My Father’s Journey on a Freedom Ride Bus
Jewish activism in the 1960s civil rights movement gained momentum when four Reform rabbis participated in the first Interfaith Freedom Ride on a Greyhound bus traveling from Washington, DC, through South Carolina, to Tallahassee from June 13-16, 1961. Freedom rides tested interstate public transportation hubs for racial segregation. The rabbis, Israel Dresner, Martin Freedman, Allan Levine, and my father Walter H. Plaut, were joined by eight white Protestant ministers, including prominent theologian Robert McAfee Brown, and six AME black ministers and NAACP activists.
MLK Day: It's On Us to Heal the Wounds of Time
Rather than waiting in vain for time to heal all wounds, let us resolve to heal the wounds of time. May we heed what Dr. King called “the urgency of now.” And may we go from celebrating Dr. King’s legacy today to working for it tomorrow.
Deciding the Future of Tribal Sovereignty
What do an American Indian tribe, a multi-billion dollar corporation and the U.S. Supreme Court all have in common? These three bodies are all embroiled in a case that could have wide implications for one of the most complicated aspects of our legal system: tribal sovereignty.
Twenty Years Later: Reckoning with Rabin's Legacy
I do not I remember where I was when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated -- I was only two years old at the time.
Modeling Jacob: the Ability to Provide for our Families
For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and God has blessed me wherever I turned.
Repair the World at Biennial: Wednesday Tikkun Olam Highlights
As Biennial opens today, so do many opportunities to delve deeper into Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). Here are some highlights from the Tikkun Olam track for Wednesday. Stay tuned each day for more tikkun olam updates each day of Biennial!
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S.2123), Explained
Next Tuesday, January 19, Reform Jews will join together to call on the Senate to bring the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123), also known as SRCA, forward for a floor vote.
Butterflies, Birds, and the Poetry of Freedom
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, Mark Ludwig, executive director of the Terezin Music Foundation (TMF), has created “an artistic memorial” to the 15-20 million people who died or were imprisoned in the Third Reich’s more than 42,500 camps and ghettos. Terezin served as a Nazi propaganda ploy to showcase how well Jews were treated in the camps, for example, by allowing musical and theater productions.
Twenty Years Later, We Continue to Define the Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin
“Take your son, your only one, the one you love, Yitzhak…” (Gen 22:2)