(3 comments) SHARE        Saturday, December 24, 2016
Chanukah and Christmas as we approach a Trump presidency The bad news is that the world is not yet redeemed, and our religions have at times acted more like the oppressors than like the embodiments of the liberatory humanitarian loving energy they set out to embody. The good news is that there are many people in both of these religions who are capable of reclaiming the hopeful and loving and justice-oriented instincts.

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 28, 2016
What's Really Best for Israel? Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went before AIPAC this year and pandered to those who blindly support Israel's hard-line policies, but Bernie Sanders's more evenhanded approach is better for Israel, says Rabbi Michael Lerner.

(8 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Bernie: Create a Tea Party off the Left Within the Democratic Party Now But there is something you can do, and it's not to get a few planks put on the Democratic Platform that will immediately be ignored, as all the party platforms always are, immediately after their conventions are over. What you can do is organize a force within the Democratic Party that has the same determination to change the direction of that party as the Tea Party had within the Republican Party.

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 27, 2015
Save the Pope's Radical Prophetic Message from Media Trivialization Recognizing the Pope's prophetic role at this historical moment doesn't mean that we can't also urge him to rethink the Church's stance on women, on homosexuals, on abortion, and on birth control. We must do what we can to bring his radical message to the attention of a society whose media are already hearing a trivialization of the Pope's message as they try to transform him into the world's latest momentary celebrity.

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, September 10, 2015
We All Should Be Repenting for the Suffering of the Refugees The economic catastrophe led many to flee the violence of gangs and the hunger that US policies had created for millions of people in the global south. To escape that condition, millions risked their lives to get to the US where eager employers could use them to break the backs of trade unions, guaranteeing wages would remain depressed even as the rich and their corporations were going through ever new financial booms.

SHARE        Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Baltimore Riots Against Police Violence--Tikkun and the Baptists Response Police violence, particularly though not only against African Americans, requires immediate and forceful response at every level of our society. People should be protesting in the streets of our country wherever an ethical consciousness has not yet been snuffed out by cynicism, surplus powerlessness, indifference, or inability to focus due to mind-destroying absorption in the distractions that abound in cyberspace, the media

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, March 27, 2015
Israel Faces Moses's Demand to Pharaoh The racist dishonesty of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has challenged Judaism's humanistic principles, as many young Jews will now flip the Passover script, putting the Palestinians in the position of Moses demanding "Let my people go" -- or give them the vote in one state, writes Rabbi Michael Lerner.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The Militarists and Haters Win in Israeli Elections Though the Israeli president has said he will ask for a government of national unity, it will be unity around the policies which Netanyahu put out clearly in the last days of the election: No Palestinian state, no deal that would allow Iran to develop nuclear energy, no willingness to count Arab Israelis as "real Israelis."

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Benjamin Netanyahu's Fantasy World Netanyahu's speech to Congress was brilliantly deceitful because it played to the fantasies that Israeli propaganda and right wing militarists in the United States have been popularizing for the past thirty years.

SHARE        Thursday, November 27, 2014
Making Thanksgiving Real Taking time to give thanks for all that we have -- our lives, our health, the incredibly awesome universe in which we live, the love that we have in our lives -- all this deserves genuine thanks. Yet celebrating our many blessings should not preclude us from addressing the pressing need for healing and transforming the world.

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Mourning for a Judaism Being Murdered by Israel Please don't be silent when rabbis refuse to acknowledge their idol-worship and their blind support for Israeli policies. Insist that they take into account when judging Palestinians the psychologically and ethically destructive impact of living under Occupation.

(5 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 18, 2014
Israel: Stop the Invasion of Gaza, Stop the Bombing of Gaza, Free the Palestinian Prisoners But not only is the war stupid from the standpoint of Jewish self-interest, it is also immoral in the extreme. None of this would have happened if Israel had been serious about negotiating an end to the Occupation. But as Prime Minister Netanyahu made clear in his press conference last week, he never intends to give the Palestinian people an independent state of their own.

(11 comments) SHARE        Saturday, December 7, 2013
Nelson Mandela: A Jewish Perspective Jews love and loved Nelson Mandela. He inspired us with his insistence that the old regime of apartheid would crumble more quickly and fully when faced with revolutionary love and compassion than when faced with anger and violence. Mandela also challenged us to think deeply about whether the current situation in Israel/Palestine reflects the ethic of compassion that is so central to Judaism.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, September 9, 2013
How to Slow Down the Rush to War: What Obama Should Do About Syria The tragic dilemma we now face is that the murderous Assad regime in Syria should have been overthrown long ago, but the U.S. has no moral standing or credibility to be the agent of that overthrow.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 19, 2013
How to Stand in Solidarity with African Americans this weekend After Trayvon Martin I'm writing to YOU to urge you to either come with me on Sunday or go to a nearer African American church this Sunday and let the African American community in your neighborhood or town know that they are not alone, that we understand their fear and stand in solidarity with them. No matter where you came out on the Zimmerman trial, you can still stand in solidarity with African Americans, support them in their grief...

(16 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 14, 2013
Trayvon Martin: A Jewish Response Where is there justice in a world in which so many people suffer oppression and in which those who choose to use violence as a way to address and deal with their hatred and fear often seem to triumph? Jewish theology holds that there is a karmic order, so that evil actions will not always run the world. Justice and compassion are both essential to the survival of the planet.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 22, 2012
Making Thanksgiving Meaningful Many families take a moment to go around the Thanksgiving table to ask each person to say what they are grateful for. But too often there are some hidden injunctions that weaken the meaning of this practice, like "don't talk for more than a sentence" or "be sure to say that you are grateful for something your parent, partner, child, etc. has done..." or "don't go beyond... Spiritual Progressives have a more expansive practice

SHARE        Monday, November 12, 2012
In Praise of the American People It would do well for the political Left to put a lot more energy into publicly celebrating the fundamental goodness and decency shown by the American public in the November 2012 elections. It's time to rejoice in that and celebrate the core goodness and decency of all Americans.

(4 comments) SHARE        Sunday, November 6, 2011
Praying With Our Feet at Occupy Oakland no movement is perfect, and we have our problems and distortions. But the key is to have compassion for our distortions, compassion for everyone including those who right now don't support us, and use this moment to thank the universe for the opportunity to overcome cynicism and fight for the world most people really want.

SHARE        Friday, November 4, 2011
Praying With Our Feet At Occupy Oakland a powerful reaffirmation, celebration and manifestation of the life and love energy of the universe The tens of thousands of people who streamed through the various parts of the day were there to affirm life, to manifest love, and to challenge the injustice and unrighteousness of our economic and political system. And they did so with remarkable energy, creativity, beauty, and intelligence.