Justice and Gender

Please read the following JTA article reporting on Women of the Wall being arrested. Also, please read my piece from last year God, the State, and Women. (R. Arthur Waskow, Ed.)

JERUSALEM (JTA), November 18, 2009 — Jerusalem police arrested a woman praying at the Western Wall for wearing a tallit.

The woman, who was participating in Rosh Chodesh services, was arrested Wednesday based on an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the public must dress according to the customs of the site, Israel Radio reported.   Read more »

Dateline: Vienna, July 16, 2009

Shalom, salaam, shantih, namaste, peace ! —

The two of us (Rabbis Phyllis Berman & Arthur Waskow) are sharing our notes from the Vienna meetings of the Follow-up Committee for the Madrid World Interfaith Dialogue held a year ago. Both meetings were sponsored by the Muslim World League and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, especially in his religious capacity as Protector of the Two Sacred Places. In addition to our own comments on the meeting, we are including the three workshop reports that we were asked to write.

We are sending this report to all those whose email addresses we have from either the Madrid or Vienna meetings. We welcome your sharing the report with others who took part, and with others you think would find it useful.   Read more »

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The issue of same-sex marriage has engaged religious progressives in some important ways in the weeks since California voters voted 52%-48% for “Proposition 8,” which canceled their Supreme Court’s decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutionally protected right.

On the one hand, many religious progressives in California have been working to overturn Proposition 8 through a lawsuit.

On the other hand, President-elect Obama has invited Rev. Rick Warren, a leading supporter of Prop 8, who has said that homosexuality is as sinful as pederasty or bestiality, to invoke God at his Inauguration on January 20.   Read more »

Same-Sex Marriage: The Evolving Bible
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Newsweek magazine recently (December 2008) published a cover article  endorsing same-sex marriage. The article caused a storm. I think the article could have taken the same bottom-line position, and yet imaginably have stirred a lot more thought  and maybe even a little less explosion. Here is why:

Preparing for the article,  a  Newsweek reporter interviewed me at considerable length about my theology of same-sex marriage, Then she called back to say her boss had said to ask me  whether I thought Judaism should be inclusive toward gays.   I answered yes, and then that pretty simple-minded question and response were how I got quoted in the cover article.   Read more »

LITURGICAL SCENARIO FOR MLK BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE,
EVE OF INAUGURATION DAY, 2009

(From Rabia Harris, Muslim Peace Fellowship, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center)

: Remember we awant people to stay interested, be moved, get motivated, have fun, and draw closer together. We are assuming that programs, including the text of the pledge, will be distributed at the door.)

Introduction Coming Together Summoning of the People According to the Traditions Blowing of the Shofar Ringing of Church Bells Muslim Call to Prayer Buddhist bells, etc.    Read more »

By Rabbi Phyllis Berman & Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This story is from their book TALES OF TIKKUN: NEW JEWISH STORIES TO HEAL THE WOUNDED WORLD. It is available from Rowman & Littlefield or from The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA; Send a check for $13.95.]

On a warm spring evening in the town of Yavneh, dinner had just begun in the home of Imma Shalom and her husband Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Now Imma Shalom was, as her name said, “Mother Peace.” When people came to her with arguments to settle, she would often say, “In my parents’ house I learned the Torah that ‘Both these words and those words are words of the Living God.’ But this is not enough. For if God is One, these words must somehow mean one thing. Let us learn the wisdom of this Unity.” So she would gently show how two different ways of understanding Torah could be brought into harmony.   Read more »