Weaving into Juneteenth the Jewish tradition of joining specific ritual foods and ritual words and blessings has been undertaken by groups of Black Jews in recent years. We recommend it to all our readers as a prophetic outcry against the continued oppressive presence of America racism, embodied in our generation in a resurgent campaign for Christian white supremacy.

For the sake of truth, justice, and life, Ellsberg took a chance that helped save countless lives.

Time to measure: What did we learn, what did we not? Part 3 of 3 — R’ Arthur’s reflections on the lessons of the pandemic.

Time to measure: What did we learn, what did we not? Part 2 of 3 — R’ Arthur’s reflections on the lessons of the pandemic.

Time to measure: What did we learn, what did we not? Part 1 of 3 — R’ Arthur’s reflections on the lessons of the pandemic.

During June, The Shalom Center will present three Webinars on three sacred documents that are evidence of the Spirit Rising, in conversations between Rabbi Waskow and three different profoundly spiritual teachers.

Join The Shalom Center, CCAR Press, and The Religious Action Center for a night of learning and action in honor of the release of The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on Our Planet.

Rabbi Waskow will be teaching a four-day class at the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal Kallah this summer! Join him and others from July 3 – 9 in West Chester, Pennsylvania for an unforgettable and immersive experience into the magic of Jewish Renewal.

The Shalom Center will be hosting two sessions as part of Shavuot Live 2023, Judaism Unbound’s 24-hour festival of learning! Join us on Friday, May 26th for Religion in the Revolution: A Theology of Action with Clergy United Against Cop City and Sinai Anew?! What Should the Ten Utterances Be For Our Era?

As the Jewish world counts up to Shavuot and the revelation of Torah on Mt. Sinai, The Shalom Center is counting up to the revelation of our new website at 12pm EDT on Thursday, May 25th.

On Thursday night, May 25th, Jews across the world will celebrate the big reveal of Torah at Mt. Sinai on Shavuot. That morning, The Shalom Center will be celebrating the big reveal of our new website and the official start of TSC 2.0, our next chapter!

There has been a call for committed nonviolent demonstrations (with opportunities to risk arrest and opportunities for protest that does not risk arrest) on May 18 to protest the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision’s rubber-stamping of Carbon Pharaohs’ bringing plagues upon us – fire, flood, famine, disease. The Shalom Center supports this effort.

As we look toward Shavuot, we hear one ancient teaching about Sinai and at once we ask ourselves new questions.

Earth Day this year falls fittingly on Shabbat - a sacred day of rest to restore our connections to and reverence for Earth’s beauty and perfection. While tomorrow may be a time to sit back and relax, we know that the work to ensure a livable home for humans and the more than human world requires our dedicated inspired action.

How do we learn and teach, as Psalm 85 says, “Compassion and truth to meet in their journey; justice and peace to kiss one another.

Truth to spring unexpected from Earth; and justice surprisingly flow from Heaven.”

Mini-review by Herb Levine of the book of 30 essays written by creators of about 30 venturesome Passover Seders, edited by Rabbi Phyllis Berman & Rabbi Arthur Waskow — Liberating your Passover Seder (Ben Yehuda Press).

This year, after a hiatus forced by the Coronavirus Plague, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History resumed its practice of “Freedom Seder Revisited.”

“Only: [Your leader] is not to multiply horses for himself, and he is not to return the people to Mitzrayyim/ Tight and Narrow Place . . . “

Can Passover become a flagship festival for not only remembering a liberating transformation in the past, but actually creating a liberating transformation in the future?

Poetry by Juliet L. Spitzer

Each new moon we begin

with a sliver

of an idea . . .