Rabbi Arthur Waskow

For Trayvon Martin of Florida, USA; for Rabbi Jonathan Sandler of Toulouse, his sons, Gabriel and Arieh, and Miriam Monsonego; for the others killed in France whose names I have not seen in the American press; and for the families murdered in Afghanistan -- Mohamed Dawood son of  Abdullah, Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma,...

Purim, the Jewish festival of topsy-turvy and spring fever, begins Wednesday evening (March 7). Is it also a festival of war and massacre? Can it -- this very week -- feed a thirst for fear and rage, revenge and war? The story of Purim is a tale about a Persian...

During the last few weeks, we have seen an outrageous attempt to impose sharia law on the US government and the American public.

NOT Muslim sharia; it is Roman Catholic "sharia" about contraception that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been trying to impose on Americans of all faiths...

Plans are under way in New York City for an action to "Occupy Holy Week, Occupy Passover." People of faith could undertake actions like it all across the country.

In New York, the initiating groups are The Shalom Center, Judson Memorial Church, Occupy Judaism, and Jews for Racial and...

On Nov. 20, a delegation from the Council of Elders (veteran leaders of the freedom and peace movements of the mid-20th century) led an interfaith service at Zuccotti Park in NYC, with hundreds of Occupy Wall Street activists taking part.

The 26-minute service included -- about 5 minutes in --...

I watched with horror but little surprise as thousands of Penn State students rioted against the firing of Head Football Coach Joe Paterno for failing to call the police -- even when a grad student told him of actually witnessing the anal rape of a 10-year-old boy.

The fact that...

Dear friends,

The past, as William Faulkner said, is not even past:

At about 11 o'clock on 9/11 ten years ago, I casually phoned New York to talk with my beloved life-partner, Rabbi Phyllis Berman. Phyllis founded and directs an intensive English-language school for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. The...

On the afternoon of July 28, for half an hour under the great dome of the U.S. Capitol, along with 10 others I prayed, sang, spoke out -- against the travesty of Congressional and Presidential kowtowing to the hyper-wealthy and the largest corporations in the world -- and then was...

"It was the worst of times; it was the best of times." --Slightly emended from Charles Dickens, 'A Tale Of Two Cities'

The worst danger facing the world today is the arrogance of powerful men and institutions toward the warp and woof of human communities and the weave of life-forms...

Last night, the executive committee of the CUNY Board of Trustees reversed the Board's refusal of an honorary degree to Tony Kushner.

Behind the Board's original decision and its reversal are three stories.

(1) There has been a concerted attack against the best traditions of open debate and exploration of...

Dear friends,

More than one hundred of our members and readers wrote yesterday agreeing with my letter about responding to the death of bin Laden. Only two wrote disagreeing.

Thanks! His death and the myriad deeper questions it raises suggest that now it's time to take a new direction for...

Dear friends,

How might we appropriately address the death of a mass murderer?

The Torah describes Moses and Miriam leading the ancient people of Israel in a celebratory song after the tyrannical Pharaoh and his army have been overwhelmed by the waters of the Red Sea.

Later, the Rabbis gave...

What is just happening in Japan and what is on the verge of happening in Pennsylvania have a deep connection.

In the one, it might seem that disaster flowed from a small-scale decision: that it was "impossible" for a tsunami to get higher than x feet. That decision led to...

On Monday, I wrote about pharaohs old and new, about Mubarak of Egypt and the military mindset he and his allies, including the governments of the U.S. and Israel, have imposed upon their peoples and the world.

Today I want not to focus on pharaoh but to celebrate...

Dear chevra,

Last Shabbat, as snow piled higher and deeper, Phyllis and I went to Washington, D.C. to join Fabrangen's celebration of its 40th birthday. (I was among the founding members of what was one of the earliest havurot.) We were invited to announce the coming of...

Every year at Passover, Jews recall the story of an ancient Egyptian ruler who oppressed his people and was overthrown by God, the People, and the Earth itself.

This story is not just an antiquarian tale. It is an archetypal vision of what happens, again and again, when top-down tyranny...

If you have been feeling deeply disappointed in the Obama Administration as we approach the second anniversary of its inauguration, Don't just mourn -- organize!

The Shalom Center has a plan to move forward with new vigor -- and we need your help! (See our website to donate....

Dear friends,

Marge Piercy's novel He, She and It appeared almost 20 years ago. My review appeared in Tikkun magazine in 1992. Now many aspects of her novel loom even more prophetic than they did 20 years ago, in the sense not of...

Adlai Stevenson said, on losing a Presidential election, "It hurts too much to laugh, but I'm too old to cry."

I am not too old to cry.

I am sad to have lost such gutsy, wise and independent-minded  Members of Congress as Russ Feingold...

The organizers of the Oct. 2 "One Nation Working Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. asked me to give one of three five-minute mini-sermons at the interfaith service that kicked off the rally.  I was asked to speak on justice.

When we began at 11:30 a.m., my sense...