This video comes from “This is What 80 Looks Like!” — the event which honored Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Gloria Steinem on Nov 3, 2013, as they approached their 80th birthdays. These portions of the event feature Gloria and Reb Arthur discussing our current time.

Gloria likens the United States today to the moment of heightened danger faced by a battered woman escaping the house of her abuser on the way to freedom. Reb Arthur follows with his analogy of this time as an earthquake in which we have three choices. Which will we choose?

To watch the video (just 4 minutes long) click on "Read more," just below.

A front-page article about the event in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent reported some of its highlights: “With the 1969 publication of Waskow’s Freedom Seder, the entire course of contemporary Jewish liturgical writing was altered. Waskow’s take on the Seder completely reimagined a traditional text and raised urgent moral issues by focusing on the struggles of African-Americans. “He has had a profound impact on the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements and it is time — and then some — that he be acknowledged.”

The several “80” events were sponsored by The Shalom Center (www.theshalomcenter.org) to celebrate elder-activism and “two lifetimes speaking truth to power.” During the afternoon, Ms. Steinem and Reb Arthur met with 18 “Youngers” for a two-hour intergenerational conversation on activism. After a Celebration Dinner, nearly 500 supporters packed the Mishkan Shalom synagogue, Philadelphia, PA with standing-room-only, to hear Letty Cottin Pogrebin, co-founder of Ms. magazine and noted author on Jewish feminism, introduce Ms. Steinem; Rabbi Saperstein introduce Reb Arthur; and Dr. Dan Gottlieb, host of NPR/ WHYY radio show “Voices in the Family,” interview the two 80-year-old activists, Gloria and Reb Arthur.

The video is Copyright (c) 2013 by The Shalom Center. All rights reserved, to images and words. To request permission to reproduce or transmit passages, write Office@theshalomcenter.org