Al Het: Seeking Atonement for the Climate Crisis

…עַל חֵטְא שֶׁחָטָאנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ

Sharing a liturgical piece for seeking atonement for our role in the climate crisis. Gratitude to the editors of Kol Haneshamah: Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, from which English translations of traditional Yom Kippur liturgical passages are adapted. May we all be sealed for a year of well-being and courageous, life-sustaining action!

A 2-page pdf can be downloaded here and a 1-page pdf (2 columns) can be downloaded here.

Yom Hashoah: Bubbie Edie's Guide to Survival

In commemoration of Yom Hashoah, I share the wisdom of Edie Eigerman-Schiff, may her memory be for a blessing. Edie was the grandmother of my dear friend Daniella, and I first heard Edie’s story when Daniella spoke to my son’s religious school class a few years ago. The embedded short video tells the little-known story of the women on the Nazi’s first official transport of Jews to Auschwitz and was created following the 2017 journey of three survivor families to commemorate 75 years since the transport. Daniella is the singer at the end of the video.

Downloadable one-page PDF: Bubbie Edie’s Guide to Survival

“No one survived 3 years in Auschwitz.” German reparation rep to a survivor. March 25, 1942, 999 unmarried, young Jewish women boarded a train to go to a work camp. Nobody knew their government had sold them to the Nazis for slave labor. Nobody knew they would never see their daughters again. Nobody knew they were going to Auschwitz. This is the untold story of the First Jewish Transport to Auschwitz and the 999 young Jewish women sent to Auschwitz as slave labor to the Nazis. Unearthing the political intrigue and treachery that sent their mothers to Auschwitz, three families return to their homeland to discover the truth behind the First Women in Auschwitz and meet one of the last living survivors of the First Transport: Edith Grosman.

Fasting with Queen Esther for Divine Mercy and Courage

The book of Esther is famously one of only two books in the Jewish Bible within which God’s name is not mentioned.  God’s absence is felt from the beginning of the book as we are introduced to King Ahasuerus, who rules over the vast territory from India to Ethiopia, and whose leadership style includes holding a banquet for his nobles and governors for more than one hundred and eighty days, in order to display the vast riches of the empire and to elevate his own glory.  Royal wine flows into golden beakers with abandon.

This image makes me think of our globalized world today, as we consume fossil fuels with abandon. The “royalty” of our times aggregate the world’s wealth.  It can feel like God is absent.  We know that humanity and other life on earth is in peril due to the fossil-fuel induced warming of our planet, and yet many of us continue with “business as usual.” 

How do we respond to this crisis?   Where do we find God?  I find God in the places where we allow ourselves to feel the pain of what is unfolding, where people of many faiths gather to pray and strategize together, and where we speak out, even when it demands great courage.  

Queen Esther has become my inspiration for spiritual activism around climate disruption.  She finds herself in a position, as wife to the King, where she has access to power, yet she is frightened to speak up when the Jews are in peril, lest she lose her life.  Mordechai encourages her to take the risk, saying, “Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace.” (Esther 4:13).  The parallel message to all of us is, “do not imagine that you, of all humanity, will escape with your life, even though you do not live in one of the more vulnerable places right now.”  Esther decides to approach the King.  Before she does so, she asks that the Jews of Shushan fast on her behalf for three days and nights.  She and her maidens observe this same fast.  

Today (March 20, 2019), I am observing Ta’anit Esther, the traditional fast of Esther, which leads into the celebration of Purim tonight. This fast is a time to pray for Divine Mercy and for the courage to act and speak out on behalf of our common future.   It is time to embrace the spirit of Queen Esther.  We have no other choice. 

This blog post was originally written in 2015 for the Shalom Center.

Women's March 2019: Love, Empowerment, Connection, and Wholeness

This has been an extraordinary weekend of beauty, healing, love, and connection. Last night, I bundled up in many layers, took my sleeping bag out into the courtyard of our 100-year-old building in Philadelphia, and lay down on the grass to be present with the moon in full eclipse. She was so beautiful, so powerful and so inviting. I felt honored and privileged to be with her.

I also felt honored and privileged to participate in the Women’s March in Washington, DC, on Saturday. This was a day of love, empowerment, connection, and wholeness. This Shabbat was also a historic moment for both the American Jewish community and the Women’s movement— Jewish women of color empowered to lead— and they did so with brilliance, beauty, grace, and glory. I was proud to march in support of their leadership and look forward to doing my part in welcoming and supporting their leadership in the communities where I have influence. You can hear the rally speeches of Yavilah McCoy and April Baskin, both serving on the 2019 Women’s March Steering Committee, by watching here.

The Women’s March leaders Bob Bland, Carmen Perez-Jordan, Tamika Mallory, and Linda Sarsour gave moving speeches, available below. What I heard was integrity, courage, and a commitment to build a robust women’s justice movement, led by women from traditionally marginalized communities, and including us all. These women leaders are breaking historic ground and demonstrating a quality of leadership sorely needed in these times.

There has been a media swirl around Carmen, Tamika, and Linda this year, much of it connected to accusations of anti-semitism. I am quite convinced that these accusations have been amplified as a wedge to sow division and undercut the growing influence of the Women’s Movement, and I encourage all of my Jewish sisters and brothers to read the Women’s March Agenda, and not to allow our fear and sense of vulnerability lead us to step away from this vital, growing movement. I felt Carmen’s sincerity when she said, “I vow to Jewish women that there is a place at the table for you.”

As I learn more about the leaders of the Women’s March, I have come to appreciate that the focus of their work is to organize and empower traditionally marginalized communities and to support women to write our own stories. I do not share the beliefs promoted in the media that their agenda is to promote anti-semitism. She, like all of us, is in a learning process of how to build a movement that truly honors each person and community. I recommend getting to know Tamika by watching this half-hour interview on the Breakfast Club.

In the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate today, “We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak” (Riverside Church in Manhattan, 1967). May our words be in service of love and justice.

At the 2019 Women’s March in Washington, DC

A letter to my friends following the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh

We are living in challenging times, times of uncertainty about the future of American democracy, times when so many different aspects of our society make us feel unsafe, from guns to financial insecurity to racism and xenophobia to extreme weather events to the government’s failure to address the causes of climate change.  This all in the context of the mid-term elections next week.  

This has been a particularly difficult week for the American Jewish community, following the shooting in a synagogue last Saturday during prayer.  The gunman’s goal was to kill Jews and he ended the lives of eleven beautiful people, among them leaders of the community, two brothers with intellectual disabilities, and elders, including a 97-year-old woman.   This tragedy hits close to home for me — I know a number of people who have lost loved ones and a number of people who live in that neighborhood.   

This tragedy has also shaken our sense of safety as Jews living in America.  Many Jewish families, including my own, came to this country from Europe about a century ago, fleeing anti-semitism.  The Jewish community has experienced a “golden age” here in the United States— our culture has flourished, we have become integrated into society, and we have been free to worship as Jews.  Yet there has always been an undercurrent of anti-semitism.  Memories from my childhood in New Mexico include seeing a water tower with the words “Kill the Jews” painted on it, being told by a friend that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist, and experiencing an effort to convert me to Christianity in the middle of chemistry class.   The Charlottesville white nationalist rally in August 2017, the increase in the number of anti-semitic incidents, and now the shooting in Pittsburgh, have made my community nervous about what might come next.  Like in the United States, Jews were integrated into German society when the Holocaust began and many educated, economically successful Jews were taken to the death camps.  Could this happen here?   Some friends of mine are thinking about the possibility of needing to flee the country to stay alive.  

None of us know what the future will bring, but I thought that it was important to share some perspective on the fear that your Jewish neighbors might be experiencing.  If you have Jewish neighbors and friends, I encourage you to reach out to them, let them know you’re thinking of them and that you stand by them.  Solidarity at this time really matters.  Visit a synagogue or attend a Jewish cultural event.    It is also worthwhile to learn more about antisemitism.  I highly recommend reading this article by civil rights strategist Eric Ward, which explains the role of antisemitism in American white nationalism: Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism.  

I’d like to share a piece that my teacher, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, wrote Sunday morning, inspired by a well-known quotation of German Lutheran Pastor Martin Neimoller, who was initially pro-Nazi and then resisted Hitler and ended up in a concentration camp. 

Original quotation from Neimoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Nancy's version, drawing quotations from the various rallies she has participated in over this last 2 years.  The last quotation "we will outlive them" comes from a vigil this past Saturday night:

First they came for the Muslims and I was not a Muslim. But I said “Not on my watch!”

Then they came for the undocumented and my grandfathers were undocumented. I said “Refugees make America great.”

Then they came for Trans and non binary people. And I said “We are all created in God’s image, no exceptions!”

And then they came for women survivors of assault. And I said “Are you friggin kidding me?”

And they have been coming since before we were a nation for indigenous and black people. And I haven’t said enough.

And then they came for Jews. I am a Jew.

And friends of different faiths and races and sexual and gender identities stood with me and said “We will outlive them!”

Sharing our love for God after the vigil

Window Washing: Preparing for the New Year

My family and I live in a 4th floor condominium in a 100-year-old building with large, beautiful windows.  Window washing happens only once every few years, as it requires the window washer to suspend from a rope while they wash the windows from the outside.  When the window washing project for this summer was announced, I found myself feeling less than enthusiastic about the prospect.  I have not been particularly bothered by dirt on the windows, and the project is time consuming. To prepare for window washing, we have to remove all of the storm windows and screens from our 16 windows, while assuring that our cats are safely out of harm’s way while we open the windows.  In addition, the condition of the wood frames makes some of the the windows difficult to open and close. 

I am in the midst of doing my piece of the window washing project— washing all of the storm windows that have been removed as well as the inside of each main window.  A company has been hired for the outside washing.  As I started washing windows, armed with my squeegee and spray bottle of white vinegar solution, I discovered a joy in removing the splotches and streaks and spots that I had barely noticed before.  I also learned to accept that some spots are not going to come off or are not worth my effort.  

I started reflecting on this project as a potent metaphor for the inner work of this season in the Jewish calendar.  We humans have a tendency to resist washing our inner windows and we may have come to accept the “dirt” on the windows as normal and acceptable.  The month of Elul, which we being today (August 12, 2018), invites us into an examination of where we need to do some “washing” and realigning of our habits and relationships and middot (character traits).  Just as with window washing, the goal is not to become perfectly “clean”, but rather to remove layers that allow more light and beauty to shine through.