Rabbi Dr. Arthur Waskow founded and directs The Shalom Center, a prophetic voice in the Jewish, multi-religious and American worlds for justice, peace, and healing of the Earth.
Arthur Waskow
By Arthur Waskow
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Opinion How testifying at the Chicago 7 trial led me to put on a yarmulke
Fifty years ago, in perhaps the most tumultuous political trial in American history, I found myself wearing a yarmulke to defend my — myself, actually. It was the first time I put one on outside of a synagogue or a Seder. Within a year, I was keeping my head covered all the time. The trial,…
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Letters Letter | God’s name is a breath
Dear Editor, Abigail Pogrebin’s exploration of a group of rabbis’ conceptions of God is intriguing. Yet it leaves out some of the more transformative approaches, especially those deeply influenced by Eco-Judaism. In my new book, Dancing in God’s Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion (Orbis, October 2020), I have explored one of the oldest biblical…
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Letters Young Jews Are Leaving Judaism Because Their Rabbis Won’t Denounce Israel’s Occupation
Dear Editor, The point about the decline of religious / spiritual connection between many younger Jews and the Jewish community is that almost all the “religious” institutions refuse to apply the prophetic vision to the government of Israel even when they apply it to the US government (and even that is weak). Many younger Jews…
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Opinion Remembering Esther Ticktin: A Jewish Feminist Who Inspired Learners For Decades
This past Friday, Esther Ticktin died at the age of 91. One year ago, her husband, Rabbi Max Ticktin, died at age 94. For three generations of Hillel rabbis, university students and members of the havurah, or fellowship, movement, the Ticktins were a guide to Jewish learning, Jewish life and the Jewish engagement with healing…
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Opinion What I Learned From Alan Mintz
I was shocked to read Forward,com this morning and find two hespedim for the fine Hebraist and scholar Alan Mintz. I want to share with you my one strong memory of him, not exactly as scholar but in a transformative moment. What I remember goes back to 1973. Alan was the original energizer for calling…
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Community Veteran Rabbi: Hillel Has Become A Heresy-Hunting Organization
Several weeks ago, the Hillel House at Ohio State University banned from its facilities and its funding an organization of GLBTQ students — B’nai Keshet. Why? B’nai Keshet had taken part in a coalition of student organizations working to support LGBTQ immigrants — a coalition that included Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a group that…
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Community The Jewish Lessons We Can Learn From This Young DAPL Protestor
On Sunday evening, May 21, The Shalom Center will honor Sophia Wilansky, an extraordinarily heroic young activist who was acting on the best of Jewish tradition and values as a Water Protector at Standing Rock when she was cruelly wounded — her left arm shattered — by the militarized police. Wilansky will be introduced by…
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News Tom Hayden, the ’60s Radical Who Maintained His Humanity
Tom Hayden, who died on Sunday, October 23, was one of the best of the change-makers who made The Sixties a transformative time, and who have kept going with verve and persistence through the half-century since. What made him so much a leader? And what can we learn from him? He was extraordinarily bright and…
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