Click on the photo to expand it. It shows the crowd uniting action, Torah study, & prayer at the Sukkah built as part of and in support of the "Occupy Philadelphia" encampment at City hall.

Does “Free Kol Nidre/ Occupy Wall Street” Have a Future? Is it the Seed of a Judaism committed to Transforming the World?

Until last Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre in American Jewish life meant the gathering of large numbers of Jews in their own sanctuaries –- either as inward gatherings of community, or as inward searchings for individual spiritual growth.

But then, starting with "Occupy Wall Street,” thousands of Jews suddenly appeared in public space in many cities, to chant Kol Nidre as part of the “Occupy" movement. Gone, the sense of an esoteric ceremony. Instead, the sense that in a moment of national crisis, Judaism must speak in public space to the greatest public issues – corporate domination of American life.

[Arlene Goldbard, President of the Board of The Shalom Center, is an activist-advocate for community-based arts, especially including public support for them. I strongly recommend this essay as a truthful analysis of our economic crisis; an honest assessment of how to move out of our political  paralysis; and a profound assessment of  our country's cultural and spiritual needs. You can subsribe (free) to her blogs or post comments at her Website: wwww.arlenegoldbard.com  --  AW]

After seeing the economy bleed jobs for so long, it was hard to watch without ambivalence as President Obama finally rose on Thursday to call for a transfusion of public funds for job creation. I felt some measure of relief: at last, our national leaders are paying attention to the suffering caused by economic policies that have polarized wealth, exported jobs, and made people afraid to spend money.

But after all this time, my doubts remain strong: Is it too late to save the body politic? Is the remedy commensurate with the problem? Or is it merely the 2012 campaign gearing up, a gesture toward recovery rather than a cure?

Or, as Paul Krugman of the NY Times put it (click here), "the plan would be a lot better than nothing."
Krugman is sure the Republicans will block the president's program, but in this moment, he and I glimpse the same silver lining:

The good news in all this is that by going bigger and bolder than expected, Mr. Obama may finally have set the stage for a political debate about job creation. For, in the end, nothing will be done until the American people demand action.

As I listened to the president's speech, I noticed that despite decades as an advocate of public service employment, I've been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject these last few months. I began to feel drowsy when it appeared that despite epic, aching unemployment, a Democratic administration was not going to advocate for the one essential ingredient of any real recovery: significant public investment in jobs.

Sure, I've continued writing about economic policy and unemployment figures, but more with a sense of documenting the problem than focusing adequate attention on solutions.

It's time to wake myself up. Despite right-wing opposition, the action we need to demand is much bigger, deeper, and more transformative than Mr. Obama's proposal. It is a hard challenge to go on wanting all that is right and necessary when many voices are telling you to settle for whatever they say you can get. But right now, it is the only worthy challenge.

At about 11 o'clock on 9/11 ten years ago, I casually phoned New York to talk with my beloved life-partner, Rabbi Phyllis Berman. Phyllis founded and directs an intensive English-language school for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. The school is housed in Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and every weekday Phyllis commutes back and forth from/ to Philadelphia.

But that morning, my telephone gave back only a frantic bzz-bzz-bzz, a super-busy signal. After trying for 30 minutes, I called the Operator. "There's a glitch in the phone system to New York," I said.

"Haven't you heard?" she answered -- and explained.

I knew that once a month or so, Phyllis had a business breakfast in the World Trade Centers. So now my call was not a casual "How you doing?" I finally got through to learn that she was safe at Riverside, shepherding her frightened non-English-speaking students to walk their ways home through a frantic, fearful city -- with no means of public transportation.

In 2001, September 11 came three weeks before Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival whose major symbol is a thatched hut, a "sukkah," utterly open to the wind and rain. Through that day and night, I was haunted by two images: the proud, massive, sky-penetrating Twin Towers on Manhattan's edge, and the utterly vulnerable sukkah we were soon to build.

On September 12, I wrote the meditation that follows. During the next weeks, as we move toward 9/11/11, I will share with you some prayers and liturgies that might help us build new sukkahs in our souls.

Shalom, salaam -- Arthur

[By Uri Avnery. He is the long-visioned, long-lived leader/teacher of the Israeli movement for peace and security alongside a Palestinian state. Before Israeli statehood he was a militant activist against British control of Mandatory Palestine. Later he became the editor/publisher of the most-read Israeli news magazine; after that, for several terms a member of the Knesset.  Now he writes weekly from "Gush Shalom," and you can subscribe to his blog by Emailing here:   Uri Avnery <avnery@actcom.co.il> with "Subscribe" in the subject line. ] 

August 5, 2011  --  “How Goodly Are Thy Tents”

FIRST OF all, a warning.

Tent cities are springing up all over Israel. A social protest movement is gathering momentum. At some point in the near future, it may endanger the right-wing government.

At that point, there will be a temptation – perhaps an irresistible temptation – to “warm up the borders”. To start a nice little war. Call on the youth of Israel, the same young people now manning (and womanning) the tents, to go and defend the fatherland.

Nothing easier than that. A small provocation, a platoon crossing the border “to prevent the launching of a rocket”, a fire fight, a salvo of rockets – and lo and behold, a war. End of protest.

In September, just a few weeks from now, the Palestinians intend to apply to the UN for the recognition of the State of Palestine. Our politicians and generals are chanting in unison that this will cause a crisis – Palestinians in the occupied territories may rise in protest against the occupation, violent demonstrations may ensue, the army will be compelled to shoot – and lo and behold, a war. End of protest.

THREE WEEKS ago I was interviewed one morning by a Dutch journalist. At the end, she asked: “You are describing an awful situation. The extreme right-wing controls the Knesset and is enacting abominable anti-democratic laws. The people are indifferent and apathetic. There is no opposition to speak of. And yet you exude a spirit of optimism. How come?”

I answered that I have faith in the people of Israel. Contrary to appearances, we are a sane people. Some time, somewhere, a new movement will arise and change the situation. It may happen in a week, in a month, in a year. But it will come.

On that very same day, just a few hours later, a young woman called Daphne Liff, with an improbable man’s hat perched on her flowing hair, said to herself: “Enough!”