu do with the money
it receives? They spend it on primetime ad space: full-page ads in the
newspapers and seemingly permanent banner ads on the Internet. So much
money is being invested in this hate campaign, which, unfortunately,
has been characterized by an especially vicious personal attack on you.
Think of all the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in an attempt
to desecrate your name.

Then think of how they could have spent the money otherwise. Im
Tirtzu’s money is not being used to help people directly – none of it
is being channeled toward Israeli organizations that help Israelis as,
in contrast, so many of NIF’s recipient organizations do.

You, Naomi, are a patriot. You do not need a lesson in patriotism or
Zionism or how-to-be-a-good-Israeli from the bullies at Im Tirtzu. Your
father was an Israeli ambassador to the U.S., your mother was an MK,
and you yourself were an MK for several terms. And you have also been
my model of strength. You are one tough Sabra. One good example: you
left the cozy world of academia for the desert of Israeli politics.

When I think about you, I often think first about your last name,
Chazan, or cantor. As chairwoman of the New Israel Fund, you are a
Chazan for our time, telling us what we need to hear – though we may
not always want to – and professing values we need to uphold.

You and your work with NIF make me proud to be an Israeli. We are both
intimately aware of the growing number of incidents of intimidation and
harassment of human and civil rights leaders in Israel. In such an
atmosphere, where voices of dissent or those which stray too far from
popular opinion are silenced, it is our responsibility more than ever
to keep singing.

And since I believe in openness and debate as necessary parts of a
democracy, I do not seek to limit anyone’s free speech but rather, to
create a discussion. We can have open discourse in Israel: we don’t
need to silence our opponents by cutting off their voices – or their
funds.

I’d like to propose an alternative to Im Tirtzu – Im Nirtze. If we wish to stop the hunting and hounding of liberal and pluralistic forces in Israel, we can do so – if we will it.

And we will with you, Naomi, my friend. We are with you.

Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist
Joint Committee on Public Affairs, is a church/state lawyer’s church/state lawyer. I cannot tell you how often I
rely on his counsel, or how often I steal his insights (and even his
jokes).  He has a great
overview  of the past decade in
religious liberty up on the BJC’s home page, reviewing the Supreme Court’s
decisions in Establishment Clause and Free Exercise cases, as well as Religion
in Public Life and Religious Liberty Abroad.

If only the news Brent has to report were better!  His conclusion:

In terms of religious liberty and
church-state relations, however, it has been a mixed bag — some good news, some
bad. When compared to the state of religious liberty internationally, we
continue to do reasonably well in the United States.