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This post is part of a weekly feature on RACblog. Check in at the end of the week for a roundup of stories in which the RAC has been featured!...
Rabbi David Saperstein today issued a statement commending Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Minister John Baird, and the Canadian government for reaffirming their opposition to the...
On a recent visit to Capitol Hill I found myself outside of Senator Frank Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) office. Senator Lautenberg is one of only a handful of Senators left who served in the U.S. military...
This week, a strange twist of fate might result in the freedom of a young Pakistani girl accused of blasphemy. Over the past two weeks, the world has tuned in as a Christian girl (who is reportedly...
The United States signed the International Convention Against Torture in 1998 and ratified it in 1994. Ratifying the convention, which bans torture, cruelty and inhumane treatment, was an important...
This past Friday Christian denominational leaders sent a letter to members of Congress calling for an investigation of U.S. foreign aid to Israel. Rabbis Rick Jacobs, David Saperstein, and Jonathan...
Most 16 year olds are worried about tests. Most 16 year olds are worried about being accepted by their friends. Most 16 year olds spend long days agonizing about the promise of a drivers license....
Nuclear negotiations with Iran are “dead in the water,” experts say. The demise of talks comes during the same week that Iran has unveiled plans for a new air defense site and the announcement of...
President Obama dedicated his speech last week at former President Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative conference to the issue of human trafficking. Speaking on the 150th anniversary of the first...
Reform Jews across the United States recognize our responsibility as global citizens and continue to act towards tikkun olam, transforming our world. One way has been to support the canceling of...
On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba to meet with Raul Castro. Anticipation for this visit has been building since December, when the Cuban government announced that it would release 2,900...
Despite the universal right of freedom of the press, Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa has again infringed on this entitlement by most recently filing a defamation lawsuit against the three top...
Amid the “loose talk of war” over Iran’s potential nuclear weapons program, Israelis and Iranians have tried to speak out for peace and distance themselves from the rhetoric of their leaders. A...
Earlier this week, President Obama met with leaders of 53 other countries at the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea. This summit followed the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in...
Today, we take a moment around the world to commemorate those who have been killed by landmines. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates that landmine explosions caused injury or...
Most of the headlines about a new Public Religion Research Institute poll on Jewish values and political beliefs have focused on question about who the respondents would like to see win the 2012...
Passover enjoins us to rejoice in freedom, to cherish its liberties, to value its fruits. But Passover also reminds us of the price of freedom and the responsibilities it engenders....
North Korea is planning a rocket launch this week and, according to a new intelligence report from South Korea, may be planning its third nuclear test further down the road. The move would violate...
North Korea’s much-anticipated rocket launch, publicized as a means to collect data about North Korea’s agricultural resources in order to inform the nation’s response to natural disasters but...
On Saturday and Sunday, 33 heads of state and government in the Western Hemisphere participated in the sixth Summit of the Americas, held this year in Cartagena, Colombia. The gathering was a...
A year ago I was sitting in my apartment at college, hogging the TV from my roommates who just wanted to watch the newest episode of The Bachelor, as I anxiously awaited President Obama’s press...
Women’s rights in the United States are under attack. Lawmakers in Congress and at the state level are severely restricting access to critical health services and politicizing an issue as...
The semblance of hope that precipitated out of talks between Sudanese and South Sudanese governments on March 13 has dissolved after a clash between the two countries’ armies and a cancellation of...
At the beginning of the week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would force elections a year ahead of schedule, possibly as a referendum on the escalating tensions between...
In response to Representative Rosa DeLauro's (D-CT) introduction of the United States Leadership to Eradicate Obstetric Fistula Act of 2012 and in light of the crisis that obstetric fistula poses...
Last week when Kadima joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, I questioned whether a near-unanimity government would either allow Kadima to bring Netanyahu’s government...
Today, nuclear negotiations begin between Iran and six global leaders, including the U.S. and key members of the E.U. on the heels of an important deal struck between the Islamic Regime and the...
When I was asked earlier this month if I might be interested in contributing a guest post to RACblog to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Rabbi Sally Priesand’s ordination as the first female...
On Wednesday morning, the Knesset voted against a bill that would have legalized settlements in the West Bank, specifically in the Ulpana Hill neighborhood, which was built on land that is...
The Egyptian elections, stemming from public uprisings that forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign 16 months ago, have resulted in a run-off between two ideologically and politically conservative...
I’ve only been in Washington for a few days, but already I’ve learned an important lesson from my time with the United Nations Foundation: Ask questions. To help future Machon Kaplan participants...
I took a course last semester about violence in St. Louis, looking for a thought-provoking discussion about my school-year city. I started following the local crime section of the St. Louis Post...
It’s official: Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, is the new president of Egypt. His victory comes after 16 months of protests and strict military rule, the disqualification of many...
This post is part of a weekly feature on RACblog. Check in at the end of the week for a roundup of stories in which the RAC has been featured! This week we learned of attacks on U.S. Embassies in...
Sudan and South Sudan, which have been independent nations for only just over a year, have brokered a deal on oil revenue. Part of the ongoing conflict between the two nations, which began as a...
Today marks the one year anniversary of South Sudan’s secession from Sudan. Plagued by a bloody civil war lasting nearly two decades and a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan found a...
The author of this post, Andrew Feldman, at the Albert Einstein memorial outside of the National Academy of Sciences.“There’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done.”...
Although the American press has taken a break from counting down the hours until a potential nuclear Iran, such a threat remains a top priority for both the Netanyahu and Obama administrations. The...
Jewish extremists, opposed to the dismantling of the Migron settlement, took their anger out on Tuesday morning by vandalizing the Latrun Monastery. As part of the continuing “price-tag”...
One year ago yesterday, we turned on our TVs and opened the newspapers to news about the record-shattering earthquake and tsunami that struck the northern coast of Japan. The disaster killed 19,000...
There is a war being waged on LGBT people throughout the world. In Iraq, teenagers suspected of being gay have become targeted for beatings that frequently turn fatal. In Russia, the national...
This week, 19 members of the U.S. Armed Forces have come to D.C. from across the country to advocate for the reproductive rights of servicewomen to their Members of Congress. These American heroes ...
As we welcome the rest and relaxation of the lazy, hazy days of summer, I call your attention to a developing situation vis-à-vis a Palestinian State. As you may know, the Palestinian Authority and...
The opportunities afforded to me as an intern at Save Darfur Coalition/Genocide Intervention Network have provided a breadth of education unavailable in a traditional classroom setting. Recently, I...
Every time I go to a wedding, a celebration of a new beginning, I always struggle with what I should get the new couple. Do I give something sentimental, something Jewish, something practical, or...
Rabbi Joel Simonds is the Assistant Rabbi at University Synagogue in Los Angeles, CA. Ordained from the Hebrew Union College in 2009, he is passionate about Spirituality and Social Justice and...
As leaders from around the world gather in New York this week to work for global peace, we cannot forget that Saturday marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty...
Last weekend, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced that, for the first time, women will be permitted to vote and compete in municipal elections in 2015. This decision comes two years after the...
Every year, the RAC hires several bright-eyed recent college graduates to spend a year advocating in Washington, D.C., for Jewish values and social justice on behalf of the Reform Jewish Movement....
Currently, more than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa (see map at right) are facing severe food shortages. The famine, which was largely prompted by the worst drought in 60 years and is...
