Shalom Center Senior Fellow Robert Brand writes, “The current worsening crisis in Gaza and increasingly on the West Bank creates a fierce urgency for recognition of the state of Palestine to be done now.”

This Purim, in this moment in history, with war raging in Israel and Gaza, The Shalom Center invited dear writers and seekers to reimagine Chapter 9 of Megillat Esther as an exercise in dreaming new worlds, new responses, and new endings into existence.

In a note “From the Desk of Rabbi Arthur Waskow”, R’ Arthur writes, “The State” is in many ways not acting Jewishly or democratically to those it governs.

We have invited a group of insightful writers and dreamers to each rewrite Chapter 9, and will compile these original tellings into a digital collection. Today we share one of those Chapter 9 rewrites as a taste of the kind of power and depth to be found in the full collection.

R’ Arthur writes: “My emotions were stirred in contradictory directions, as yours may have been when you heard the news. I decided to divide them up according to the Four Worlds of Jewish mysticism.”

In case you were still hoping to register for tonight's book talk program, we regret to inform you that we must postpone the event. We look forward to rescheduling the program at a time when our speakers and moderator can all fully participate. We will share more details when we have them.

R’Arthur on the passing of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein

R’ Arthur will join the authors of the new book For Times Such As These, inspired in part by Seasons of Our Joy, in a conversation about the radical power of Jewish holidays to help transform the world.

So long as the war between the two families of Abraham continues, we might want to make a practice that on one occasion each shabbat, we add this special Mourners' Kaddish.

Read the statement released by National Council of Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz, in response to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared frozen embryos to be children and that the discarding of frozen embryos constitutes the wrongful death of a minor.

Our Associate Director, Rabbi Nate DeGroot, was interviewed on the latest episode of Judaism Unbound’s podcast, in an in-depth conversation with hosts Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson.

A For Times Such as These book tour event, with the book’s authors in conversation with Rabbi Arthur Waskow on the radical power of Jewish holidays to help transform the world.

In 1969, the Freedom Seder sparked a new Burning Bush of Jewish action for social and racial justice in the US. Could an intervention into Purim at this moment encourage a new outlook on Israeli and American Jewish policy toward Palestine?

Today, writer, painter, and cultural activist Arlene Goldbard, past President of the Shalom Center Board, delves into what makes Esther a “natural tactical mastermind”.

Marilyn Garson, author of Still Lives – a Memoir of Gaza. and co-founder of Alternative Jewish Voices, writes: “Twelve of UNRWA’s Gaza staff have been accused of participating in the Oct. 7 attack, out of some 13,000 employees. The accusation has outraged Israelis and it is a betrayal of UNRWA itself. . . . But the actions of a dozen people frankly pale against the foreseeable disaster that will be triggered by defunding assistance to the 2 million starving Gazan civilians who rely on UNRWA.”

Today, we are thrilled to introduce you to our Advisory Council!

We are pleased to introduce you to The Shalom Center’s freshly updated Board of Directors!

Today, R’ Arthur writes, “ I want to explore how Purim worked for centuries of Am Yisrael, the Godwrestling Folk, the Jewish People. Especially I want to look at Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther — which claims to have invented, explained, and justified Purim.”

Here The Shalom Center begins an adventure into the Festival of Purim that will lead us all into several ways of transforming Purim and, we hope, the world — through actifests. Each week from now until Purim you will find here one excitement or incitement.

Today: which midrash frames the future?

R’ Arthur writes: “The International Court of Justice has delivered a more ‘nuanced’ decision on the current war between the Netanyahu regime and the Military Wing of Hamas. . . . While I myself would have gone further and swifter, I am not a world-spanning court with a strong sense of its own weakness. . . . it needs vigorous support from governments, businesses, religious communities, other civil societies.”