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Join the GreenFaith Webinars and Learn about Energy Stewardship!
With the High Holiday season now officially over, we’ve tasted sweet apples on Rosh Hashanah and thrown bread into the ocean on Yom Kippur; we’ve talked about food justice in the sukkah and prayed for rain on Shemini Atzeret; we’ve rolled our Torah scrolls back and begun again at B’reishit, reminded of our obligation to “till and tend” the earth.
Lech Lecha is this week’s Torah portion, in which God tells Abraham to leave his family and start anew and so do we go forward into the new Jewish year. What will we do this year differently than the last? How can we go forward both to improve congregations and Jewish communities and to engage more deeply as Jews in the world around us?
Standing Up Against Discrimination, from 35,000 Feet Up in the Sky
Here at the Religious Action Center, we take pride in our founding to be a Jewish voice against discrimination and segregation in the early 1960s. Kivie Kaplan (President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1966-1975), for whom the street where is RAC is located is named, was driving in Miami in the 1950s and came across a sign that barred him from entering a hotel because he was Jewish. His driver, a black man, commented that the hotel’s segregation against blacks was implied. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, key legislation in the fight against segregation, was even drafted in the Religious Action Center’s conference room.
Repentance and Forgiveness More Than One Day a Year
Our tradition teaches us that on Rosh Hashanah, each person is judged based on their actions of the past year and on Yom Kippur, after an opportunity to reflect and repent, that judgment is sealed for the next year. Therefore, during the High Holiday season, Jews reflect on the year that has passed, confess our sins, make amends with each other and seek forgiveness from God. Our Yom Kippur service will focus on the themes of our personal repentance, confessions and sins. Yet this Yom Kippur, while we pray, fast and seek to be inscribed in the book of life, I encourage you to also reflect on our criminal justice system and the ways in which we allow those convicted of crimes to reflect, repent, and seek forgiveness.
On this Children’s Shabbat, We Challenge Ourselves to End Child Hunger in the US
This Friday marks the National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths, which unites tens of thousands of religious congregations and over 200 religious organizations (including the RAC) of a variety of
The Enemy Within Our Military
For years, members of the United States military were fighting a silent, internal battle: sexual assault was rampant and the military was covering it up.
Title IX Protects Students
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex under any educational program or activity receiving federal funding,
Join Our Rabbis and Take Action on Critical Deportation Case
By Rabbi Peter Berg
The New Year has given us a new chance to promote justice throughout the world, and a new chance to help in the holy work being done by Rabbis Organizing Rabbis (ROR), who have been hard at work to save a father from deportation. This new year, start off 5775 justly by taking 10 minutes to show that Reform rabbis stand up for justice.
Restarting the Scroll for Education for Women and Girls Around the World
Last Saturday, October 11, was International Day of the Girl. Just two years ago, the UN established this commemorative day to raise awareness about all issues concerning gender inequality for young women and children around the world. The day is used as an opportunity for activist groups to come together with the goal of highlighting, discussing, and taking action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere.
How Bigotry and Legalized Discrimination Fuel an Epidemic of LGBT Homelessness
“When I transitioned, I transitioned into poverty.” This statement by Ruby Corado, a transgender woman who founded a Bilingual Multicultural Drop Inn-Community Center for vulnerable LGBT individuals, highlights the economic and housing hardships many LGBT individuals face. Although LGBT individuals make up a small percentage of the population, 40% of the homeless youth served by agencies that administer homeless services identify as LGBT.
Casting a Wider Net: Malaria and Ebola
This week, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Religious Action Center sent a check for $5,000 to our partners at Nothing But Nets to fund anti-malarial initiatives in Liberia, the country at the heart of the Ebola epidemic. But why fight malaria when Ebola is killing so many?