Share Sukkot: Green and Grow the Vote

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Dear companions in the struggle toward a world of justice and love,

On the evening of October 22, The Shalom Center is hosting a Hoshanah Rabbah actifest in person in Philadelphia and by Zoom nationally called The Great "Save-In."

One of its elements will be a conversation between Gloria Steinem and Reb Arthur about where the country is now and how we ourselves can act to save our selves individually and our country, our world, collectively.

The actifest is free, but we need registration because part of it will be food, and we need to know how much to prepare. Please register at https://theshalomcenter.org/save-in.
 
This will be a creative experiment in collective saving and the catharsis that lies within/beyond it. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing deeper dives into the three levels of saving that we will explore at the actifest. This letter focuses on the first level: We save us!
 
Forget waiting for something or someone else to save us, we know that sometimes we need to take our saving into our own hands. We are not free to desist. One way to embody this, especially this year, is to focus on getting out the vote! See below for various ways to uplift voting between now and November 5.
 

1. Festival of (Voting) Booths - We will hear from PA GOTV folks at the actifest and there will be chances to commit to taking action in the two weeks that follow.
 

2. Ushpizin/Ushpizot Posters for hanging in your Sukkah that honor heroes of the struggle for voting rights, including one of Ms. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and one of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, murdered by the KKK for supporting Black voting rights. Download all eight Ushpizin/ot posters at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AeVZvf9LC4ZMCTQBfRr8pyM6X6c6QNck/view?usp=sharing
 

3. Sukkot Seder. Download at 
https://legacy4now.theshalomcenter.org/sites/default/files/sukkot_seder_final.pdf

Blessings for a profound Yom Kippur and for shalom in all the world

— Arthur