Economic Justice
A couple of months ago I was arrested in the grand rotunda of the Russell Building of the United States Senate. Nearly one hundred Jewish clergy and leaders joined in song and prayer, demanding that the United States Congress pass the DREAM Act, which would grant citizenship to the nearly 800,000 Dreamers who came to the United States as children and are every bit American as my own daughters. As we sang “Olam Chesed Yibaneh” (“We will build this world with love”) over and over again, hundreds of Dreamers stood cheering us on from the balcony, ringing us like a human halo. In an intentionally... Read More
At the end of M’gillat Esther, the Jewish people celebrate their survival with merrymaking, feasting, and sending gifts to one another and to the poor. As a result, today’s Purim celebration has become inextricable from our obligation to share our bounty with fellow Jews and with the impoverished among us. Sending mishloach manot (gifts) increases peace and harmony for Klal Yisrael (the community of Israel), and ensures that everyone can rejoice fully in the se’uda (festive meal). We distribute matanot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor) because we recognize that on a holiday about excess and... Read More
Recently, members of Bat Yam Temple of the Islands in Sanibel, Florida, together with dozens of farm workers, interfaith leaders, and committed individuals, demonstrated outside the Wendy’s restaurant on Highway 41 in Fort Myers. Our mission was to urge Wendy’s management to join other food outlets as a participant in the Fair Food Program, which ensures a living wage and safe working conditions for farm workers in Immokalee, Florida, where 90% of the tomatoes consumed in the United States are grown. As part of the demonstration, a few of us carried a letter detailing our request to... Read More
My great uncle, Nouri Roufeal, came to Boston from Iraq to study at MIT in the 1930s, during the tumultuous time after the Great Depression. That is where he learned how to be an activist. He may have done a bit too much rallying and not so much studying, because he lost his scholarship and had to go back to Iraq. But he carried that spark of activism back home, and there he helped write the Iraqi declaration of independence from British rule. Nouri was one of two volunteers who traveled from Baghdad to Spain in 1937 to fight Franco and the fascists. At his side was another... Read More
As days continue to pass with no Dream Act in place, filling so many of us with frustration, anger and helplessness, I was lucky enough to experience a moment of grace as I gathered with more than100 Jews in our nation’s capital on January 17 to demand a clean #DreamActNow. Many have spoken eloquently and powerfully about last Wednesday's civil disobedience action in the Russell Senate Office Building's rotunda – the sounds of our voices in song, the power of sitting together below as DREAMers and Jewish supporters watched, waved, and cried from the balcony... Read More
Subscribe to 
