Religious Action Center :: RACBlog

Davos Shabbos

2010-02-09T03:24:34Z

I must admit, I've always kind of wanted to go to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The sessions are amazing, the location lovely, and all the coolest kids (Nicolas Sarkozy, Muhammad Yunus, Bill Clinton) are there.

I never really thought much about the Jewish side of Davos, or even that there is a Jewish side. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed Daniel Gross' great report on a memorable Shabbat dinner at Davos. (It was published on Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life, an interesting new(ish) website where I find something interesting nearly every time I look at it.) Gross writes:

My table represented something of a cross section of Davos: the editor of Foreign Policy, two venture capitalists, a London-based executive at Google, the head of a large French industrial concern, a young management consultant. One table over was what I called the adult table--the head of one of the world's largest private equity firms, an undersecretary of state, one of the best-known Jewish philanthropists. In many ways, it was a typical Davos event--high-level chattering, the exchanging of business cards.

Read the whole piece here. Next year maybe I'll bring the challah....

Movements Collaborate to Raise Disability Awareness

2010-02-08T20:45:05Z

Shelly Christensen is the Chair of the Disability Task Force and Program Manager of the Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities, a program of the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis.

Almost nine years ago, when I began my career in the field of Jewish disability advocacy, I called a local synagogue to tell them about my program, the Minneapolis Jewish Community Program for People with Disabilities. I wanted to schedule an appointment with the rabbi to talk about my program and to discuss the kinds of challenges his congregation had. When I explained my purpose, the administrator on the other end chuckled, and said, "Well, that's wonderful, but you see, we have no people with disabilities."

Would it surprise you to learn that I am speaking next Shabbat to that congregation for Jewish Disability Awareness Month?

At some point, everyone comes to the realization that there are Jews with disabilities. It takes some longer than others, but the conditions are almost always the same: A congregant has disclosed a disability, and the congregation isn't sure how to deal with it.

But the truth is that we don't have to have all the answers, and we don't have to "fix" a situation. Somehow, we have acquired the notion that it's rude or impolite to ask the person what we could do to provide access - as if asking the person with a disability how to do that would offend them. There is the small matter of asking someone what they need; most likely, they will tell you.

Until that happens, many of us remain so uncertain about what to do that, to the person asking for accommodations, it can often seem as though the synagogue just isn't going to do it. The most important idea here is collaboration, a brain trust composed of people from the organization and the person who has a disability, or, if that person is a child, his or her parent(s). Building a trusting relationship and working together to create appropriate accommodations and modifications are two very important reasons to collaborate.

We have applied the principals of collaboration and partnership to Jewish Disability Awareness Month in its second year. All four major Jewish movements - Union for Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Orthodox Union through Yachad: The National Jewish Council for Disabilities and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation - have committed to support raising awareness during the month of February and beyond. The result is a well-rounded effort to promote inclusion of people with disabilities using the many resources that are available on the websites and through the organizational professional staff and lay leaders.

The Jewish community would be remiss if we did not collaborate and partner through information and resource sharing, and even through joint programming on a number of local levels. Our individual efforts toward Jewish Disability Awareness Month would be considerably diminished if the movements did not simultaneously support this month-long event. We are much more effective when we are all speaking together and generating programming and shared resources. We are able to combine the strengths of each organization, the materials they publish and the programs they support to provide better access to Judaism for people with disabilities and their families, and to the synagogues, camps and organizations that serve them.

For more information, visit:

For more information on Jewish Disability Awareness Month contact me at schristensen@jfcsmpls.org or RAC Legislative Assistant Samuel Lehman at slehman@rac.org. We'd love to hear how you're honoring Jewish Disability Awareness Month!

Yes, It is Time to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

2010-02-08T16:10:54Z

Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood's Reform Synagogue. She is the first female president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and is also president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. This post originally appeared on her blog and is republished with permission.

Even the Washington Post is calling for the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy. In last week's op-ed section, the Post articulately urges Congress to do away with this heinous policy of expulsion of openly gay and lesbian soldiers. Put into place during the Clinton years, DADT has done tremendous harm to the armed forces, to our country's military readiness and to the almost 14,000 soldiers and sailors that have been expelled from the military.

Here our country is fighting two wars-Iraq and Afghanistan now for more than eight years! Plus there are numerous places around the globe and here at home where our service men and women are serving are country and in the interests of peace-making. (Yes, it is weirdly ironic that soldiers, trained as deadly fighters, are peace-makers). But in an all-volunteer military,14,000 highly trained soldiers and officers matter. Especially in a time of war. They were expelled because of a draconian policy that continues the uptight sexually repressed Victorian thinking of the hyper macho military-industrial complex. For 16 years this policy has destroyed lives, destroyed careers and weakened our military readiness.

Today's Army (Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard) is a professional force. They are highly skilled, trained professionals. We invest a lot of time, money and educational opportunities to train them. This isn't the draft of WWII or Korea or Vietnam. Obama in his state of the union addressed called for repealing DADT. But actions speak louder than words. Let's see Congress move. Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in part about Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke of the need to change the policy. Sen. Carl Levin spoke of the need to change the policy. Sen John McCain, the former presidential candidate supported DADT. Well at least his wife, Cindy McCain seems to be in our court.

One of the surprises of the testimony today was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen of the United States Navy. Admiral Mullen spoke eloquently about his belief about DADT: "that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend our their fellow citizens. For me personally, it is a matter of integrity theirs as individuals and ours as an institution. I also believe the great young men and women of our military would embrace such a change." Wow! How refreshing that he spoke personally and so forcefully. But then he hedged about how to make the change in a time of war. To listen to the hearing see the webcast of the Armed Services Committee.

There will be a similar hearing on March 3 in the House Armed Services Personnel Sub-Committee.

Let's keep the pressure on. Contact your Senator, Your Representative and President Obama. Let's make Don't Ask Don't Tell an unpleasant memory. For more ways to help contact the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Learn the Truth: New Attack on Democracy

2010-02-08T14:30:58Z

Rarely have I been so disturbed as when I learned that my good friend Naomi Chazan, chairwoman of the New Israel Fund, had become the personal target of a hate campaign launched last week by a group called Im Tirtzu. It's important you know the truth about this organization, whose members purport to be leaders of the "second Zionist revolution", but whose main activities consist of silencing dissent and slandering someone's good character. Even the Anti Defamation League has called their work a strike against democracy.

In response to the attack against Naomi Chazan and the New Israel Fund, I wrote an open letter of support that has also been published in The Jerusalem Post.

Please read my letter below and forward it to your friends. And take some time to read through this week's articles, which tell a fascinating - albeit troubling - story.

Dear Naomi,

While I know you're not one to be intimidated easily, or frightened into silence by a personal attack paid for by dubious organizations and publicized in newspapers and online - or even posted on electronic billboards in Tel Aviv - I was personally insulted when I saw the crude caricature of you: a rhinoceros horn tied around your head, someone's tired play on words with keren as "horn" and keren as "fund", or the suggestion that you and the NIF intend to drive a "horn" through Israel. It was dehumanizing, cruel, and, in my opinion, something they would not have done to a man. It is too bad they didn't think of the third meaning of keren, as ray of light - as in, ki keren or paniv - rays of light shone from Moses's face, not horns after all.

That the caricature stirs up dangerous associations is not an original observation to make - I know I'm not the first. That a Jewish organization claiming to represent "the second Zionist revolution" runs such an ad - that is more interesting. It certainly says something about the character of Im Tirtzu, an organization which we all know by now is funded by the Christians United for Israel lobby and its frequently controversial, frequently anti-Semitic Evangelist preacher John Hagee.

Though it seems I can't criticize them overmuch for their association with John Hagee, since the CUFI has recently disassociated itself from Im Tirtzu's inappropriate campaign.

Which brings me to my next point. What does Im Tirtzu do with the money it receives? They spend it on primetime ad space: full-page ads in the newspapers and seemingly permanent banner ads on the Internet. So much money is being invested in this hate campaign, which, unfortunately, has been characterized by an especially vicious personal attack on you. Think of all the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in an attempt to desecrate your name.

Then think of how they could have spent the money otherwise. Im Tirtzu's money is not being used to help people directly - none of it is being channeled toward Israeli organizations that help Israelis as, in contrast, so many of NIF's recipient organizations do.

You, Naomi, are a patriot. You do not need a lesson in patriotism or Zionism or how-to-be-a-good-Israeli from the bullies at Im Tirtzu. Your father was an Israeli ambassador to the U.S., your mother was an MK, and you yourself were an MK for several terms. And you have also been my model of strength. You are one tough Sabra. One good example: you left the cozy world of academia for the desert of Israeli politics.

When I think about you, I often think first about your last name, Chazan, or cantor. As chairwoman of the New Israel Fund, you are a Chazan for our time, telling us what we need to hear - though we may not always want to - and professing values we need to uphold.

You and your work with NIF make me proud to be an Israeli. We are both intimately aware of the growing number of incidents of intimidation and harassment of human and civil rights leaders in Israel. In such an atmosphere, where voices of dissent or those which stray too far from popular opinion are silenced, it is our responsibility more than ever to keep singing.

And since I believe in openness and debate as necessary parts of a democracy, I do not seek to limit anyone's free speech but rather, to create a discussion. We can have open discourse in Israel: we don't need to silence our opponents by cutting off their voices - or their funds.

I'd like to propose an alternative to Im Tirtzu - Im Nirtze. If we wish to stop the hunting and hounding of liberal and pluralistic forces in Israel, we can do so - if we will it.

And we will with you, Naomi, my friend. We are with you.