Peace – Page 2 – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

July 26, 2022

More Daughters of Tzelophechad, Less Pinchas: How to Stand Up Today

This is my D'var Torah from last Shabbat, Saturday, July 23, 2022. “It’s not a movement if everyone’s just sitting.” That’s a line from a conversation between then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her 15-year-old daughter Jane in the film On the Basis of Sex, which is partly the story of how RBG, zichrona livracha, came… Continue reading

Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Feminism, Gender, Inclusion, Justice, Leadership, Midrash, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Peace, Pinchas, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA

June 28, 2022

The Latest Religion and Schools Supreme Court Decision (and No More Government Benedictions for Me)

Posted June 27, 2022 on Facebook, so not quite as tight as what I usually write. This is what the top of my head looks like today and through next Monday at least, July 4. No matter what’s happened recently, I am celebrating our independence, freedom, and democracy, and wearing that above me as… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Peace, Speech Ethics, Tzedek, USA, Youth

May 5, 2022

Being an American Zionist

This is the text of a column i wrote in the New Hampshire Jewish Reporter for December 2021. I am posting this today on Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. I have been a Zionist since I was a kid. I didn’t become an American Zionist, though, until I was 22. That was when I decided… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Environment, Equality, Ethics, Feminism, Freedom, History, Holidays, Israel, Jerusalem, Peace, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yom Haatzmaut

September 20, 2021

Integrating America: Lame Deer and the Native American Critic

Summer reading assignment: Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions: by John (Fire) Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes Before year 1 of the course, Leslie thought this book would pair well with my Michael Walzer, “connected critic” idea, since Lame Deer was a Native American, an outside observer. I was skeptical but now I’m glad… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Antisemitism, Books, Current Affairs, Education, Foregiveness, History, Hope, Inclusion, Peace, Study, Teens, Tzedek, USA, Youth

September 11, 2021

Five Spiritual Imperatives on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11

These were my words at services on Shabbat morning. I may have been the last adult in New York City to be aware that the attack on the World Trade Center towers had occurred. Laurie went to work in midtown, and I was home with two-and-a-half-year-old Alex getting ready for an upcoming trip to my… Continue reading

9/11, Calendar, Current Affairs, Freedom, High Holidays, History, Holidays, Islam, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Peace, Rosh Hashanah, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yamim Noraim

July 20, 2021

Ahavat Yisrael or Sin’at Chinam — Learning From the Destruction of the Temple

This is the D'var Torah I gave on Saturday, July 17, Shabbat Chazon — the Shabbat preceding the fast of Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the Romans. I want to tell you a story from the Talmud often taught at this time of year, around… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, High Holidays, Holidays, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Lashon Hara, Leadership, Middot, Peace, Taking Sides, Talmud, Tisha B’Av, USA, Yamim Noraim

January 13, 2021

Sukkat Shalom — What a Temporary Peace Is (And Is Not)

I am posting this just after seeing that the U.S. House has voted to impeach President Trump for his actions leading to the violence at the Capitol one week ago. This is from the D'var Torah I gave on the Shabbat of Shmini Atzeret, the end of the festival of Sukkot, Saturday, October 10, 2020.… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Freedom, Holidays, Inclusion, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Peace, Sukkot, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA

January 13, 2021

A New Page — USA

I just finished the first version of a new page on my site, which I'm calling simply "USA". It has sources and mostly my own reflections about American politics, racial justice, anti-Semitism, and political leadership. I will be updating it with the best links I want people to know about, and anything good I generate… Continue reading

Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Freedom, Hope, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, MLK Day, Peace, Rabbi, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA

October 29, 2020

The Sacrifice of Yitzchak: Remembering Rabin on the Anniversary of His Assassination

October 29, 2020 is by the Jewish calendar the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin z"l, by a Jewish religious extremist opposed to Rabin's peacemaking with the Palestinians. This is the D'var Torah I gave five years ago for Rabin's yahrzeit. This is the week of the 20th yahrzeit for… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, History, Holocaust, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Peace, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, Vayera, Yom Haatzmaut

February 9, 2020

How I Decide Who to Vote For

This is an attempt to write down something I’ve never written out before: how I decide whom to vote for in elections for national office. This is how I understand what I am doing. There’s plenty here to discuss or argue about. Voting is in one way the most morally consequential thing we do. The… Continue reading

January 20, 2020

For MLK Day 2020 — Letter From Birmingham Jail

Go to my post from a couple years ago, with links to the text and to a later reading of the letter from King himself. Simply the most important teaching about what it means to be religious that I think I have ever read: https://rabbijon.net/2018/01/15/mlks-letter-from-birmingham-jail/ Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Ethics, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, MLK Day, Peace, Prayer, Spirituality, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA

March 26, 2019

AIPAC and Democrats This Week

Writing about AIPAC, on a day when seven Israelis were hurt by a missile shot indiscriminately toward Israeli cities by Hamas. Outraged, and praying for their healing. This week’s AIPAC Policy Conference is a gathering of about 18,000 people in Washington, DC. Many of the candidates for president on the Democratic side made a public… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Gaza, Interfaith Dialogue, Islam, Israel, Leadership, Peace, USA